Updated: 22 April 2008
Brown Family History from the Marcellus News (Marcellus, MI) submitted by Garry A. Brown, 5468 W.Flying Circle, Tucson, AZ 85713. July 26, 1984. Ph: (602) 883-2210
Mr. Donald Moorman, Editor
Marcellus News
Marcellus, MI 49067
Dear Mr. Moorman:
The article in the July 15 issue of the Kalamazoo Gazette about the addition to the Marcellus library and my $25,000 gift made me realize that perhaps Marcellus people might be interested in more information about my parents, Emory and Muriel (Fletcher) Brown and their children. I hadn't realized that dad died 30 years ago and mother 14 years ago, and that I have been away from Marcellus since 1927 or 57 years. It really isn't surprising that young Norma Willbur didn't know much about us.
My father was born November 17, 1881, in Volinia where he grew up on the Brown homestead. He was the third of four sons and a daughter of Abner and Elnora Welcher Brown. I believe he was the last of the five to die, which he did on April 4, 1954, and is buried in the Marcellus cemetery beside my mother, who died July 5, 1970, and would have been 81 on September 21.
For over 40 years the family home was the house just west of Dr. Adams' residence. This was sold to the dentist Dr. Mulvihill in May 1965, after mother could no longer continue to live alone there. The house had been closed up for sometime in 1963 when she started living with Merton in San Francisco, Donald in Buchanan, Barbara (Wheaton) in Holland, and myself in Battle Creek. About a year before her name came up for admission she had applied for an apartment at the Clark Memorial Home in Grand Rapids, MI., (A Methodist Home). By the time she was admitted about May 5, 1966, it was direct to the nursing section where she lived until her death.
While my parents were living on the Fletcher homestead in Porter Twp., on September 6, 1942, David, my youngest brother, age 12, died in an accident on the farm. A few months later Emil, the next youngest, was killed by a Japanese sniper on the island of New Guinea on November 26, 1942. He was a member of the Michigan National Guard which was called into service at the beginning of WWII. Ray (?) McKenzie was killed about the same time. His parents heard almost at once. My parents didn't learn until months later (at least July, 1943) that Emil had been killed. We have letters written to him by mother that were finally returned, the last one dated October 7, 1943, but mailed in Marcellus November 25, 1942. Emil's body was returned years later after the war ended and he is buried beside David in the family plot in Marcellus cemetery.
Because of my daughter Joan's birth on June 14, 1942, I was classified 3A until the last year of the war. In the Spring of 1945 I wnet to Detroit for a preinduction physical, passed ans was given two weeks to report for duty. Before the two weeks ended, the end of the war was in sight and drafting of people over 35 was stopped and I missed military service. An occasional mother berated me for not being in the service. To which I always answered "My mother lost one son in this war and has another in the Pacific area. She thinks she has contributed enough".
Donald, the next youngest son, was employed by a wholesale grocer in South Bend when he was drafted early in the war. He was soon a sergeant due to his training in supply at the grocery company. He went to Officers Candidate School, and went overseas as a Captain. He was in the Pacific area as a supply officer with an engineering company. At one time I wrote to him that he and my then brother-in-law Jim Burns should get together as they were bot on the same island in New Guinea. He wrote back that it was so but they were 1,000 miles apart. Our knowledge of the Pacific area was limited in those days.
On Don's return to civilian life he secured a job at Clark Equipment in Buchanan where he retired from the Cost Dept., in October or November 1976. He and his wife Eleanor (Miller of Buchanan) went to Mexico for the winter. He had a massive heart attack a short time after getting settled south of Mexico City for the winter and died almost at once. His widow still lives in their Clear Lake home a few miles from Buchanan, Mi. Don had two children, Robert and Donna, neither of whom have married. Both have advanced college degrees.
Merton, the second oldest of the six of us, married young and had three children, Preston, Jim, Muriel Hurt, all of whom are doing well. He learned the machinist trade, worked in Detroit, Battle Creek, and later on the West coast where he retired on Social Security disabiltiy at about age 60. After his wife, Anna Thornburg Brown, retired as a licensed practical nurse in Mountain View, California (a suburb of San Francisco) they moved to Roswell, New Mexico, where he died on September 3, 1982. Anna now lives in Battle Creek.
Barbara Brown Wheaton lives in Holland. Both she and her husband Ivan are retired. Barbara retired a year or so ago from a position in the plant office of the Holland Marina. Ivan is a former Marcellus boy. They have a son, William, and daughters Nancy and Sally, all with very good jobs. Barbara and I are vying to be the last to die of our parents' six children. I am the oldest. She is over 7 years younger. But she has a pacemaker!
The only other living children of our generation are Mrs. Harry (Mildred) Shannon of rural Marcellus, and Roger Brown of Columbia, Missouri. (His mother lives near him unless she died recently).
When I was a little boy Dad was under-sheriff of Cass County. One day when I was exploring a cell dad locked the door and gave me a good scare.
Sometime after I had left Marcellus Dad was President of the town council. I guess he ran it a bit on the high-handed side. He loved an argument, especially when he was right. On one occasion he drove clear to Lansing to get the law on the subject to be considered at the next council meeting. Instead of telling the members what he had learned, he refused to accept a motion made by one of the council members that he knew wasn't legal. They got so mad, they bodily removed him from the meeting, passed the motion and later learned it had to be rescinded. I heard this story from Dad years ago and it had his flavoring.
Mother was a patient woman. She put up with Dad and six children, all of whom had strong wills. Dad was away a lot while I was growing up and she molded us into people who made a reasonable success of life and marriage. None of us ever had a divorce. But Joan's mother, Ethel Burns Brown, was buried on her 44th birthday. We were married 21 1/2 years. I have been married to Mary Gordon Brown for 26 years this September.
Mother was a very pretty young woman. She told me once that the year she graduated from high school was a very eventful one; high school graduation, 3 months to get a temporary teaching certificate, taught, and got married. She was active in L'Allegro Club for a great many years and was a member of the Methodist church. We were fortunate to have two wonderful parents.
During my high school years Dad was a road contractor building gravel roads, and I drove truck summers hauling gravel (driver's license at age 14 but didn't have a chauffeur's license which could not be obtained until age 18). But traffic was light and we worked on country roads. We worked 10 hour days for 30 cents an hour. I paid mother $1.00 a day board and room on days I worked, free on Sundays and rainy days. Merton who was two years younger also worked on the projects the last year I worked on them.
In the fall of 1927 I took a three months electrical course at Coyne in Chicago and worked 4 hours a night at a R.R. baggage room there and a two-week daytime stint at Sears Roebuck in the mail dept. of the U.S. Govt. Then in the winter of 1927-28 I took a three months' course in refrigeration at the School of Engineering in Milwaukee. From Spring of 1928 until December 28, 1929, I worked in the refrigeration department of Consumers Power in Kalamazoo.
I am not a mechanic. I worked two jobs, saved money and borrowed some and on December 30, 1929, started on a 23 month stint at Argubright Business College in Battle Creek, finishing the accounting and auditing course in the shortest time it was ever completed at that time. From November 30, 1931, until August , 1934 I did office work for Sun Oil Co. in Battle Creek. Then, no job! The only thing I could find was selling on commission which I did for the rest of my working years. Several short jobs and then on May 6, 1935, I started as an agent with Metropolitan Life Insurance Co., where I retired on November 30, 1968, shortly before my 59th birthday on December 17. I became a Chartered Life Underwriter in 1950.
My retirement was before the really big money was starting to be made in pensions and long before IRA's, etc.
In preparation for retirement we had purchased a 29-foot Holiday Rambler Travel Trailer in 1967, and made one trip to Expo 67 in Montreal. We left Battle Creek on retirement for a 35-day trip into Mexico with about 80 other outfits. We spent the rest of the winter in Tucson. After a winter each in Florida, Texas, California, and points bhetween we bought a lot on a private golf course a few miles out of Tucson, Arizona, at Tucson Estates. We had a mobile home 24 x 52 built in California and placed on our lot in February 1973. In October 1974 we sold our home at Beadle Lake in Battle Creek and Tucson became our legal residence.
The stock market became my principal occupation. I spend from 10 to 40 or more hours a week reading and studying stock information, Wall St. Journal, Forbes, Barrons, and Value Line Investment Survey (a $360 a year service). We have prospered from it.
In recent years we have been taking quite a few trips and cruises. During the six years we owned our travel trailer we covered a big share of the U.S. and a lot of lower Canada from coast to coast.
In July 1980 we took a 7-day trip around four of the islands of Hawaii on the S.S. Independence, flying to Hawaii and return. We were on the 3rd or 4th trip of the ship which is of American registry and has an American crew. This has proved a very popular cruise and the line now has two cruise ships making the cruise of the islands, the ship being a traveling hotel for stops at the islands.
In May 1981 we took a 7-day cruise on the Mississippi Queen from St. Louis to St. Paul, traveling through about 28 locks. The Air Controllers strike made our return to Tucson an adventure, starting with 8 or 9 hours of waiting in the St. Paul airport.
In early Spring 1982 we spent two weeks in Yugoslavia. Our base was the Excelsior Hotel at Dubrovnik on the Adriatic Coast. The hotel was about two blocks from the old walled city in which about 5,000 people live. They were well dressed but seldom smiled. We saw lots of children playing in the streets but no toys.
In August, 1982, we took a two-week cruise to Anchorage from Vancouver and return. We damaged our propeller on an iceberg in Glacier Bay, sat at anchor for 18 hours while a decision was made. Divers had taken pictures of the damage and later welders went below and cut off a 68-pound section of damaged propeller. The delay and slower speed caused us to miss tow ports of call on our return in the inside passage. A 25% credit certificate was given us for a future trip on any ship of the line.
On February 17, 1983, we flew to New Zealand for a 21-day bus tour of the North and South Islands. We were very fortunate in being on a tour where were the only Americans, the rest being from Australia with one very English couple from England and a lady from Brazil who understood little English but could converse with one German couple from Australia as she knew German. We had chosen a tour that included an option of a two day stay with a New Zealand family in Nelson. It was a very enjoyable experience. He was a retired school principal, and they had a lovely home overlooking Tasman Bay. Some of the other people choosing this option weren't so pleased. The two islands are 1,000 miles long. While it was summer there, the mountains were were snow covered. 1,000 sheep in a flock isn't uncommon. Their mountains have grass instead of trees and the sheep graze up to the grass line. New Zealand is very popular with the Japanese. On one sheep display stop, the Japanese heard the story in their language over individual head sets.
I have one daughter, Joan Reinke, who lives with her husband and my three grandchildren in Ontario, California. In August, 1983, we made a second trip to Alaska on the same ship, taking our oldest grandson, who was 10 1/2 at the time. The ship is a student ship, making two round the world cruises a year with students who get college credit for the courses taken. There were three professors on board who gave very interesting talks on Alaska, ice fields, earthquakes, etc.
Then on January 27, 1984, we started on a round the world trip. We had been vaccinated for yellow fever, cholera, typhoid fever, diphtheria, tetanus, and had started taking our anti-malaria pills. We flew to New York, then to Johannesburg, S.A. We spent 10 days in beautiful South Africa, including 3 days on a Safari in a 12 speed 4 wheel drive Japanese open vehicle (6 passengers and a driver).
From Johannesburg we had flown on a smaller plane (perhaps 100 passengers) to a small airport, where we transferred to a 6 passenger plane for another ride to Timbavati Game Reserve. About 20 people we later joined up with wnet to the Government's Krueger Game Reserve. They said our trip was what they had expected. They were on big busses on paved roads.
On February 5 we boarded the SS Rottendam at Capetown, S.A., for a 31-day long trip to Hong Kong with stops at Durban, S.A.; Mombasa, Kenya; Bombay, India; Colombo, Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon); Singapore; Pattaya Beach, Thailand (for a trip to Bangkok); and then a day on ship to Hong Kong before flying home via Tokyo.
We have recently signed up with a service that sells on 5 to 15 days notice unsold reservations on cruises and tours that the tour operator hadn't been able to sell at the regular price. The discount is large but travel must be on very short notice, usually. So we may be on another trip before getting to Michigan this fall for Mrs. Brown's sister's 85th birthday on September 2. On that trip we hope to see the completed library addition.
Sincerely yours,
Garry A. Brown
P.S. In January of this year Mary gave $25,000 to establish a Mary Gordon Brown Scholarship Fund for children to be able to finish high school at St. Phillip High School in Battle Creek. This is a parochial school charging for tuition and books in addition to the school taxes everyone pays. Mary graduated there in 1925.
P.P.S. If this is published in its entirety, we hope your readers enjoy reading it as much as we do the column "It Happened 80 Years Ago This Month" by Don Stuck.