Napoleon Bonaparte Brown (1834 – March 18, 1910) was an American businessman and politician who lived in Kansas and Missouri in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.[2] He is most known as the namesake and builder of the Brown Grand Theatre in Concordia, Kansas.[2]
Napoleon Bonaparte Brown | |
|---|---|
 Napoleon Bonaparte Brown | |
| Born | 1834[1] |
| Died | March 18, 1910 St Joseph, Missouri, United States |
| Occupation | Businessman |
Early life
Brown was named after Napoleon Bonaparte by his parents James & Nancy Brown. The 1850 Pike County, Illinois, census gives his age as 16 at that time. A later census (1900) in Concordia, KS gives his birthdate as Oct 1833.[3] He appeared to have two siblings: a brother, Benjamin age 14; and a sister named May or Mary aged 11 listed in the census as well.[4] Later military records list his hometown as Concord, Illinois, in neighboring Morgan County.[5] until he resigned on January 17, 1865.[6]
Military career
"Colonel" Brown enlisted in the 101st Illinois Infantry Regiment on January 3, 1864, and given the rank of major. Major Brown served in "B" Company[5] until he resigned on January 17, 1865[6]—the very day the 101st crossed into South Carolina from Georgia under General William Tecumseh Sherman.[5] Cloud county records show that he was paid the pension ($25.00) of a major.[7] After he retired from the military, he "promoted himself" to the rank of colonel.[8]
In a letter to the editor of the Kansas Blade (now the Concordia Blade-Empire), Brown claimed that he enlisted as a private on April 22, 1862, and was subsequently promoted to captain, major, and brevet lieutenant colonel.[9]
Business and philanthropy
"Colonel" Brown served in the state legislatures for both Kansas and Missouri[8] and was a prominent banker in Kansas during its early years of development as the owner of the first bank in Cloud County, Kansas.[10] N. B. Brown & Co., founded in 1878[11] with a rumored "suitcase full of money" that he had with him upon his arrival.[8] Colonel Brown and his wife Katherine (Katie) then built Brownstone Hall,[12] a 23-room Victorian-style 5,000-square-foot (460 m2) stone mansion built in Concordia in 1883.[13] Colonel Brown served as a Republican first in the Missouri House of Representatives,[14] and then in the Kansas State Senate.[15]
In 1905, Colonel Brown commissioned the building of the Brown Grand Theatre and entrusted its completion to his son, Earl Van Dom Brown. The theatre was completed in 1907.[16]
Politics
As a state Senator in Kansas, Brown fought a losing battle to restore Concordia Normal School as a state-run institution. The school was one of several Normal schools placed throughout the state in 1874 under governor Thomas A. Osborn, but was consolidated by the state legislature in 1876.[17] The state normal school would later become Emporia State University.
Image gallery
Brown Grand Theatre in Concordia
Brownstone Manor, home of Napoleon Bonaparte Brown in Concordia
References
- Bell, Rachel Lowrey (1998a). A Proud Past... A Pictorial History of Concordia, Kansas, Marceline, Missouri: D-Books Publishing.
- Emery, Janet Pease (1970a). It Takes People to Make a Town, Salina, Kansas: Arrow Printing Company. Library of Congress number 75-135688.