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1. Adin Brown’s Immediate Ancestry
2. Emigration to the United States of America
3. Adin Ebed Brown

 

1. Adin Brown's Immediate Ancestry

Adin’s paternal grandparents were Josiah Brown and Mary Skevington. They married at Pentrich, Derbyshire in 1828 but moved in the following years to Kirkby, Nottinghamshire, where their son William was born on 10 December 1833. By the census return taken in 1851 Josiah and Mary, along with their children, had settled in Birchwood, where Josiah had no doubt found work at the local Birchwood Colliery as an engine driver.

The couple’s son, William, became a coal miner and married a local girl, Hannah Clark in 1853. Hannah was born at Somercotes in 1835. By 1871, William and Hannah lived on Nottingham Road at Somercotes and had eight children: 

• Martha Ann b.1853 d.1854
• Adin Ebed b.1854 [baptised at Riddings on 24.12.1865]
• Orson Hyram b.1856 [baptised at Riddings on 24.12.1865]
• Lydia b.1857 [baptised at Riddings on 24.12.1865]
• Alfred b.1859 [baptised at Riddings on 24.12.1865]
• Mary b.1861 [baptised at Riddings on 24.12.1865]
• Willard James b.1865 [baptised at Riddings on 24.12.1865]
• Reuben b.1867
• George b.1869
• Margurite Selene b.1871

 

PHOTO: Adin Ebed Brown

 

2. Emigration to the United States of America

Although the Brown family appear on the English census return of 1871 they emigrated to America shortly afterwards, arriving in the US later that year.  The majority of William and Hannah’s children were baptised at Riddings Church in 1865, but they appear to have joined the Church of Jesus Christ Latter Day Saints, also known as the Mormons, sometime after this date. Adin, their son was recorded by the Mormon Church as being re-baptised on 27 May 1870. The families admission into the Church may have prompted the move to the United States although it is not known for certain. Several other Mormon families from the area, though, preceded or followed them on their journey. They would have first sailed to New York, where the majority of immigrants arrived, and quickly took the long journey across the United States, probably following the Mormon Pioneer Trail, which stretched some 1,300 miles from Illinois to Salt Lake City, Utah. They originally resided in the town of Coalville, Utah, where William and his sons continued their work as coal miners. The family lived at Coalville for only six months, before first settling at Evanston, Wyoming. By 1873 William and Hannah had moved a short distance to the town of Almy, Uinta County, Wyoming, where the couple had three further children:

• Josiah b.1873 Almy, Uinta County, Wyoming
• Martha Ann b.1875 Almy, Uinta County, Wyoming
• Lucy b.1878 Almy, Uinta County, Wyoming

The US census taken in 1880 recorded William Brown as a coal miner. Hannah died at Almy, Wyoming on 25 January 1882. William outlived her for 24 years and passed away on 10 July 1906.

 

PHOTO: Harriet Hannah Bower

 

3. Adin Ebed Brown

It is William and Hannah’s eldest son, Adin Ebed Brown, born at Somercotes on 19 December 1854, who became the most celebrated of the Brown family in Wyoming.

At the age of 18, Adin married Harriet Hannah Bower at Almy, Wyoming on 28 September 1873. Harriet was born at Brinsley, Nottinghamshire on 23 September 1855. Harriet was the daughter of William and Martha Bower, who had arrived in Uinta County, Wyoming on 4 July 1872. The fact that both Adin and Harriet were born and lived their early lives just a few miles apart and yet married thousands of miles from their places of birth shows how many families were emigrating at this time. Harriet and her family would also have been members of the Church of Latter Day Saints.

The US Census taken in 1880 records Adin as a coal miner, but at the 1900 census he is listed as a farmer, at Red Canyon, Almy. Adin had purchased eighty acres of land at Red Canyon, near Almy and Harriet owned 160 acres at a place called Hilliard, about 25 miles west of the town of Evanston, Wyoming. They settled down in the area and had thirteen children. Adin became a well-known and respected figure in Uinta County, being ordained an Elder in the Endowment House at Salt Lake City. He became a Sunday School teacher, a Superintendent and president of the Elders quorum, amongst other titles. He was known locally as “Elder Brown”.

Adin died on 30 June 1904. After Adin’s death, Harriet moved to the town of Superior, Sweetwater County, Wyoming where she died on 2 January 1914. She was buried at Almy, her ‘home’ town.

Adin’s life at Almy was celebrated in the volume ‘Progressive Men of the State of Wyoming’ by A W Bowen & Co., which was published in 1903, the year before Adin’s death. It records his biography and family, part of which is transcribed below:

‘This well-known stockman, whose ranch is located seven miles north of Evanston, Uinta County, Wyoming, was born in Summercoates, Derbyshire, England on December 19, 1853, a son of William and Hannah [Clark] Brown. The father was engaged in mining in England and is now a farmer in Providence, Utah, being a member of the Latter Day Saints church’… ‘Mr Brown is one of the most enterprising farmers and cattlemen in Uinta County and by his industry has done much to develop the prosperity of the community. The family enjoys the esteem of all their neighbours and the neatness and thrift which characterize his ranch are matters of universal admiration and commendation. He is the architect of his own fortune and deserves all the praise which is accorded him. He is the kind of man that a newly settled section of the country most profits by in securing as a resident, and the citizens of Uinta County may well congratulate themselves at having his presence among them.”