James Brown, farmer and stock dealer, was born October 21, 1811, in Ashe County, N.C., the youngest of eight children of Joseph and Anna (Hayler) Brown, natives of Wilkes and Anson Counties, N. C., respectively. The father was an expert deer hunter. The grandfather, James Brown, was a native of England, and his wife was of German descent. He was a farmer. When of age, our subject began independently as a farmer and now owns a fine place of 800 acres, besides a farm in Hawkins County. September 14, 1837, he married Harriet N., a daughter of William and Polly (Halliburton) Farthing natives of North Carolina, the former a Missionary Baptist minister. Their children were Joseph H., Nancy E., Barton H., Stephen J., Mary E. (deceased), Sallie L. (deceased), Eva A., Martha C., Julian M. and Dudley F. He and his wife are Baptists, and also several of their children. He had two sons in the late war, one, Barton R., having organized the only Confederate company in this county, of which company Stephen J. was first lieutenant. Our subject is a Democrat.

Transcribed from Godspeed’s History of TN (1896)