WILLIAM R. BROWN, an old and prominent citizen of Neapolis, Maury Co., Tenn., was born in this county, October 15, 1882, and is a son of Solomon and Elizabeth (Sanders) Brown, both of whom were natives of South Carolina. The father was one of the early settlers of this county and followed the vocation of farming. He died about two years after immigrating here from South Carolina. The mother’s death occurred in 1864, at the unusual age of eighty-one years. Our subject passed his youthful days on the farm and secured a fair practical education at the common schools. At the age of sixteen he served an apprenticeship at wagon-making and followed that business for twelve or fifteen years. In 1852 he began merchandising at Neapolis and was engaged in this business until the beginning of the war. In 1861 he enlisted in Company A, Forty-eighth Tennessee, and served as a sergeant about one year. Being a mechanic he was detailed boss of brigade shops and was afterward made boss of the division shop, and remained as such until the close of the war. He then returned to Neapolis and resumed his former business. In 1881 he removed to his farm, on which he lived one year, then built his present house and shop, where he has been engaged in wagon-making and general repairing. In 1869 he wedded Elizabeth Truelove, a native of this county, who died in 1882,. They have four children born to this union, only two of whom are living: Willie E. and Lillie. Mr. Brown is a Democrat and an attendant of the Methodist Church.

Source: History of Tennessee: From the Earliest Time to the Present; Together with an Historical and a Biographical Sketch of Maury, Williamson, Rutherford, Wilson, Bedford and Marshall Counties. Nashville, Tenn: Goodspeed Pub. Co, 1886.