Charles Brown, a merchant of Wartburg, was born in Lammersheim, Rhine-Baiern Bavaria, Germany, at the castle of the County of Oberndorf, on September 28, 1847. He is the third of nine children born to the marriage of Heinrich Edward and Maria Josephine (Fricker) Brown. The father was born August 25, 1810, in Mannheim, Grossherzogthum Baden, and the mother was born April 10, 1817, in Wangen, Konigreich Wurtemburg, her maiden name being FRICKER. They were married in Mannheim, September 23, 1841. They left the old country August 1, 1850 and reached Wartburg, Tenn., October 3, of the same year, after a long and tiresome trip, the voyage of forty-four days on the ocean being very tempestuous. Upon their arrival here they located about four miles east of Wartburg. They afterward removed to Jacksboro, and thence to Knoxville, where they still reside.
Charles remained at home until he reached the age of eight years, when he set out to earn his own living. He lived with a Mr. METZER until he was fifteen years old. He then began to learn the tanner’s trade under JOHN H. BRIENT, who had a yard near Montgomery. After completing his apprenticeship, he clerked in the store of Albert HURT for about 2 yers and worked at Clinton for a year. In 1869, in parrtnership with Mr. HURT, he sank a tanyard, which was run about two years. On December 24, 1871, he married LAURA V., daughter of John H. BRIENT, and soon after began the operation of the tannery, when he had learned the trade. This he continued about one year, after which he worked at various places, finally engaging in business with W. H. JONES at Sunbright. After eighteen months he removed to Wartburg, and entered into partnership with JOHN HALL, with whom he remained until 1878. He has since been engaged in conducting his present business. His first wife having died, he was in March, 1876, united in marriage with JULIA GARRETT, to whom have been born five children, four of whom are living. Mr. Brown is a successful business man, and is highly esteemed by the community in which he lives.
Source: History of Tennessee from the Earliest Time to the Present: Together with an Historical and a Biographical Sketch of from Twenty-Five to Thirty Counties of East Tennessee. Chicago: Goodspeed, 1887.