Brown Family
Photo Album
Eliza Brown to Martha Butram / undated
-- image from the scrapbook of Guy Zimmerman -- transcription from TheBorderlands.org (via the Internet Archive) From Eliza Brown to her cousin Martha (Butram) Bertram 1863 (Martha was the wife of William Ervin Butram) Dear Cousin, I highly congratulate you by wishing you a long to live and will to do. I will give you a small hint of my prospect if you will read it slyly and say nothing about it. You must permit me to relate it in my own way. Since letters are writing and its come to by time You please will excuse me if I send it in rhyme. You'll see I'm not idle while some folks are sleeping, For I too am preparing to go to housekeeping. I have 20 young chickens that was hatched on the hay And old Shanghai rooster to tell us when day. I've a cat I call Tabby, a pussy quite neat, To catch all the mice and then steal the meat. I have two pretty heifers as every you seed. They both have descended from white faces breed. There's one I call Motley, the other one Pide. I used to have three but the other one died. I have a few plates and a no handled pitcher Some might be content but I wish to be richer. When I pick all my duckeys and finish my bed Do tell me, dear cousin, want I do to wed. I have but one beau, he is quite a brave laddy Tho he can't pop the question, he's afraid of my Daddy. Now all that is lacking is being begun. A half of a wedding is better than none. Eliza Brown
The John Brown Family
This page is archived, so e-mail links are likely dead. However, the Internet Archive will take you to linked pages. Click here.
Descendants of Jesse Brown
This page is archived, so e-mail links are likely dead. However, the Internet Archive will take you to linked pages. Click here.
Click here to see also an article about Brown descendants of Stephen West & Mary Belk on this site.
Letter from Eliza Brown to Martha Butram/Bertram
A Civil War-era letter from Eliza Brown to her cousin Martha (Butram) Bertram 1863 (Martha was the wife of William Ervin Butram)
Dear Cousin, I highly congratulate you by wishing you a long to live and will to do. I will give you a small hint of my prospect if you will read it slyly and say nothing about it. You must permit me to relate it in my own way.
Since letters are writing and its come to by time
You please will excuse me if I send it in rhyme.
You’ll see I’m not idle while some folks are sleeping,
For I too am preparing to go to housekeeping.
I have 20 young chickens that was hatched on the hay
And old Shanghai rooster to tell us when day.
I’ve a cat I call Tabby, a pussy quite neat,
To catch all the mice and then steal the meat.
I have two pretty heifers as every you seed.
They both have descended from white faces breed.
There’s one I call Motley, the other one Pide.
I used to have three but the other one died.
I have a few plates and a no handled pitcher
Some might be content but I wish to be richer.
When I pick all my duckeys and finish my bed
Do tell me, dear cousin, want I do to wed.
I have but one beau, he is quite a brave laddy
Tho he can’t pop the question, he’s afraid of my Daddy.
Now all that is lacking is being begun.
A half of a wedding is better than none.
Eliza Brown
Source: http://www.theborderlands.org/elizabrown.htm (via the Internet Archive)
Obituary of Celina Brown
Overton County News
Mrs. Celina Jane Brown, 70, wife of E.M. “Mape” Brown, died at her home near Flatt Creek Thursday, December 29, 1932 after a brief illness with flu and pneumonia. Before her marriage, in 1881, she was Miss Celina Jane Mangum, daughter of the late Mr. and Mrs. Sam Magnum. She spent her entire life in the community where she died. She is survived by her husband and three children: sons Fayete Brown of Celina and Pearl Brown, who resided in California for the past few years, and daughter Sallie, wife of Jasper Talley; and also by several grandchildren and great grandchildren. Burial was in the Camp Ground Cemetery.