STORY OF CAPT. OLIVER BROWN

(from Early Settlement and Indian Wars Western Virginia and Pennsylvania)

     Memorandum made by Mr. Brown himself at Wellsburg, Brooke county WV in February 1845

     April 8, 1775, I stood in front of the first cannon fired by the British on the Americans at Lexington.

     June 17, of the same year, I was i n the engagement at Bunker Hill.

     Was with our army on York Island, participated in the battle of Harlem heights, where we beat the British. I commanded a company of thirty men and two field pieces. Lost fifteen of my men killed and wounded.

     Next, I was in the battle of the White Plains, where we were defeated.

     I was in the battle of Trenton, also in the battle of Princeton; as stationed at Bound brook after that engagement.

     Was next stationed at Meed fort.

     Was in the battle of Brandywine, where we were engaged throughout the day. At sundown our army drove the red coats into Germantown where they took refuge in an old stone house. Winter coming o n we did not do much.

     Next year I was in the battle of Monmouth, where our artillery did much execution.

     After this battle I was ordered to Fort Schuyler, where, during the year, we had some skirmishing with the Indians.

     I always belonged to the artillery of the Massachusetts line; was capt-lieut, in the artillery, and served under Gen. Washington four years, by whom I as entrusted with many small adventures, for the execution of which I received his personal thanks.

     I was present at Boston Tea-party, a looker on only.

     I pulled down the King's statue in New York, a leaden one, which we made into bullets.

     I came to this place, Wellsburg, in 1790, no town here then. The Indian war was not yet ended. I served in the militia ranks. Every one at that early period was obliged to carry arms for self-defense. I believe I am the oldest revolutionary soldier in this state, Virginia.

     Capt. Oliver Brown was born in Lexington, Mass, July 25, 1753, and died Feb 17, 1846 at the home of his son-in-law, Stephen Colwell, near Wellsburg, WV, blind but not infirm- the year following the making of the forgoing memorandum.

     The statue of George III, referred to be Mr. Brown as "pulled down" was destroyed on the night of July 9, 1776, by a party of 40 men, half of whom were sailors, led by Capt. Brown. It stood on a white marble pedestal 15 feet high, in the center of the bowling green in New York City, having been erected by the obsequious assembly of New York in 1770 to commemorate the anniversary of the birthday of Frederick, second child of the King. Capt. Brown concealed his followers in a dark alley near the statue. At an opportune house several sailors, having no fears as to punishment for lese majeste, climbed up the leaden image of his royal highness and tied ropes around it. When the pull-all-together came, these ropes broke. The second attempt, however, was successful. The statue came smashing down over the iron fence that had cost the city $4,000.

     " And all the king's horses and all the king's men

     Never put it together again- never again."

     George Washington issued an order the next day disapproving this adventure of Capt Brown and his fellows, but his censure was very mild. Capt. Brown, however, always declared later in life that it was the one act of his career of which he was really ashamed. Most of the statue is said to have been taken to Litchfield, Conn., and there run into bullets for the American army, which was putting it to quite a useful purpose. But about 1880, more than a hundred years after this historical demolition, the complete tail of the horse and parts of the saddle and housings, comprising in all a bout 200 pounds, were dug up in a march near Stamford, Conn. and sold to the New York Historical Society.

     In 1770 Capt Brown with his wife and children, came west of the mountains and stopped on land on King's Creek, in what is now Hancock county, WV, farming there for a short while and then going to the site whereon Wellsburg now stands, where they settled permanently. Patrick Gass's Journal says that in Wellsburg in 1790, "there was but one building to be seen, and it was a log house on the lower end of the bottom, near midway between the river and the hills."

     Here Oliver Brown became in 1800 one of the subscribers to the support of the Trinity Church, of which he had become a member, and of which Dr. Doddridge was the rector. Capt. Brown served three years with the militia in the frontier struggles with the Indians. He held a state appointment from Virginia as an inspector of flour, the transportation of which in boats down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers was quite heavy, Wellsburg having become an important point of shipment.

     Capt. Brown brought with him from the east his wife, Abigail and his Massachusetts- born children- Abigail, John, Sarah, Danforth, Catherine, William and Oliver. Four more children were born in Wellsburg, viz, George, James, Richard and Elizabeth. There are now many descendants in Western Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio, of Oliver brown and his wife Abigail. One of these is Thomas Stephens Brown, the well-known Pittsburgh lawyer- a great grandson.

     Worth noting as a curious phase with some of these Brown children is their marriage with ministers of the gospel. Sarah Brown's first husband was Robert Colwell. Four of their daughters chose ministers for life partners. Catherine married Rev. Martin V. Schoonover, a Dutch Reformed minister of Brooklyn; Mary married Rev. Wm. McCombs; Elizabeth married Rev. Robert Fulton; and Harriet married Rev. Samuel McFarren. After the death of Robert Colwell his widow married Rev. Elisha Macurdy, D.D. a noted Presbyterian minister of the early days in Western Pennsylvania and their daughter Sarah Macurdy, became the wife of Rev. Samuel Fulton, D.D., pastor of the fourth Presbyterian church of Pittsburgh. Sarah Fulton daughter of Elizabeth Colwell and Robert Fulton, married Rev. Wm. T.Beatty, D.D. first pastor of the Shadyside Presbyterian church, Pittsburgh and their daughter is the famous grand opera singer, Louise Homer (Mrs. Louise Dilworth Beatty Homer)

     Kate McFarren daughter of Harriet Colwell and Samuel McFerren became a missionary in South America.

     Sarah Brown's granddaughter Mary ,daughter of her son Stephen Colwell , became the wife of Rev. Dr Henry W. Greene of Princeton Seminary.

     Richard Brown', youngest son of Oliver Brown, entered the ministry of the Presbyterian church and preached for many years in Eastern Ohio. His daughter Catherine married Rev. Alexander Swaney of Cadiz, Ohio.

     Oliver Brown's granddaughter, Eliza Vilete Brown, daughter of John Brown and Mrs. Eleanor (Doddridge) Gantt, widow of John Gantt, married Hon. Daniel Polsley, of Point Pleasant, WV, judge of the Seventh Judicial Circuit of WV (1862) and member in 1867 of the Fortieth Congress of the United States.