More Uncle John and Marie

 This picture is of my Aunt Marie. She and Uncle John were married in Astoria Oregon on 19 April 1918. She is holding their first child, Charles. Charles was born on St. Patrick's Day and for years the family called him "Pat". I corresponded with him shortly before his death, and he remarked that I was the only one who remembered his nickname.

Aunt Beth Carlson introduced Uncle John to Aunt Marie. Aunt
Marie was her teacher and she told her teacher all about her brother John. When Uncle John came home she made sure that she met him. She said to her brother, "Isn't she pretty"? He said, "She has pretty teeth".

This is Uncle John and Marie in later years. They lived on a farm in Woodburn Oregon and sold produce. I spent a great deal of time with them when I was small. Since all my grandparents were deceased, I think of them as grandparents. Uncle John died on 25 Nov 1968 in Woodburn and is buried at the Bel Pasi Cemetery there. Aunt Marie married Fred Muller on 1 Mar 1971 in Salem and died 23 Jan 1985 in Salem. She also is Buried in the Bel Pasi Cemetery in Woodburn.

Uncle John and Aunt Marie

This is my mother's oldest brother, John Goldsmith Cornwell. He was born 2 Jan 1892 in Wichita Kansas. His parents were Chales B. Cornwell and Sarah Allen Cornwell. He was 20 years old when my mother, Alice, was born in 1912.

This is Uncle John in his army uniform.

Uncle John served in World War I. He was stationed at a Fort Columbia (on the Washington side) at the headwaters of the Columbia River. I remember going there with him, my folks, Dolph and Aunt Marie when Dolph and I were first married. In the Family Bible it says that he served 16 months in the Army and went to France on October 4, 1917.

More early Brown pictures

 This is Issac Watt Brown with his granddaughters, Anna and May (May is Dolph's mom). I got this picture from Dolph's Aunt Beth. Later I tried to borrow it again to get a better copy, but one of her children had taken it and couldn't find it. Sorry it's not a better picture. I think it is the only one of Issac.

Issac (Ike) was born 4 Aug 1844 in Palestine, Crawford, Illinois and died 7 Jan 1921 at the Old Soldier's Home in Roseburg, Oregon. He married Charlotte Kelly, born in 1851 (either in Canada or Wisconsin - depends on which census you look at) on 21 Jun 1868 in Leavenworth, Brown, Minnesota.  She died 7 Jul 1922 in Silverton, OR.  They had nine children. Dolph's grandfather, John, was the third child. In military papers dated 6 April 1915, Issac states that he doesn't know where Charlotte is and he hasn't lived with her for 20 years.

Dolph and I went to the Oregon State Archives in Salem and found Charlotte's death certificate. It stated that she was buried in the Bethany Cemetery in Silverton. We went to Silverton and (with friends) walked the cemetery and could not find her grave...although there were a number of graves marked "occupied". With some investigation, we found the following story...
In the 1930s, the Bethany Cemetery had been sold to one of the local undertakers. He, not liking the unevenness of the ground there, decided to smooth it out. In doing so, he made a map of the cemetery showing where each grave was placed. He then took up the stones and smoothed the ground. While this was being done, the map of the graveyard was lost. Thus the stones with no inscription and just the word "occupied. We just have to have faith that Charlotte is really there!
Karen, I think you will see the resemblance to the present day Browns...John, Betty, etc.

This picture looks like it was taken about the same time. This is Anna on the left, Oscar, and Dolph's mom, May. Oscar was born in 1902, Anna in 1905 & May in 1907 (all in Sweet Home, Oregon)

I can see that their personalities had already developed at that early age!



65 Years Later

This is John and Edith Belle Cleveland Brown (about 1957).  At that time they lived in Salem. Dolph and I lived in Salem then too, because I was going to business college. (Dolph worked in Albany). We visited them, but I don't remember the anniversary. There were some really BIG Brown reunions back in those days. I went to my first Brown reunion in 1957 (probably this an anniversary celebration) just before Dolph and I were married. Dolph's cousin Sarah tells me tha she asked me if I had ever seen so many people at a picnic before and I answered, "Well, I went to an Elks Picnic once!" She thought that was really funny!.