Orson Pratt Brown - Life, Times, Family

Mary, or Polly, as seems to be the common practice of that time to use this nickname for someone named Mary, was born 1789 in Rowan County, North Carolina. Polly was very closely associated with her younger sister, Nancy Brown (1792-1870). The two sisters married but not in the usual sense of the word. Both sisters were sealed later in their lives to male relatives, Nancy was sealed to William Coe Critchlow on the 6th of November 1852, and Polly was sealed to James Stephens Brown.on the 31st of August 1855. They were sealed for eternity only and did not live with their respective sealing partners. The two sisters spend most of their lives together.

When Polly's youngest brother, Daniel Brown, lost his second home to a fire in 1831, in Davidson County, North Carolina, he and his wife, Elizabeth Stephens Brown, left to try his luck somewhere else. Daniel moved to Illinois and settled in Brown County. He took his own family, his two sisters (Mary Polly Brown and Nancy Brown), his two brothers-in-law (John Stephens (1811-1870) and Alexander Stephens (1813-1894)), and his nephew (Susan's son) Homer Jackson (1819-1870+). Homer later moved to western Iowa with his Uncle Daniel but in 1854 and 1870 Homer was living in French Gulch, Shasta, California.

In the early 1840's, most of the Brown family who had moved to Illinois, which then included, Captain James Brown's family, and joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or the "Mormons" as they were nicknamed after the Book of Mormon they held equally with the Bible.

When Polly's brother, Captain James Brown lost his first wife, Martha Stephens Brown, who died shortly after the birth of her ninth child, Moroni Brown, Polly took the infant boy to raise as her own in Daniel's household.

In 1846 Daniel Brown made preparations to move west to the Iowa territory with the Mormons after their expulsion of Nauvoo, Hancock, Illinois, Daniel took his son James Stephens Brown, and the other family members mentioned in his previous move. Once in Iowa he instructed them to remain there and put in some crops while Daniel returned to Brown County, Illinois to sell the remainder of his property and collect the harvest. Daniel was to return and help them all move on to the Salt Lake Valley.

Daniel returned in the fall and found that his son James, and his brother-in-law Alexander Stephens, had gone off in July with the Mormon Battalion to fight with the U.S. Army in the Mexican War.. The boys had left their aunts, Nancy and Polly to finish the work Daniel had instructed the boys to do in his absence. The boys had attended a meeting and after consulting with Aunts Polly and Nancy they joined their uncle Captain James Brown and the other men of the Mormon Battalion. This act rather embittered Daniel toward Brigham Young and was one of the reasons Daniel gave later for refusing to continue on to Utah with the Mormon Saints.

In the 1850 census, Polly, age 55, and Nancy, age 53, are found living in Pottawattamie County, Iowa, along with their nephew-son Moroni Brown, living next to their brother, Daniel Brown.

After Daniel made his break with the Mormon leaders and decided to stay in Harrison County, Iowa, the two sisters continued on westward with the Mormon Saints. When they arrived in Utah they lived in Brownsville, later re-named Ogden, Weber, Utah, to live near their brother, Captain James Brown, the founder of Brownsville / Ogden.

On March 6, 1863 Moroni Brown married Eveline Cindrella Conover, the daughter of Peter Wilson Conover and Evelyn Golden Conover of Provo, Utah. Polly and Nancy continued to reside with him in Ogden, Utah.

On December 24, 1870, Polly's sister, Nancy Brown Mills Newbury Critchlow, died at Ogden, Weber, Utah, at the age of 78. Nancy is listed in the cemetery records as Nancy Brown, sister of Captain James Brown. However, on May 7, 1889, some eighteen and one-half years after Nancy's death William Coe Critchlow had her body exhumed and moved to his lot in the Ogden City Cemetery. William's headstone in the Ogden City Cemetery refers to both of William's "Beloved Wives", Harriet Hawkins and Nancy Brown, naming both with their dates of birth and death.

Moroni married Frances "Frankie" Mariah Porter on March 22, 1875. Frankie was the daughter of Nahum Bisbee Porter (1831-1895) and Rachel Ann Murray Porter (1830-1914) from the state of New York.

Mary Polly Brown Brown died in 1876 in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah, at the age of 87. Polly was described by family members as being a "typical southerner". She smoked a corn cob pipe and had a Scotch-Irish quick, snappy temper but was passionately devoted to her family.

Mary Polly Brown Brown

ORSON PRATT BROWN FAMILY UPDATES

ORSON PRATT BROWN 1863-1946

ORSON'S JOURNALS AND BIOGRAPHIES

ORSON PRATT BROWN'S PARENTS
- Captain James Brown 1801-1863

- Phebe Abbott Brown Fife 1831-1915

- Colonel William Nicol Fife - Stepfather 1831-1915

ORSON'S GRANDPARENTS

ORSON PRATT BROWN'S 5 WIVES

ORSON PRATT BROWN'S 35 CHILDREN

ORSON'S SIBLINGS from MOTHER PHEBE

ORSON'S 28 SIBLINGS from JAMES BROWN

ORSON'S 17 SIBLINGS from STEPFATHER FIFE

ORSON PRATT BROWN'S IN-LAWS

INDEX OF MORMON COLONIES IN MEXICO

INDEX OF MORMON MEXICAN MISSION

INDEX TO POLYGAMY IN UTAH, ARIZONA, MEXICO

INDEX TO MEX. REVOLUTION & THE MORMON EXODUS

INDEX OF SURNAMES

MAPS OF THE MEXICAN COLONIES

BROWN FAMILY MAYFLOWER CONNECTION 1620

BROWN's in AMERICAN REVOLUTION 1775-1783

BROWN's in AMERICAN CIVIL WAR 1861-1865

BROWN's in WARS AFTER 1865

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