Brown, Leonard

BROWN, NASH, HOUSTON, CORY

Posted By: Daniel K. Higginbottom (email)
Date: 11/14/2014 at 11:17:58

Brown, Leonard--Was born in Kosciusko county, Indiana, on the 4th of July, 1837, and is the son of Aaron Brown and Margaret nee Cory; the former was born in Maine and the latter in Ohio. When eleven years of age he was deprived of a mother's care, by death. He being the eldest of the family and his father's means limited, he was cast on his own resources. He worked on a farm in summer and during the winter worked for his board, and attended the district school. At the age of fourteen he commenced to learn the blacksmith trade, and continued the same until 1853, when he came with his father to Des Moines, and worked at his chosen avocation, until he entered the Des Moines Academy, of which the Rev. J. A. Nash was principal. In the summer of 1854 he was appointed deputy Recorder and Treasurer of Polk county. In the winter of 1854-55, he taught his first term of school, it being the first school ever taught in Story county, west of the Skunk river. In 1855 he was elected tutor of mathematics in the Burlington University, and at the same time, pursued his studies. He returned to Des Moines in 1859, and in 1861 became associated with Rev. J. A. Nash, in the Forest Home school. In November, 1867-8, he held the position of County Superintendent of Schools. In 1871, he removed to Madison township, near Polk City. In 1875 he was elected to a professorship in Humbolt College, which position he resigned after serving for a short time. During the late war, he enlisted in the forty-seventh Iowa volunteer infantry. He is the author of the "Poems of the Prairies," and is the pioneer in this line in Polk county. This work has passed through three editions, and has received very flattering criticisms and favorable commendation from persons both at home and abroad; it is also the first volume of poetry ever published in Iowa. In 1869 he published a war history of Polk county entitled "American Patriotism," a volume of 574 pages, giving brief biographical sketches of the lives of two hundred and eighty martyrs to human liberty, that Polk county gave toward suppressing the rebellion. He is also the author of several other works. Of late years he has delivered numerous lectures. Has been an active worker in the cause of political reform. His public lectures and speeches during the last seven years, number over four hundred. He was married to Miss Nannie Houston, November 7, 1861. Their family consists of ten children.

Source: "The History of Polk County, Iowa", p.1026-27. Des Moines, Union Historical Company, 1880.