Joseph R. Brown

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Joseph R. Brown, c. 1853.
Joseph Brown's Monument in Brown Cemetery

Joseph Renshaw Brown (1805–1870) was a politician, pioneer, fur trader, newspaper editor, businessman, inventor, speculator, and Indian agent who was prominent in Minnesota territorial and state politics for over 50 years.

Early life and family[]

Joseph R. Brown was born in Harford County, Maryland, on January 5, 1805. His third wife, Susan Frenier (1819-1904), was a member of the Sisseton tribe of Dakota and the half-sister of Gabriel Renville, who became his legal ward.[1]

At the age of 15, he left his apprenticeship as a printer to join the army, and was sent to Cantonment New Hope to work on the construction of Fort Snelling. He was discharged from the army in 1828.[2]

Career[]

Brown served in the Wisconsin Territorial Legislature: the Wisconsin Territorial House of Representatives 1840-1842. He also served in the Minnesota Territorial Legislature: Territorial Council 1854-55 (District 6); Territorial House of Representatives 1857 (District 10); Minnesota Democratic Constitutional Convention 1857 (District 10).[3]

Brown came to Minnesota in 1820 when the land was Michigan Territory. In 1857, he was appointed Indian Agent to the Sioux (Dakota).

Role in Dakota War of 1862[]

When the Dakota War of 1862 broke out, his mixed-blood family and the whites fleeing with them were captured but not killed due to his wife's bravery in standing up to Cut Nose, Little Six, Dowanniye and hostile warriors who surrounded their wagon and threatened them. Their son Samuel J. Brown later wrote, "So she stood up in the wagon, and waving her shawl she cried in a loud voice that she was a Sisseton –– a relative of Waanatan, Scarlet Plume, Sweetcorn, Akipa and friend of Standing Buffalo, that she had come down this way for protection and hoped to get it."[4] One of the men in their party recognized Susan Brown and argued in favor of sparing her life, because she had taken him in one winter and saved his life. When the men said they would kill the whites in their party regardless, she declared, "Remember what I say, if you harm any of these friends of mine, you will have to answer to Scarlet Plume, Akipa, Standing Buffalo, and the whole Sisseton and Wahpeton tribe!"[4]

Susan Brown and her children were rescued on August 23 by her stepfather Akipa, a full-blood Wahpeton, and her half-brother Charles Renville Crawford, who demanded their release. She spent the rest of the war under the protection of the "friendly" Dakota camp of Akipa, Gabriel Renville and the Dakota Peace Party, which opposed conflict with the United States. In the final days of the war, Little Crow confided in Susan Brown as he grew increasingly despondent about his options.[5]

Joseph R. Brown was away at the outbreak of the war. Upon his return, desperate to find out what happened to his wife family, he asked to join the burial expedition which left Fort Ridgely on August 31, 1862, and ended up wounded by a ball in his neck on September 2 during the Battle of Birch Coulee. He was finally reunited with his family at Camp Release.

He died on November 9, 1870, in New York City and was buried in Brown Cemetery, Henderson, Minnesota.[6]

Legacy[]

Brown County,[7] Browns Valley in Minnesota, and Brown's Creek near Stillwater, Washington County, Minnesota are named after him.

House[]

Main article: Joseph Brown House Ruins

Joseph R. Brown State Wayside Reststop is located on Renville County Highway 15, south of Sacred Heart, Minnesota, which displays the granite ruins of Brown's home from 1862.

The house was destroyed on August 19, 1862 during the Dakota War of 1862; the three story home was a mansion compared to normal pioneer homes.

References[]

  1. ^ Joseph R. and Samel J. Brown and family papers
  2. ^ Goodman, Nancy and Robert (September 16, 2015). "Brown, Joseph Renshaw (1805–1870)". MNopedia. Retrieved 2021-05-09.
  3. ^ Joseph Renshaw Brown, Minnesota Legislators Past and Present
  4. ^ Jump up to: a b Anderson, Gary Clayton; Woolworth, Alan R., eds. (1988). Through Dakota Eyes: Narrative Accounts of the Minnesota Indian War of 1861. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press. ISBN 978-0-87351-216-9.
  5. ^ Anderson, Gary Clayton (1986). Little Crow: Spokesman for the Sioux. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press.
  6. ^ "Sibley County Grave Finder". Archived from the original on 2009-04-01.
  7. ^ History of the Origin of the Place Names in Nine Northwestern States. 1908. p. 12.

External links[]

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