The Thomas Brown Family

Thomas Brown (1846-1827) was the son of Thomas Brown (?-?) and Jane Johnson (?-?) of Stirling, Hastings County. He married Sarah Shelford Archer (1854-1922) in Haldimand Township in 1874. He was a resident of Colborne at the time. Brown was employed as a “commercial traveller” in most references, though the 1901 census refers to him as a “general merchant”.

Thomas and Sarah Brown had four children:

  1. Charles Philip Brown (1875-1967) was a dry goods merchant who was listed in Colborne censuses through 1911. He was still living in Colborne when he filled out attestation papers for the Canadian Expeditionary Force in 1916. By 1921 he had moved to Deloro in Hastings County. He married Carrie M. Thomas (1873-1949) in Haldimand Township in 1901 and had one child to whom reference has been found: Marian I. (1902-1905). There is a corporal C. P. Brown on the Colborne cenotaph who is probably the same man. He served in England.
  2. Edith Brown (1878-?) married Denver banker Ernest G. Richardson (1869-1909) in Colborne in 1906 and later engineer Frederick William Higginson (1869-1934) in Toronto in 1914. Higginson was a resident of Alberta and Edith moved with him to Battle River, Alberta after they were married. She had a son, Eric Archer Richardson (1907-1937) with her first husband.
  3. James Archer Brown (1883-1948) was a prominent Colborne physician. He received his MD from Trinity College, Toronto. He also trained at the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons in Edinburgh, Scotland. He practiced for a while in Blackpool, England, then took up a practice in Colborne in 1911. He practiced there until 1928 then moved to California. After 6 months he returned to Ontario and practiced in Oshawa until his death in 1948. He married Ruth Boyer (1880-1948) in Colborne in 1906. Reference has been found to two children: Thomas Boyer (1908-1977) and Ruth (1913-1913). Ruth Boyer was a granddaughter of Joseph Keeler (1824-1881) through Keeler’s daughter Anna Sybilla (1854-1887).
  4. Beverley Johnston Brown (1891-?) was a bookkeeper residing in Oshawa when he married schoolteacher Bertha Joan Wannan (ca. 1895-?) in Toronto in 1919. He was living in Oshawa in 1921. Private B. J. Brown is listed on the Colborne cenotaph as having served with the CEF in France.

Thomas Brown was a resident of Reid Lot 250 on the north side of North Street from 1879 until 1923. Prior to that he had owned Lots 255 (1875-1882), and 257-258 (2 days in 1875). He would eventually also own Reid Lot 239 on the south side of King Street (1879-1894), part of Reid Lot 157 in downtown Colborne (2 months in 1888), Glebe Block Q south of Trinity Church (1890-1891), and Reid Lot 135 along the south side of Church Street West (1902-1904).

Thomas Brown sold Reid Lot 135 to his son Charles Philip Brown in 1904. The younger brown was residing there in at least in 1911. Charles Brown also briefly (1 month in 1904) owned part of Lot 29 in the Broken Front Concession.

James Archer Brown’s home and practice were on Reid Lot 242 along the east side of Division Street just around the corner from his father’s residence.