DR. ELISHA P. BROWN, a manufacturer of proprietary medicines at Fort Worth, is a veteran of the Civil war and bears an honorable record for brave service in the cause of freedom and union, and in the paths of peace he has also won an enviable reputation through the sterling qualities which go to the making of a good citizen. He is a son of William and Jane (Kendrick) Brown, both natives of the Old Dominion state of Virginia, but in an early day emigrated to Missouri, where they were among the pioneer settlers in that section comprising Marion, Ralls and Pike counties, which has sent forth so many noted men, and there were finally laid to rest. A brother of Mrs. Brown, Rev. William Kendrick, was a very prominent minister of the Methodist church in Tennessee.
Dr. Elisha P. Brown was born on a farm twelve miles from the little town of Florida, Missouri, well remembered as the birthplace of Mark Twain, and was reared to the life of the farmer boy, continuing to follow its pursuits until the breaking out of the Civil war. His mother was a strong anti-slavery woman although her father was a large slave owner in Virginia, and had conscientiously instilled those sentiments and teaching in her children, so that Mr. Brown, notwithstanding the almost overwhelming southern sentiment throughout the state of Missouri outside of St. Louis, joined the Union forces, being one of the six Union men in his township. His first two years of army life were spent with the Missouri State Militia, Company B, Thirty-ninth Regiment, of which Major Johnson was one of the well remembered officers, and it was this company that was the victim of the tragedy enacted at Centralia, Missouri, in which seventy-five out of a company of a little more than one hundred men were killed by the Confederate forces under Bill Anderson, Mr. Brown being one of the fortunate ones that escaped. Shortly after his enlistment he was promoted from a private to a corporal, but ere his two years of service had ended he was made a captain by the act of Governor Fletcher for bravery while in service under Major Johnson, at which time he was transferred to the Sixty-ninth Regiment, M. S. M., and two years later went into the regular federal troops, joining the Thirty-ninth Missouri Volunteer Infantry. Through the recommendation of one of its officers and his friends he was then assigned to detached duty, being detailed a s a provost guard with the duty of transferring troops from the rear to the front of the army. These duties took him all over the country, as far south as Sherman’s headquarters in Georgia and east to New York City. He was a brave and fearless soldier and when the war ended and his services were no longer needed he was honorably discharged and mustered out of service at St. Louis, two weeks after the assassination of Lincoln.
Returning to his old home in Ralls county, Mr. Brown again took up the duties of farm life, and later removed to Pike county, [the town of] Louisiana, where he embarked in the mercantile business, which he later carried on at Hannibal, conducting a prosperous business there until 1884, in which year he came to Dallas county, which continued as his home for five years, and since that time he has resided in Fort Worth. About the time of his arrival in this city he abandoned the mercantile business and engaged in the preparation and manufacture of proprietary medicines, which he has ever since conducted with eminent success. While engaged in business in Missouri and while yet a young man he had taken the medical course at the McDowell College of Medicine, St. Louis, during which time he made special investigation and research for the purpose of compounding remedies, in which he has become very proficient. He has pushed forward this enterprise with strength and ability until his preparations have within the past few years reached a large sale throughout Texas and the southern states, supplying the retail trade through jobbers.
In Audrain county, Missouri, Mr. Brown was united in marriage to Miss Virginia Rogers, the daughter of Rev. Rogers, and their union was blessed with four children, three of whom are living: Lillie, the wife of J. W. Barr, of Louisiana, Missouri; Dr. Edgar P. Brown, D. D. S., of Cottonwood Falls, Kansas; Ida, the wife of G. W. Richardson, of New Orleans, Louisiana; and Mrs. Emma F. Burnett, deceased. They all received excellent educations, being college graduates, and the daughters were especially well educated in music. For several years the family furnished the music for the Methodist church at Hannibal. Besides being a most successful dentist, the son Edgar P. is also an inventor, having invented a solar motor that according to the Scientific American represents the highest perfection of any device of that class. Mrs. Brown died in Missouri, and in 1895, in Texas, Mr. Brown married Miss Minerva Smith, a member of one of the prominent families of Van Zandt county. Her little sister, Miss Dovie, was adopted by Mr. and Mrs. Brown when she was a young child, and Mrs. Brown’s niece, Miss Mae Adams, is also a member of the family. Their home at Fort Worth is comfortable and hospitable to the highest degree; and Mr. Brown is personally known to a large number of people throughout Texas as a fine, genial and generous-hearted man. He is Post Commander of Parmelay Post, G. A. R.
Source: B. B. Paddock, History and Biographical Record of North and West Texas (Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1906), Vol. II, pp. 131-132.