Paris
C Brown
Kentucky Post, Tuesday, 5 September 1911, page 3
PARIS BROWN ILL
Capt. Paris C Brown, former Mayor of Newport and for many years
prominently identified with the river interests in and about Cincinnati, is
critically ill at his home on Third st. near Saratoga. He has been suffering
from asthma about three years and it has now taken an acute form. He was
unconscious yesterday and is getting very weak.
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Kentucky Post, Friday, 8 September 1911, page 10
CAPT. BROWN PASSES OVER DARK RIVER
After a life filled with usefulness and in the midst of the Fernbank Dam celebration, which he had largely made possible, Capt. Paris C Brown, known as the "best mayor Newport ever had." died at the age of 72 at 9 o'clock last night at the residence, 130 East Third st. Newport.
Death was due to asthma from which Capt. Brown had been a sufferer for the past three years. He had been confined to his home by sickness for the past 11 weeks. Capt. Brown's life was a story of public service which endeared him to all who came in contact with him.
He was born in Concord, Ky. and at the age of 16 started out as a cook on a flatboat plying between Maysville Ky. and New Orleans. From this early introduction to the life of the river, he rose to clerk and was later Captain on several large steamboats on the waters of the Ohio and Mississippi. He later became an owner in the river trade and was probably the best known river man on the Ohio or Mississippi.
Shortly after the close of the Civil War, Capt. Brown left active service on the Ohio and became one of the principal stockholders and manager of the Cincinnati Consolidated Boat Stores Co in which capacity he had been engaged for the past 47 years. Capt. Brown's great ambition was to see the Ohio River improved and made navigable the year round.
Twenty years ago he met with two other prominent river men at Louisville, and the three formed the Ohio River Improvement Association, now a large and powerful organization. It was greatly through his persistent efforts that Dam 27, at Fernbank, was built and the movement started for a navigable river. When the Fernbank Dam Association was first organized Paris C Brown was elected President, but illness prevented him from taking the office and at the time, he remarked in his modest way that "too many honors had been conferred upon him."
For several terms Capt. Brown was a director of the Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce. In 1894 and 1895, he was Mayor of Newport and administrated that office so impartially and with only the great public good in mind, regardless of politics, that he had generally referred to since that time as "the best Mayor Newport ever had." During his administration streets were improved, the city's accounts were put on a thorough business basis and the Newport City Park property was acquired by the city. Capt. Brown was a member of Noah's Dove Lodge, IOOF.
The funeral will be private and will be held at 2 o'clock from the late residence, Dr. I G Shaw officiating. Interment in the Brown lot, Evergreen Cemetery.