Edmund K Brown

NJGenWeb ~ Morris County, New Jersey

Edmund K Brown

Biographical and Genealogical History of Morris County New Jersey. Illustrated. Vol. II., Lewis Publishing Company, New York and Chicago, 1899.

This worthy citizen of Madison was born in Ossipee, Carroll county, New Hampshire, on the 15th of April, 1864, descending from one of the pioneer families of the state. It was in 1785 that three brothers Jacob, Captain Moses, and Benjamin Brown removed from Wenham, Massachusetts, to Wolfborough, New Hampshire, which place later became known as Brown's Ridge. During the war of the Revolution Captain Moses Brown was captured, together with the ship he commanded, and taken to Halifax, Nova Scotia, the vessel being confiscated to the crown. After remaining in that country for a long time he was liberated and also received indemnity for his ship. He married Lydia Kimball, belonging to a member of a prominent Massachusetts family of that name, who emigrated from old England to New England, in the ship Elizabeth, in April, 1734.

The father of our subject, Edmund Kimball Brown, Sr., was born February 29, 1826, and on the 14th of July, 1862, married Abby K. Ayers. He followed farming as a life work until after the inauguration of the Civil war, when he entered his country's service, in April, 1861, as a member of Company B, First Regiment of New Hampshire Volunteers. With that command he served throughout the war and participated in a number of engagements. Near the close of the struggle he was taken ill with typhoid fever and sent to Fort Auger Hospital, Virginia, where he died July 13, 1865. His wife survived him about seven years and managed the farm until her death, which occurred October 26, 1872.

Edmund Kimball Brown, whose name introduces the initial paragraph of this sketch, was an only son, and acquired his literary education in the schools of his native town, being a graduate of the high school there. He afterward pursued a business course in Bryant & Stratton's Commercial College, of Boston, Massachusetts, and during the summer vacation received an appointment as rodman in an engineering party of the park department of that city and was employed in the laying out and construction of Franklin park and the Arnold Arboretum. Finding this work congenial, he decided to make civil engineering his profession, and for five years he remained in the employ of the city government of Boston, during which time he devoted his evenings to study in the Boston Evening School of Engineering. In April, 1891, through the recommendation of Frederick Law Olmsted, he received the appointment of engineer on the estate of H. McK. Twombly, at Madison, New Jersey, where he was employed in carrying out the landscape designs of the Olmsteds, and in drainage and the building of roads.

In the spring of 1893 Mr. Brown decided to make Madison his home and opened an engineering office in the Masonic building. He obtained the contract to make a complete survey of the borough and to furnish an atlas of the same, which he completed in the year 1894. During the same year he published a property map showing the property owners of the town, which map gained a wide circulation. At the beginning of the work of improving the roads in Morris county, he was appointed assistant county engineer, and had charge of the road-making in Chatham township. His duties as a civil engineer are not confined to Madison and vicinity, he having been largely and successfully engaged in laying out estates in the state of New York, as well as near his home. On the death of F. E. Day, January 21, 1894, he was appointed to the position then left vacant of borough clerk and manager of the light and water plant. He was unanimously chosen by the council to that position, which he acceptably filled until the press of other duties forced his resignation, in December, 1894. During his administration the water mains were increased and a duplicate Dean pump put in, so that the water-works now have a capacity of one million gallons daily.

In April, 1898, Mr. Brown received the appointment of commissioner of deeds for the state of New Jersey by the governor, and in that office is called upon to execute deeds for real estate, an important factor in his line of work.

Civil engineers and surveyors are not infallible, but the results obtained by the employment of the best obtainable skill in their line are as nearly absolutely certain as anything can be, and proof of this may be found in the record made by Edmund K. Brown since he came to Madison, which indicates the estimate placed upon him and his work by those who know him well.

Transcribed by Brianne Kelly-Bly