General Notes

[Joanne's Tree.1 GED.GED]

2  SOUR S332582
3  DATA
4  TEXT Date of Import: 14 Jan 2004


[daveanthes.FTW]

[Brøderbund WFT Vol. 11, Ed. 1, Tree #4194, Date of Import: Sep 6, 1999]
Thomas Northup Brown, born March 10, 1804 to Benjamin Brown and Elizabeth
Gardner, first cousins who were not married, petitioned the state of Rhode
Island when he was about 19 to have his name changed legally from Thomas
Northup Gardner to Thomas Northup Brown and this was enacted by the
legislature in October 1823.  (Be it enacted by the General Assembly and
by the authority thereof, it is enacted that Thomas N. Brown otherwise
called Thomas N. Gardner of South Kingsotwn in the County of Washington be
hereinafter called and known by the name of Thomas Northup Brown and that
he is hereby authorized and empowered to assume the name of Thomas Northup
Brown and no other.
Benjamin did not contest thepetition nor did he ever deny that Thomas
Northup was his son.
Elizabeth Gardner never married, but lived to an old age. She died April
15, 1872 at age 90and is buried in the Brown family plot in South
Kingstown.
Notes by Joseph E. Adams: My great grandfather was a farmer.  According to
my Mother's notes, he and his family lived at the following locations in
South Kingstown:
HammondHill Farm, Watson's Pier, Thomas G. Hazard Farm (near covered
bridge), MonroeFarm (near Saunderstown), McSparran Hill,(corner of road
which leads to Mooresfield).
I do not know whether or not my great grandfather owned any of the
properties listed in the foregoing.  I suspect he farmed them on a rental
basis,(tenant) which was quite common at the time.  Thomas and Ann Brown
had 12 children of which 8 were boys so it appears he had plenty of hands
for farm work.According to one of his sons, John Clark Gardner Brown, his
father was a martinet and taskmaster.  John Brown told my father that when
he was a teenager, he and one of his brothers decided they had "had it"
and were going to run awayfrom home.  After work one afternoon, they left
the farm and hid in a neighbor's barn. When the boys did not show up for
supper, their father went looking for them calling their names as he went
from farm to farm.  As he passed the barn in which they hid, he called out
their names and they answered him since they were so conditioned to obey
him implicitly.  They were herded home and each received a good tanning.
My Great-grandfather, Warren Bradford Knowles Brownwas born March 30,
1833 at Watson's Pier, South Kingstown, R.I.(at his birth Watson's Pier
was located in S.Kingstown but is now in the Town of Narragansett which
was established in 1901 when South Kingstown was partioned.) I do not know
too much about my grandfather's activities during his life as my mother
talked very little about her father.  However my father (G. Allen Adams)
did give me some information and other I obtained from letters.  He was,
of course,raised as a farm boy and at one time lived in Middletown, R.I.
What he was doing there I do not know.  In a letter dated July 10, 1855
and postmarked Middletown and written to his intended, Maria A. Bates, he
mentioned he intended toattend school the next term.  In December 1863,
he, his wife Maria, and daughter Clara were living in a house in the
vicinity of Saunderstown.  In a letterwritten by grandmother Brown to her
cousin in New York City she writes that her husband was teaching school in
Jamestown. He was taking the South Ferry either Sunday night or Monday
morning and returning Friday evening.  In the same letter she writes that,
from her window, she could clearly observe soldier activity on Dutch
Island (Fort Greble) and mentioned that there were 1400 men stationed
there.  The house must have been fairly close to the shore since she
mentioned that the pounding of the surf was plainly heard.
Later my grandfatherwas working, as boss farmer, on a farm in East
Providence owned by a family name Bucklin.  Here my mother was born
October 14, 1868.
Some time later my grandfather obtained a position in the U.S. Post Of