1. Absalom Billoat Brown , Sr.
Absalom Brown was born, according to the census records of 1850, in 1778 in the Pendleton District, South Carolina. According to the census of 1860, he was born in 1777. The land, the Pendleton District of South Carolina, was still within the Cherokee Nation at the time. He claimed to be 1/4 Cherokee. He moved from the Cherokee Nation in South Carolina to the Cherokee lands of middle Tennessee in 1806, arriving in Tennessee in 1809. Absalom Brown died in 1868.
During the Civil War was the miller at the famous "Hills Mill" on Hills Creek
Brown, John L.
From the Christian Advocate:
Rev. John L. Brown fell asleep in Jesus December 12, 1898 at the home of his son-in-law and daughter, Jackson and Eliza T. Brown, near Richland, Navarro County, Tex., where he has been living for the last six years. He was born in Warren county, Tenn., May 5, 1809. He professed religion and joined the M.E.Church, South, at seventeen years of age. At the age of twenty-eight he was licensed to preach, under the presiding eldership of Rev. John Sherrell; was ordained deacon October 17, 1852, by Bishop Joshua Soule, at Pulaski, Tenn; and elder October 24, 1858, by Bishop James Osgood Andrew, at McMinnville, Tenn. He preached for about forty-seven years, and was faithful to all the doctrines and usages of Methodism. Though local, he would often relieve the preachers in charge and go their rounds, while they went home or were sick. In revivals he went far and near. He never fled before the enemy. His preaching was plain, earnest, and practical. Anything that he could not adjust to the word of God was with him but chaff. He was a great lover of the CHRISTIAN ADVOCATE. He was married to Sarah Taylor. To them were born thirteen children. All but four have preceded him. His wife preceded him by ten years to the good world. His firstborn still survives him, though sixty-odd years old. He has thirty-six great-grandchildren, the most of whom live in Texas, where he died. His daughter Eliza and her husband endeavored to make his life pleasant and happy. He offtimes expressed his delight with Texas and the tender care for him the last six years of his life. Often would he say that there was but one thing that troubled him, that was he would rather be buried by his wife at Beech Grove in Alabama. That made but little difference, as he would be with her in heaven. He loved the Texas preachers: Brothers M.B. McKinney, F.M. Winburn, G.J. Irving and others. Our present preacher he never saw, but he held an impressive service at the grave. On the night of his departure, about one o'clock, he held out his hand, and said: "Good-by; don't grieve after me. I am going to a better home over yonder." A few minutes before the last he rose up in bed and told his daughter to fix him a soft pillow to die on. She adjusted the pillow, he lay down on the edge of it, and in a moment said, "Now, Lord, take me easy." and his life was gone. Not a struggle, not a frown; all was over. "Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his."We, his children, who have cared for him in his last years, want to say to his many friends and relatives, especially in Tennessee, that if we ever meet him again we will have to live in this life above reproach. God help us all so to do!
JACKSON AND ELIZA T. BROWN