Joshua
Bailey Brown
1 Apr 1863 - 3 Jul 1944
Joshua "JB" was born on 1 April 1863 to Joshua Wood Brown and Sarah Robbins Bailey in Wellsville, Cache, Utah, USA. He was the fourth of eleven children and grew up in Wellsville. At age nine, he was present at Promontory Point when the golden spike was driven connecting the railroads from the east and the west. Learn more about this momentous event at the National Park Service.
| JB married Mary Jane Archibald on 27 Jan 1887 in the L.D.S. Temple in Logan, Utah. |  |
He soon operated a grocery store and at the same time owned and operated
a creamery in Kamas, Utah. In 1898, JB moved his family to Salt Lake City where
he owned a livery stable. He had several rigs, wagons and some eight-seat
carriages. The many tourists visiting the city used the eight-seat carriages
for sight seeing excursions.
In 1903, the family moved to Logan, where he helped
develop the first condensed milk plant in Utah. On one of his trips to
promote this product, he fell in love with the Clear Creek Valley in southern
Idaho and arranged to purchase the old Naff Ranch there. Soon the family
sold all of their property in Logan and moved all of their belongings
to Idaho. They used wagons and teams of horses. It took many days to make
the trip.
The ranch had an old log house, an orchard, a large
barn and sheds, a granary and corrals. There were hundreds of cattle,
pigs and chickens. They prospered on the large ranch. During this time
JB assisted in laying out the town of Strevell, Idaho, and built a large
two-story southern plantation style home with many rooms for his family.
Since it was the only place for hundreds of miles that could accommodate
travelers passing through, it soon became a way station, furnishing meals
and lodging and was called the Hotel Strevell. A post office was established
where mail was delivered once a week from Kelton, Utah (which was a railway
stop).
Eventually JB built a large creamery on the ranch,
where he made butter and cheese to supply the small towns in southern
Idaho and northern Utah. By this time the ranch had eight or more hired
hands and over one hundred cows to be milked morning and evening. Needless
to say, his chilren learned to work hard at an early age. All the children
each had their own horses and enjoyed taking long rides through the mountains
and valleys. They said they knew that heaven must look like Clear Creek
Valley surrounded by mountains.
When the parents were away on business trips, the
children (now teenagers) would run the Hotel, doing all the cooking and
entertaining the guests with piano playing and singing. One boundary of
the ranch was the Utah-Idaho state border. Each Fourth of July there was
a big celebration held on the ranch at the state line. People from Standrod,
Malta, Yost and Kelton would attend, plus many of the mountain people
and valley farmers.
JB was one of the first in the area to own an automobile
when they became popular. He was able to take his family to California
several times to escape from the cold winters. Eventually they moved to
Ogden, Utah, and he died there July 3, 1944, at age 81. He was buried
in Aultorest Memorial Park Cemetery in Ogden.His wife, Mary Jane, then
moved to California and lived with her daughter, Sarah Eagleston, until
she died March 5, 1951, at the age of 84. She was buried next to her husband.
Written
by Dona E. Irwin, daughter of Sarah LaRue (Brown) Eagleston,
Using information
from Betty S. Marriott, daughter of Blanche LaVon (Brown) Stewart.
JB and Mary Jane had 7 children:
