Brown, Jacob I.

Born: 1819-10-12 Tennessee

Died: 1891-04-08 Hancock County, Indiana

Flourished: 1844 to 1890 Coles County, Illinois

Jacob I. Brown, publisher, merchant, and public official, was born near Jonesboro, Tennessee. Brown and his family lived alternately in Tennessee and Indiana when he was a small boy, and were living in Indiana when his father and eight of his siblings died of yellow fever around 1823. The surviving family members settled in Bloomington soon thereafter, and Brown apprenticed in the printing trade in that city beginning about 1832. With the exception of the winter of 1837 when he plied his trade in Indianapolis, Brown continued to work in printing in Bloomington until 1840, when he moved to Paris, Illinois. There, he and a partner purchased the office of the Illinois Statesman and began publication of a Democratic newspaper. Four years later Brown, now sole proprietor of the newspaper, moved to Charleston where he founded a newspaper called the Investigator and simultaneously published a religious periodical. In 1846 Brown sold half interest in the newspaper to William D. Latshaw, and the pair continued to publish it together as the Illinois Globe for about eight years. Brown was subsequently an editor of the Coles County Ledger, retiring from this role at the end of 1858. In politics Brown was a Democrat. He was elected assessor of Coles County in 1845, served as postmaster of Charleston from 1847 to 1849 and again from 1853 to 1861, and was elected county clerk in 1861, serving for four years. While postmaster, Brown also worked as a grocer and druggist. He was a member of the Odd Fellows and the Freemasons, and in religion he was a Baptist. Brown married Ann Elizabeth Javins in 1845; the pair had no children.

The History of Coles County, Illinois (Chicago: Wm. Le Baron, Jr., 1879), 247, 320, 321, 512-13; Portrait and Biographical Album of Coles County, Ill. (Chicago: Chapman Brothers, 1887), 472-73; Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, Coles County, 20 June 1845, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; Franklin William Scott, Newspapers and Periodicals of Illinois, 1814-1879, vol. 6 of Collections of the Illinois State Historical Library (Springfield: Illinois State Historical Library, 1910), 50; Record of Appointment of Postmasters, 1832-1971, NARA Microfilm Publication, M841, 145 rolls, Records of the Post Office Department, RG 28, 1845-1855, 18:32; 1855-1865, 20a:21; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Charleston, Coles County, IL, 20; Daily Illinois State Register (Springfield), 4 December 1858, 2:2; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Coles County, IL, 187; The Hancock Democrat (Greenfield, IN), 9 April 1891, 1:5; Greenfield Republican (IN), 10 April 1891, 3:3; Gravestone, Mound Cemetery, Charleston, IL.