Brown, Joseph C.

Born: 1784-01-29 Virginia

Died: 1849-02-21 Saint Louis, Missouri

Flourished: Saint Louis, Missouri

Joseph C. Brown was a surveyor, city government official, engineer, sheriff, and federal government official. In 1815, Brown became a deputy surveyor of the United States, holding that position until 1840 or 1841, when he became surveyor general for Illinois and Missouri. He made numerous important surveys in the Louisiana Territory, Arkansas, Missouri, and the American Southwest. In 1815, he established the baseline for the fifth principal meridian. Brown completed the first survey of the town of St. Louis and platted the same in 1818. In 1823, he established the southern and western boundaries of Missouri, and a year later, he set the Choctaw Treaty line between Missouri and the Choctaw Nation. In 1837, he established the northern boundary of Missouri, ending a dispute between Missouri and the Iowa Territory. President John Tyler removed Brown as surveyor general in 1842. In addition to his work of a federal surveyor, Brown involved himself in civic affairs in St. Louis County and the city of St. Louis. He served as sheriff of St. Louis County in the 1820s. In 1822, Brown was a charter member of the St. Louis Agricultural Society. Brown was surveyor for the city of St. Louis in 1823 and again from 1829 to 1831. In 1825, Brown received appointment as surveyor of the Sibley Expedition, surveying a road from Missouri to Taos, New Mexico that became the basis for the Santa Fe Trail. In 1830, he was chairman of a meeting that formed the St. Louis Infant School Society and served as president in 1832. In 1830, Brown owned three enslaved persons.

Register of all Officers and Agents, Civil, Military, and Naval, in the Service of the United States, on the Thirtieth September, 1841 (Washington, DC: Thomas Allen, 1841), 92; Louis Houck, A History of Missouri (Chicago: R. R. Donnelley & Sons, 1908), 3:166; Harriet C. Frazier, Slavery and Crime in Missouri, 1773-1865 (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2001), 63, Charles D. Drake, The Revised Ordinances of the City of St. Louis (St. Louis: Keemle & Field, 1846), 315, 316; Charles O. Paullin, Atlas of the Historical Geography of the United States, ed. by John K. Wright (Washington, DC: Carnegie Institution of Washington and American Geographical Society of New York, 1932), 20; J. Thomas Scharf, History of St. Louis City and County (Philadelphia: Louis H. Everts, 1883), 1:361, 826, 827; C. Ballance, The History of Peoria, Illinois (Peoria: N. C. Nason, 1870), 194; James D. Richardson, A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of Presidents 1789-1897 (New York: Bureau of National Literature, 1900), 4:103-4; U.S. Census Office, Fifth Census of the United States (1830), Middle Ward, St. Louis, St. Louis County, MO, 360; Memorial Marker, Bellefontaine Cemetery, St. Louis, MO.