Creator Record

Metadata

Name

Brown, J. Erskine Horton

Other names

Erskine Brown

Dates & places of birth and death

b. March 17, 1892
d. 1981

Nationality

Canadian

Occupation

Farmer
Folk artist
Carver
Collector of old glass

Notes

Erskine Brown was born in Derby Township, on March 17, 1892. He attended S. S.#2 Derby School (known as Dunn's School). In the book HISTORY OF DERBY TOWNSHIP, p. 74, there is a group image of the S.S.#2 students in 1902, and Erskine is shown in the 3rd row. He nostalgically kept the hand bell that was used when he started to school, and his father had also attended the same school before he did. Four generations of the Browns attended Dunn's School. Erskine's grandfather was the overseer when the school was being built. Erskine lived on the farm where he had been born until 1959, when he moved to Thornbury, Ontario.

He died in 1981 and is buried at Owen Sound's Greenwood Cemetery.

The headstone at Greenwood Cemetery includes Erskine Brown (b. 1891-d. 1981) [NOTE HIS BIRTHDATE IS WRONG], his wife Nellie Henderson (b. 1891-d. 1940), and Jean L. Malcolmson (b. 1907-d. 1966). Also, there are his parents, Samuel H. Brown (b.1863-d. 1943) and his wife Melissa Fleming (b. 1862-d. 1950), and Myrtle Melissa Brown (b. 1889-d. 1979).

The Salem W. I. group have several images pertaining to Erskine and his family in their Tweedsmuir book, see Salem WIF 27, Volume 2, p. 32-34. It mentions that Erskine, in addition to farming in his youth, also attended Owen Sound's Northern Business College in the winter months. When he married Nellie, they lived c. 1917 at his family farm. In 1948, he married his second wife Jean Malcolmson and they built a fine herd of Holsteins. The Tweedsmuir has a picture of him in 1954 with some of his carvings (several Holsteins are depicted). In May of 1959, the Browns retired to Thornbury where Erskine developed his hobbies of collecting old glass, and carving farm-related subjects. The National Museum at Ottawa obtained 22 of these carvings.

In 2011, two of these carvings are shown on-line by the Canadian Museum of Civilization:
"Pioneer Wagon" CMC 74-1012
"Sleigh Ride" CMC 74-1014

In August, 2011, Mindy Bowls and Joan Hyslop received J. Erskine Brown's diary from a donor, and it will be housed in the Grey County Archives. It is from 1935 and mentions his day-to-day activities, e.g. "I plowed all day...", and mentions local people, and his wife Nellie.

His birth record is 009705. His full name was James Erskine Horton Brown, b. March 17, 1892. He was born in Derby Twp. at Lot 12, Concession 6. His parents were Samuel Horton Brown (a farmer) and the former Melissa Fleming. Dr. Allan Cameron, M.D., attended the birth (we have an image of Dr. Cameron in the collection).

In the 1901 census of Derby, it has him listed as James E. Brown, b. March 17, 1890 (note that the census taker made a mistake of the year).

In the 1911 census, he was listed as Erskine H. Brown, age 19. The family address at that time was Lot 12, Concession 6, Derby Twp.