Brown, William P.

The following data is extracted from A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans.

William P. Brown, brother of S. Allen Brown, a well known citizen of Independence whose career has already been sketched, has been prominently identified with various business affairs in Southeastern Kansas for nearly forty years, and is now a resident and has his headquarters at Coffeyville.

Born in Pomeroy, Ohio, July 29, 1861, a son of Gen. William R. Brown, he received his early education in the public schools of that state, and came with his parents to Independence, Kansas, in 1874. He was then a student in the Independence High School, but at the early age of seventeen started out in business on his own account and from that time until he was twenty-two was in the lumber business at Independence and then for two years was a grain merchant at Cherryvale. Since 1885 his home has been in Coffeyville, where he conducted one of the extensive lumber yards until he sold out in 1906. Since 1891 William P. Brown has been one of the leading oil and gas operators and producers in the Kansas fields. He owns 325 acres of land with about ten producing oil wells on it.

His home is a fine place at the corner of Eldridge and Walnut streets. This modern residence he built fourteen years ago. He owns several business houses in Coffeyville, and besides the farm already mentioned has a place of 120 acres five miles west of Coffeyville. Mr. Brown's wife is president, while he is secretary and treasurer of the Brown Brokerage Company, a firm that handles real estate both in Montgomery and surrounding counties.

Politically Mr. Brown is a democrat, and fraternally has taken most of the degrees in Masonry, being affiliated with Lodge No. 107, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons at Independence, with the Royal Arch Chapter and with the Knights Templar Commandery No. 10 at Independence, with Wichita Consistory of the Scottish Rite and with Mirzah Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Pittsburg.

In 1883 at Port Washington, Ohio, Mr. Brown married Miss Nannie Kilgore, daughter of John and Elizabeth Kilgore, both of whom are now deceased. Her father was a merchant. Mr. and Mrs. Brown have one living child, a daughter, Violet, who makes her home with them at their country place in Coffeyville.

Source: A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans

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