The Williams Holler News: "Elder" Isaac Brown's Family in Nowata Oklahoma

In the late 1880s, "Elder" Isaac Brown (1846-1909) migrated with his family to the Cherokee Nation in present-day Nowata County, Oklahoma. He was the younger brother of my Great-Grandfather, Jesse G. Brown (1842-1900). This family news item is about "Elder" Isaac's family. [Note to Elder Isaac's family--our Jesse G. named a son after Elder Isaac, so Jesse's family refers to your Isaac as "Elder" Isaac to keep things a little more straight for us].

Jim Brown, of Marshall, MO, is my third cousin. His great-grandfather, Elder Isaac Brown, was a brother to my great-grandfather, Jesse G. Brown. Both Jesse & Isaac were born on the old Brown place on Bryant Creek in Douglas county MO.

I got to know Jim and his sisters, Judy Jordan (from Nowata, OK) and Beth Rogers (from Lenapah, OK), about three years ago when working with Laura Moncrief on her 2011 Squire-Brown-Burton book that tells our Brown family history.

Wednesday morning (June 19), Jim picked me up at my home in Springfield, MO, and we headed to Nowata, OK We held off eating anything because we wanted to make room for the best onion rings that I have ever eaten--those at the Bliss Restaurant in Nowata. Jim's sister, "Bethie" and her husband, Lester Rogers, met us there. Lester is a decorated Vietnam War veteran, and both Lester & Jim are retired from law enforcement careers. Lester was a long-time police chief at Dewey OK.

Horses and Cattle--That's What They Know in Nowata County

At Bliss Restaurant, Lester and Jim kept telling stories about the toughest cowboy they ever knew--someone whose first named sounded like "choate." I finally figured out they were talking about Shoat Webster, World Champion Steer Roper from Jim's home town of Lenapah. Jim had worked for Shoat when he was a kid and witnessed, first hand, the way Shoat could handle a steer, a horse, or a man for that matter. Turns out Howard Chouteau "Shoat" Webster died on May 20, 2013, at the age of 88. Everybody was still talking about Shoat.

This rather scrunched up picture above shows Ben Johnson (my favorite cowboy actor) with Shoat Webster among other rodeo stars in a by-gone era. The full-sized picture showing about a dozen rodeo stars is hanging in the Train Depot Restaurant in Nowata, and that's where I snapped this picture.

Salt Creek -- Isaac's Cherokee Nation Home in 1893

Back in 2010, I ran onto a document dated 1893 that Elder Isaac's descendant, Jesse L. Johnson of Quinlan OK, had kept all these years. It was a chattel mortgage between Isaac and a Coffeyville KS bank in which Isaac had borrowed money to finance a 120-acre wheat crop that year on the place in which he was living "...10 miles southeast of Lenapah on the banks of Salt Creek. At that time, the land was in the Cherokee Nation, and Isaac was using land owned by Thomas Burnett. Well, Beth Rogers' husband, Lester, took it upon himself to work with people in the Nowata County Court House, and got a pretty accurate idea where the family lived that year and raised that crop. It was in eastern Nowata County just south of U.S. Hwy 60. Here are some pictures taken there yesterday.

Salt Creek Bridge, U.S. 60 Hwy
east of Nowata, OK

Picture of Salt Creek looking south
from the U.S. 60 Hwy bridge

Looking northeast from a county road
toward Salt Creek and U.S. Hwy 60

Nowata -- Visit with Merle Dean "Deannie" Brown Gilbert

"Elder" Isaac did not stay in Cherokee Nation very long it would seem. Eventually he went up into southern Kansas and participated in one of the Oklahoma land runs into northwestern Oklahoma in the mid 1890s. Later, he and his children all proved up homesteads around Quinlan OK which is located near the Oklahoma panhandle in present-day Woodward County. One of Isaac Brown's two sons, James Madison "Jim" Brown, married Myrtle Palmer (a full-blooded Cherokee). While they all had their children in the Quinlan area, Grandpa "Jim" moved the family back to Nowata County. Except for one son, Ira, all of Grandpa Jim & Grandma Myrtle's surviving children (several died before adulthood) lived out their lives in Nowata County.

Jim and Myrtle's twin sons, Lesley and Wesley, raised their families in Nowata. Lesley's daughter, Merle Dean "Deannie" (Brown) Gilbert of Nowata has quite a few photos of her father's family, Jim, Beth and I spent a couple of hours on Wednesday afternoon visiting and scanning Deannie's pictures. [NOTE: Equally important to me was a six-page narrative that Deannie has written about her parents, Lesley & Gertrude (Scroggins) Brown. It was scanned and now resides in my Brown family archives].

Lesley Brown at his Nowata farm in the 1960s or 70s -- he died in 1975

June 19, 2013 -- at the Gilbert Home next to the Nowata Country Club. L-R: Elwane & Deannie (Brown) Gilbert,
Jim Brown & his sister, Beth Rogers. [Elwane's wildlife paintings on wall behind them]

And The Best for Last

Deannie is the oldest living grandchild of James Madison & Myrtle (Palmer) Brown. We wanted to ask her about her memories of both her grandparents and perhaps any discussion she heard about "Elder" Isaac himself. Well apparently Grandpa Jim didn't talk too much that way, and so little was gleaned from her about those two people. Still her photographs are timeless, and she told us a lot of family history.

Now, the youngest child of Grandpa Jim and Myrtle Brown was Raymond Brown. He was seven years younger than Deanie's father, Lesley. Ray was the father of Jim, Beth, and Judy, as well as a son Jerry who passed away in 2009 at the age of 65.

Well, here's exactly the way it happened after we left Deannie's house. We were driving through downtown Nowata and Bethie said pull over. She took us across the street into the Nowata License Office where (surprise!) Jerry's grand-daughter, Lindsey Jones works. I witnessed a really happy reunion among Lindsey, Aunt Beth and Uncle Jim; and I got to meet a beautiful young lady who recently has been asking questions about her Brown family. I presented here with a copy of Laura Moncrief's 2011 Brown history book, and I think she'll be able to get up to speed on her Brown family on short order.

Downtown Nowata -- Lindsey's license office (with bunting draped in front) to left and Elwane and Deannie Gilberts' Shoe Store now-vacant building to the right.

Next we drove out to Lenapah (north of Nowata several miles) and then to the nearby cemetery (Mt. Washington) where Jerry Brown was buried in 2009 and where Shoat Webster's grave still showed its fresh turned dirt from only about a month ago. [To my cousin, Cinita Davis Brown, it was a nostalgic wind-swept Oklahoma-sized hill where one could see for miles]. In the distance to the east lay Lenapah; to the north not far away is the Shoat Webster place where his widow still lives. In between is the ruins of the old Lenapah rodeo grounds that once provided a reason for Lenapah to be on the map.

Beth & Jim at the grave of their brother, Jerry

By this time, our collective minds were largely on Jerry Brown, his children and grandchildren Later that evening, we all gathered at the Train Depot Cafe in Nowata where Jerry's daughter, Suzy, and two of his grandchildren, Jessie & Tate. Jessie will be a senior at Nowata High School this coming year and is thinking about college. Suzy commutes to suburban Tulsa for a medical services job.

L-R: Beth's life-long friend, Jan, Beth, Jim, then Jerry's daughter Suzy and two of her three children, Tate (in front) and Jessie (by her side). Lindsey, unfortunately, could not be with us that evening.

Epilogue: "Doc" Brown (of Jesse) and Deannie Brown Gilbert (of Isaac)

You don't have to talk to too many people over in Nowata County before you find someone who knew of or bought a used car from my Dad's brother, Doc Brown. Likewise, lots of people bought shoes from the Gilberts there in Nowata. Here's picture of "Uncle Doc" and his son, Phil that might bring back a memory or two: