By By The Friends of Silverbrook Cemetery
As a young man of 21, he moved to Niles from Liberty in Union County, Ind., where he was born Aug. 29, 1820. Here he learned to be a carpenter under apprenticeship to William Deniston.
However, when a group was formed in Niles to enlist in the Black Hawk War, Jacob Kingery Brown was the first to enlist. This was the same war that saw a young Abraham Lincoln of New Salem, Ill. serve three enlistments. Each enrollment lasted for approximately 30 days.
The website http://www.u-s-history.com reports on the reason behind the Black Hawk War: "By the 1830s the process of removing Indian tribes from lands in the eastern United States to accommodate white settlers had been embraced by President Andrew Jackson, many in Congress and the bulk of the population at large. Few were apologetic, believing that the tribes and their homes were obstacles to the spread of a superior civilization."
The Black Hawk War was so named after Black Hawk (1767-1838), a war leader of the Sauk and Fox, who was an outspoken critic of relocation and had a history of being a thorn in the side of the U.S. government. He had fought with the British in the War of 1812 and maintained relations with officials in Canada in later years.
For his service in the war, Brown and other members of the company each received as bounty, land warrants for 160 acres.
According to http://www.genealogy.com/24_land.html : "A land bounty is a grant of land from a government as a reward to repay citizens for the risks and hardships they endured in the service of their country, usually in a military related capacity.
"By the time of the Revolutionary War, the practice of awarding bounty land as an inducement for enlisting in the military forces had been a long-standing practice in the British Empire in North America. Besides imperial bounty land grants, both colonial and municipal governments had routinely compensated participants in and victims of military conflicts with land. Land was a commodity in generous supply, and governments seized upon its availability for accomplishing their goals."
On Feb. 15, 1835, Brown married Sarah Jane Stith of Lexington, Ky. A year earlier, he had built his first house on the east side of Fourth Street just south of Main. This house he sold to Henry B Hoffman as a schoolhouse for Miss Susan Kennedy who later became the wife of Elijah Lacey and the mother of William K Lacey.
Brown then purchased a lot south of the first house to build a residence for himself, which he later sold to Vincent L. Bradford a Philadelphia lawyer. That building became the offices of the Chamber of Commerce of Greater Niles.
In 1837, Brown purchased two lots on what became known as the United States Post Office Corner, building a house eventually sold to John B. Reddick, who came from Germany in 1831 and operated a clothing business in Niles. The building was later occupied by Granville Lacey.
Brown invested in land in Summervile and went to California in 1852 where he ran a sawmill. His obituary from Oct. 16 1890 credits him with the construction of "21 schools, a dozen mills and 50 stores, dwelling houses and other buildings during his residency in Niles."
This busy man evidently still had time to serve the community he was so active in building. Brown was one of the trustees of Niles, the village, chosen at the first village election in 1838. However, it will continue to be his hands-on construction activity that is his legacy.
Another report says: "One man and one man alone is responsible for most of the fine early homes of Niles. He was Jacob Kingery Brown, the great-grandfather of Mrs. John Babbitt, 3116 N. Fifth St. and Mrs. Dwight Benson, 1915 N. 5th St. He built the houses himself, moving into them when they were about three-quarters completed and selling them shortly after they were finished."
We can be forgiven to wonder how Mrs. Brown enjoyed the constant moving about and yet have to wistfully contemplate how often current home owners wish their builders had seen the need to actually occupy their constructions prior to selling them to another.
After returning to Niles from California, Brown constructed a home, again originally for himself on the west side of the river near the Main Street Bridge – he had been given the contract to build a wooden bridge across the St. Joseph River and paid $1,800 – and this home was eventually sold to William Beeson and became known as the Beeson home.
This is where Doctors Garrett, Fattic and Peshka operated their offices from for many years before tearing down the home to build a new clinic.
In 1860, Brown built six stores including those occupied by the Niles Daily Mirror, Larimore Drug Store, the Wm. B. Beeson store, and those occupied by G. A. Colby and E. S. Badger. The latter was eventually the business of druggists Colby and Griffin.
In 1867 Brown was given a contract by Henry Pike to construct the three story Pike Hotel.
"The Niles Hotel Corporation was formed in 1921 with the purpose of selling stock to raise $350,000 to build a hotel. On Oct. 17, 1921, the Corporation announced the construction of a new hotel, to be called the Fort Miami Hotel, would start in two weeks, but the project never materialized. Four years later, the Corporation recapitalized and broke ground for the new building on July 24, 1925 on the site of the Old Pike Hotel. Designed after plans by Charles W. Nichol of Chicago, the brick and limestone hotel building (Niles Four Flags Hotel) opened for general patronage on May 14, 1926. It has remained Niles' premier hostelry since that date."
This information can be found at: www.mcgi.state.mi.us/hso/sites/3027.htm.
So take a careful look around on your next stroll through Niles. The handiwork of Jacob K. Brown is everywhere.
For more information on Friends of Silverbrook to help restore and catalog the monuments contact: Friends of Silverbrook Cemetery c/o 508 E. Main St. Niles MI 49120, Tim and Candace Skalla at 684-2455, wskalla@sbcglobal.net or contact Ginny Tyler at 445-0997, SPHINX1974@aol.com.