When an 1870 survey crew visited early Ft. Lauderdale, they discovered only two settler families living at New River. The intrepid Isaiah Hall was the topic of our previous story. But what was the backstory of the second family, that of “Pig Brown”? Ah, that’s another fun tale!
Patriarch John Joseph Brown was about 48 years old when the surveyors stopped at New River. To his neighbors, he was known as “Pig” Brown, since his family raised pigs. The Brown clan was a sizeable one, including John’s wife, their two adult sons, two older daughters, plus a younger son and daughter.
Raising pigs, it seems, was only a small part of Brown’s occupation. According to the surveyors, he actually “seemed to make his living” in a far more exciting way: “by wreck and beach-combing.” As part of that business, he owned “a little schooner,” manned by his two adult sons, to ferry salvaged goods to Key West for sale or trade.
But how did Brown arrive at this remote Florida spot in the first place? The record on that isn’t entirely clear. Most sources say he was born in 1822, though exactly where is the subject of debate; some say Virginia, others suggest New York. Brown had married the former Lavinia Jones Bridger about 1844 in Chatham, Georgia, and together they had at least six children. Son William had made his debut in 1847, followed by another child every two years throughout the next decade – all of them born in Georgia, with the youngest arriving in 1857.
Brown seems to have been a man of many skills. An 1850 Census for Sumter County, Georgia had listed his occupation as “blacksmith.” A decade later, the Brown family showed up in Volusia County, Florida, with Brown’s occupation noted as “journeyman carpenter.”
During Civil War, it’s likely that Brown (like his later New River neighbor, Isaiah Hall) was a Union man. But with a name like “John Brown,” it’s hard to confirm whether he actually saw military service. It’s possible (though by no means certain) he was the same “John J. Brown” who in November, 1864 enlisted as a private in “Brady’s Company of Florida Cavalry” (a regiment in northern Florida). On the other hand, a great-grandson would later suggest John Brown had helped to build boats in New York for the Union during the Civil War.
By the time of the 1870 Census, the Brown family had relocated to what was then Dade County, Florida – later Broward County. It wouldn’t have been an easy journey for them to get there. Mangrove swamps and dense pine forests hindered overland travel, and railroads hadn’t yet reached that far south. So most likely they’d arrived by boat.
As the surveyors who visited later that same year observed, the Browns had established a modest farm, perched on the barrier island at New River Sound – today’s Ft. Lauderdale Beach. Their six children were all still with them, ages 13 to 23.
The life of a “wrecker” could sometimes be profitable indeed. From time to time, coins, bullion, and other shipwrecked treasures would wash ashore. According to a story later shared by Miami pioneer Ralph Munroe, “old man Brown” once recovered two large metal ingots on the beach, which he sold for their lead value in Key West – only to discover afterwards what he’d sold was Spanish silver!
In 1872, John Brown ran for the state assembly to represent sparsely-settled Dade County. Only 30 voters were registered in the district, but the race was hotly contested. Brown’s opponent was a man named William H. Gleason. An established politician with powerful friends and extensive landholdings, Gleason was not always well-liked; some considered him a carpetbagger. Although Brown initially won, with 16 votes to Gleason’s 14, Gleason successfully challenged three of Brown’s votes as improper. That left Gleason the final winner by a single vote.
Gleason had at least one not-so-small, well, problem while in office. In 1876, for example, certification of the state-wide Florida presidential results was delayed after Gleason left town on a hunting expedition and forgot to mail off Dade County’s final voter tally.
Brown threw his hat in the political ring again in the fall of 1876, and this time defeated Gleason. Brown moved with his family to Tallahassee, assuming office February 1, 1877. But once his two-year term expired in early 1879, Brown didn’t move back to his farm at New River. His surprising “disappearance” morphed into something of a local legend. In fact, however, what had become of him wasn’t really that much of a mystery.
Sometime about 1881, John Brown simply moved west with his family to Chokoloskee, near Everglades City. There, he established a home on one one of the shell mounds, where he fished, farmed, and built boats. As late as 1897, the Browns were still there, one of just six families in the remote settlement. Three of Brown’s sons filed homesteads nearby, and son John Jr. became locally known as a boat-builder.
John Brown died in 1914, at about age 92, at Chokoloskee Island, Florida. He is buried in the Brown Cemetery at Everglades City at the mouth of the Barron River. His descendants continued to live in the area for generations – as farmers, beachcombers, and (reportedly) rum-runners during Prohibition.
As for early Ft. Lauderdale, where both John Brown and Isaiah Hall were living when those surveyors stopped by in 1870 – Frank Stranahan would launch a ferry and “camp for travelers” there nearly a quarter-century later (1893), erecting what has (perhaps inaccurately) been called the first “permanent” house in 1901. Just a few short years later, in 1896, the FEC railroad arrived. And in 1911, Ft. Lauderdale incorporated, with a bustling population of 150 souls.