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JOHN MACKIE BROWN, late Mayor of Stamford, Conn., was
born November 7, 1856, in New
York City, the second son of John Brown and Eliza R. Greig. He died in
Stamford, of pneumonia, December 10, 1915. His parents came to New York in
1856, where his father was a builder. In 1857, they removed to Stamford.
In 1873, Mr. Browr accompanied his parents to Haddington, Scotland, and
there learned the trade of plumber.
During his residence abroad he
gained several medals and diplomas for models and inventions at
International Expositions in London, Edinburgh and Glasgow. In 1889, after
the death of his parents, Mr. Brown returned to Stamford, where through
industry and ability be built up a successful contracting and plumbing
business. He possessed a genial, conscientious and forceful personality
and was honoured and respected by all who knew him.
Mr. Brown was elected Mayor of
Stamford, November 3, 1914, by a phenomenal majority and began his term
January 6, 1915. His vigorous and straightforward administration of
his office oniy added to the wide
circle of friends and supporters.
In many ways he left an impress upon
the life of Stamford. At the first annual celebration of "Settler’s Day,"
May 16, 1914, he presented a flag specially designed for the city by a
committee, of the Stamford Historical Society, of which he was Chairman.
The ideas both for the institution of the festival and for part of the
design of the flag were Mr. Brown ‘s. His funeral was one of the most
largely attended in the history of Stamford; such eulogy by press, pulpit
and private citizens has seldom been expressed for any public man. On May
7, 1916, an imposing tablet of marble and bronze was unveiled to his
memory in the Town Hall.
He was one of the organizers and
served many terms as President of the Stamford Scottish Society, and
represented the Society at the Burns Centenary in Dumfries, 1896. He was a
Past Noble Grand of Tyneside Lodge, I. O. O. F., Haddington, a member of
Rippowam Lodge, Stamford, of the Rittenhouse Chapter, F. & A. M., a Past
Regent of the Royal Arcanum, and one of its Deputy Grand Regents for
Connecticut. He was a vestryman of St. John’s Protestant Episcopal Church,
a Sunday-School teacher for twentyfive years, and a director of the Y. M.
C. A.
He is survived by two sisters, Mrs.
Jane H. Ross (and family), of Haddington, Scotland, and Mrs. Mary H. Reid,
of Stamford; two brothers, Robert G. Brown and Thomas G. Brown, and a
niece, Georgina S. Brown, also of Stamford. |
