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David Brown
was born on April 17, 1781 in Attleboro, the son of David and Chloe S.
(Carpenter) Brown. He married Patience Rogers, the daughter
of Joseph Rogers of Newport, at Middletown, in April 1809.
They eventually had six children. David came from a farming background
in Attleboro. He left home at the age of 14 with very little
education to become a tavern boy in Seekonk. He stayed there
only one or two years, when he left to join Nehemiah Dodge in Providence
as an apprentice in the jewelry trade. After serving a full
apprenticeship, he joined Payton Dana under whom he mastered watch and
clock making. About 1802, he was hired by Obed Robinson to
organize and run a plated jewelry company in Attleboro. By
1804, he had moved to Warren, where he became established in the manufacturing
of clocks, watches, jewelry and silverware. Business becoming
very slack about 1825, he traveled through the Connecticut Valley
grinding razors and fine cutlery on a machine he wheeled before him. While
thus employed, he also sold silverware of his own making. In three
years he had cleared himself of all debt and had saved some money as well.
In 1828, he moved to Pawtucket and established
himself making clocks of various descriptions. It was said that David Brown
installed a tower clock in Pawtucket, and although the exact location
of this clock is not known, the tower clock in the original Congregational
Church seems the most likely. In The Pawtucket Chronicle of
Oct. 18, 1828, it was stated that "We are highly gratified to learn
that our citizens are about to purchase a time-piece the expense of which
will be $500, and that subscriptions are now solicited of the inhabitants
to defray the expense .... A time-piece which can be depended upon as a
regulator, located in so central and public a situation as the tower of
the new Congregational Church, will be of great utility in this village.
All are aware of the vexatious confusion occasioned by the difference of
time in the ringing of factory bells at this time, which can only be remedied
by erecting a clock that will always give the right time of day."
This original clock was lost in the great church fire of 1865; thus the
one we see today is of much newer origin. This was the only tower clock
in Pawtucket at the time and David Brown was making clocks in Pawtucket
during this period. Both facts give strong indication that this clock was
of his making. The importance to the village or town in the 1820's or 1830's
of such a centrally located and visible time piece cannot be overstated.
David's son, Joseph Rodgers Brown, born Jan.
26, 1810, soon joined him in business for a time, but then learned the
machinery trade in the shops of Walcott & Harris in Pawtucket. In 1831,
we find Joseph setting up a little shop of his own for the manufacturing
of small tools for machinists and for the building of lathes. Mutual interest
proved such that the father and son set up a partnership under the name
of David Brown & Son on South Main Street in Providence. The
partnership of father and son dissolved in 1841 at the time of the Dorr
War or Rebellion, Rhode Island's own internal civil war. David went west
in disgust over this turn of events and settled on a half of a quarter
section of farm land in Arispa, Bureau County, IL with his son Peleg and
his daughter-in-law, Amanda V. Brown.
On Sept. 12, 1848, Joseph R. Brown took on
an apprentice. In Joseph's old job book, an item of momentous
importance was sandwiched in, stating, "Lucian Sharpe came to work for
me today as an apprentice. " On March 1, 1853, before the expiration
of his contract with Joseph Brown, he was made a full partner in the enterprise
newly created under the name of J. R. Brown & Sharpe. Also
in 1853, this newly formed partnership built for the State of Rhode Island
a turret clock which was installed in the state house at Newport, RI.
In 1856, David returned to Pawtucket where
he built a residence for his daughter Sarah Ann and her husband Daniel
Wilkinson at the then 67 High St. David and his wife also lived in
this house with the Wilkinsons. In the rear of the house, David Brown
built a shop in which he worked until his death in 1868 at the age of 87.
The house stayed in the Brown family for three generations, finally being
sold. This Brown house is still in existence today at 212 High St. in Pawtucket.
During his life in Pawtucket, David Brown,
farm boy from Attleboro, prospered from watch and clockmaker of note to
lay the foundation (with his son Joseph in 1833) of the great Brown &
Sharpe Manufacturing Co. then known as David Brown & Son. During
his later life in Pawtucket, he again struck out on his own to resume his
earlier trade as a watch and clock maker. He practiced this semi-retirement
activity at his residence on High until his life's end. |
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