Brown, Joseph E. (Joseph Emerson), 1821-1894

Joseph Emerson Brown (1821-1894), governor of Georgia and U.S. senator.

U.S. senator and governor of Georgia.

Governor of Georgia and U.S. Senator.

Governor of Georgia, 1857-1865. As governor, also served as president of the state owned Western and Atlantic Railroad Co.

Joseph Emerson Brown, lawyer, Georgia governor, and United States Senator, was born 15 April 1821, in Long Creek, Pendleton District, South Carolina, and died 30 November 1894, in Atlanta, Georgia. Brown was admitted to the Georgia bar (1845); attended Yale Law School (1845-1846); married Elizabeth Grisham (1847); was elected to the Georgia senate (1849); became governor of Georgia (1857-1865); was chief justice of the Georgia Supreme Court (1868); and became a U.S. Senator (1880-1891). He was involved in many business ventures, including real estate, mining and railroads.

Joseph E. Brown was born in 1821. He served in many political positions in Georgia including Governor during the Civil War.

Joseph Emerson Brown (1821-1894) was the governor of Georgia between 1857 and 1865 and a United States senator from 1880 to 1891.

Joseph E. Brown was the Civil War governor of Georgia, one of the most successful politicians in the state's history, and the father of two-term governor Joseph M. Brown. Born in South Carolina on April 15, 1821, and raised in the mountains of north Georgia, Joseph Emerson Brown capped off a solid middle-class education in private academies with a year at Yale Law School in New Haven, Connecticut (1845-46). Very able and ambitious, Brown quickly prospered as a lawyer and businessman. Soon after his election to the Georgia state senate in 1849 he emerged as a leader of the Democratic Party, and his influence continued after he was elected a state circuit judge in 1855. In 1857 Brown edged aside better-known politicians to become the Democrats' gubernatorial candidate. He won decisively, beginning a two-year term in November. From then on, he was unbeatable in statewide elections. New Georgia Encyclopedia. http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-637&sug=y (Retrieved 1/30/2009)

Joseph Emerson Brown (1821-1894) was a lawyer, Georgia Governor (1857-1865), and U. S. Senator (1880-1890).

Governor of Georgia, 1857-1865.

Joseph Emerson Brown (1821-1894) was born on April 15, 1821 in Pickens County, South Carolina to Mackey Brown and Sally Rice. In 1844, he opened an academy in Canton, Georgia and began reading law. He attended law school at Yale for one year, where he earned his degree in 1846. Afterwards, he returned to Canton to practice law and married Elizabeth Gresham (1826-1896) in 1847. They had eight children: Julius; Mary; Joseph; Elijah; George; Sallie; Franklin; and Charles. Joseph Brown served as a Georgia State Senator from 1849-1850, as a Superior Court Judge from 1855-1857; as Governor of Georgia for four terms from 1857-1865, and as Chief Justice of the Georgia Supreme Court from 1868-1870. After a life of public service, he was President of the Western & Atlantic Railway from 1870-1891. In addition, he was the first president of the Atlanta Board of Education from 1869 until 1889 and was a Trustee of the University of Georgia from 1857 -1889. He died on November 30, 1894 and was buried in Atlanta's Oakland Cemetery.

Joseph Emerson Brown (1821-1894), lawyer, Georgia Governor (1857-1865), son of Mackey and Sally Rice Brown, married Elizabeth Grisham, daughter of Joseph and Mary L. Grisham. Parents of Julius L. Brown, Mary Virginia Brown, Joseph M. Brown, Franklin P. Brown, Elijah A. Brown, Charles M. Brown, Sally Eugenia Brown, and George M. Brown.

Brown was a Georgia lawyer and Democratic politician. He served as governor (1857-1865) and as U. S. Senator from Georgia (1880-1891).

Governor of and U.S. Senator from Georgia; resident of Canton (Cherokee County), Ga.

Joseph Emerson Brown was born in Pickens County, South Carolina, on 15 April 1821. He and his family moved to Union County, Georgia, when he was young. He left the farm in 1840 seeking an education. Trading a team of oxen for eight months of room and board, he attended an academy near Anderson, South Carolina. He moved to Canton, Georgia, in 1844, and served as the headmaster of the academy there. He went on to study law, and in 1847, opened a law office in Canton. He was elected to the Georgia state senate in 1849, and soon became a leader in the state Democratic Party. He was elected the state circuit court judge in 1855 and governor in 1857.

As governor, he diverted state railroad profits to Georgia's public schools, supported the expansion of women's rights, and was a strong supporter of secession after Lincoln's election and South Carolina's secession in 1860. However, once the Confederate States of America was established, Brown spoke out against expansion of the powers of the Confederate central government, and denounced Jefferson Davis in particular. He even tried to stop Colonel Francis Bartow from taking Georgia troops of of the state to the First Battle of Bull Run. After the destruction of Atlanta, Brown withdrew the state's militia from the Confederate force to harvest crops for the state and the army. When General U.S. Sherman overran much of Georgia in his "March to the Sea" in 1864, Brown called for an end to the war.

After the war, Brown was held for a short time as a political prisoner in Washington, DC. He was chief justice of Georgia's Supreme Court from 1865 to 1870, when he resigned to become president of the Western and Atlantic Railroad. He supported President Andrew Johnsons Reconstruction policy, to the point of becoming a Republican "scalawag" for a short time. After Reconstruction, he became returned to his Democratic roots again and was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1880 by the state legislature, according to the laws of the time. Soon after his election to the Senate, Brown became the first Georgia official to support public education for all children - not a popular position at the time. He was re-elected in 1885, but retired in 1891 due to poor health. He died on 30 November 1894, in Atlanta, Georgia.