click here to view the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History entry for Fayette Brown
Harvey Huntington Brown (1848-1923) was a Cleveland, Ohio manufacturer, financier, and shipper. He was bron to Fayette and Cornelia Brown in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania in 1848. Harvey received his education in Cleveland public schools and during the Civil War attended school at North Bloomfield, his ancestral home. In February of 1880, he married Elizabeth Freeman and eventually raised three daughters and two sons before his death in 1923.
As the son of Fayette Brown, a financier and industrialist, Harvey Brown soon made his mark in the Cleveland business community. In 1865, Harvey Brown began his career in the lake iron ore business and in lake transportation. The Harvey Huntington Brown and Company which became part of the U. S. Steel Corporation in 1901, supplied iron ore to the Lake Superior Iron Company and the Champion Iron Company, two of the largest concerns of the Lake Superior region. In 1890, Harvey Brown bought control of the Stewart Iron Company, Ltd. and eventually served as its president. In 1911, Brown also became president of the Brown Hoisting and Conveying Machine Company. Aside from his investments in numerous iron and steel companies, he also owned stock in the American Ship Building Company, the Cleveland Electric Railway Company, and the Manhattan Railway Company, and was president of the Brown Steamship Company. He was also a director of the United Trust and Guardian Savings and Trust Company.
Brown's business activities led to his involvement in both local and national politics. He was especially active in the American Protective Tariff League and in petitioning for the repeal or modification of the Rawling's Law, which imposed a tax upon capital, labor employment, and manufacturing in Ohio.
During his leisure hours. Harvey Brown participated in recreational and social activities, and particularly enjoyed the sports of shooting, fishing, and golf. He was a member of and served on committees of many clubs, including The Tuxedo Club, Union of the Titans, the Castalia Club, the Point Mouilee Shooting Club, and the Chicago Club. In 1904 Brown became an honorary member of the International Bibliophile Society. As a philanthropist, Brown contributed to a number of civic and religious institutions, including the United States of Freedom, the Cleveland Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA), and St. John's Hospital.
From the guide to the Harvey Huntington Brown Papers, 1840-1910, 1879-1904, (Western Reserve Historical Society)
