EDWIN HACKER BROWN was born in Worcester, Massachusetts on July 29, 1875, the son of Edwin and Marianna Miffin Earle Brown. He received his education in the Worcester public schools (1880-1887), Charles E. Fish's School for Boys (1887-1891), Harvard University (1892-1896), and the Worcester Polytechnic Institute (1896-1898). From the latter he received a degree in mechanical engineering. During September through December, 1898 he taught in the Worcester English High School physics department. Over the next thirteen years he was associated with a number of mining and construction companies, including the Pioneer Mining Company of Alaska (1899), the Cape Nome Hydraulic Mining Company as a director and assistant general manager at its Alaska claim sites (1900-1902), and the Perfect Combustion Company of America, Inc. (also known as the American Kiln and Construction Company), which he served as engineer and European manager in Madrid, Spain (Sept.-Dec. 1903) and as an engineer on the United States east coast and in Minneapolis (1904). In Minneapolis he was also affiliated with Winston, Harper, Fisher, and Company in an attempt to construct a peat processing plant. From May through October (1905) he was again in Alaska, employed as engineer for the Cedric Ditch Company near Nome. He then returned to Minneapolis and was associated with the Minneapolis Steel and Machinery Company. In 1911 he joined his brother-in-law, Edwin H. Hewitt, to form Hewitt and Brown, Architects and Engineers, a position he held until his death.
Brown also traveled extensively during his early years, not only making several trips to Alaska but also visiting Europe (February-May 1899) and traveling around the world (October 1902-April 1903).
During World War I he took a leave of absence from Hewitt and Brown to serve in the American Red Cross as field director for the thirty-fourth division, based at Camp Cody, Deming, New Mexico (Sept. 1, 1917-July 5, 1918) and then as associate director and director of the Bureau of Camp Service in Washington, D.C., and chief liaison officer with the United States War Department (Aug. 1918-April 1919).
Brown was very active in both his profession and his community, serving as the national secretary (1923-1926) and a fellow (1927-1930) of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), as founder and president of the Architects' Small House Service Bureau, Inc. (1920-1930), and as a member and/or officer of the United States Department of Commerce's Building Code Committee (1921-1930), President's Conference on Unemployment (1921), American Society of Mechanical Engineers, American Society for Testing Materials, Association of Harvard Engineers, Engineers Club of Minneapolis, Minnesota State Federation of Architectural and Engineering Societies, Minneapolis Chapter of the AIA, and the Minneapolis Red Cross chapter.
He married SUSAN W. CHRISTIAN (ca.1879- ), daughter of John Augustus and Mary Ellen Hall Christian, on June 1, 1912 in Minneapolis. They adopted twin boys in 1916, Lucian Hall (1915- ) and Winthrop Lane (1915- ). Brown died of pneumonia on April 21, 1930.
HALL FAMILY. Nathaniel (1805-1888) and HEPZIBAH SEAVEY (1814-1893) HALL settled near Dayton, Minnesota sometime prior to 1860. They had four children: CAROLINE ARABELLA (1838-1918), ALBERT R. (1941-1905), Emma (ca.1842- ), and MARY ELLEN (1851-1881).
CAROLINE ("CARRIE") ARABELLA, the first child of Nathanial and Hepzibah Hall, was born in Boston in 1838. In April 1866 she first spoke to her uncle, Oliver H. Kelley, about his plans for a new agrarian organization, the Patrons of Husbandry (Grange). Upon the group's 1867 organization, Carrie became Kelley's secretary, moving with the Kelley family to Minnesota, Washington, D.C., Louisville (Ky.), and Florida. She held the position of lady assistant steward of the Grange for approximately six years, beginning in 1873. In 1881 she returned to Minneapolis to care for the children of her deceased sister MARY. She later moved to Knapp, Wisconsin to care for her brother ALBERT. Following his death she divided her time between Minneapolis and California until her own death on December 12, 1918.
The second child of Nathanial and Hepzibah Hall, ALBERT R., was born in 1841 in Windsor, Vermont. He served with the second and eleventh regiments of Minnesota Infantry during the Civil War (1861-1865), was involved in real estate and flour milling in Minnesota following the war, and was a member of the Minnesota legislature (1869-1874, 1877), serving as speaker of the house from 1872 through 1874. He moved to Knapp, Wisconsin in 1880 and served from 1890 through 1902 in the Wisconsin legislature, where he was considered a pioneer in reform legislation. He died on June 2, 1905.
CHRISTIAN FAMILY. MARY ELLEN HALL, fourth child of Nathaniel and Hepzibah Hall, was born in 1851. She attended the St. Paul Female Seminary (St. Paul) and St. Mary's Hall (Faribault, Minn.) prior to her June 24, 1874 marriage to JOHN AUGUSTUS ("GUS") CHRISTIAN. CHRISTIAN, born in 1832, was one of several brothers highly influential in developing the Minneapolis flour milling industry. The couple had four children: CAROLINE MARY (1875- ), ANNA (1876- ), SUSAN W. (ca. 1879- ), and John Augustus, Jr. (ca.1880-1892). MARY HALL CHRISTIAN died in 1881 and JOHN AUGUSTUS CHRISTIAN in 1896. The children were first placed under the care of their aunt, CAROLINE ARABELLA HALL, and then their uncle, George H. Christian.
CAROLINE ("CARRIE") MARY CHRISTIAN, the first child of Mary and John A. Christian, was born on January 31, 1875 and originally called May Virginia. Along with her sister ANNA, she attended the Misses Ely's School in Brooklyn, New York during 1889-1890. She married EDWIN HAWLEY HEWITT, son of Charles Nathaniel and Helen Robinson Hawley Hewitt of Red Wing, Minnesota, on April 18, 1900. Hewitt later became the partner of her brother-in-law, EDWIN HACKER BROWN, in the Minneapolis firm of Hewitt and Brown, Architects and Engineers. The couple had two children--Charles Christian (1901- ) and Helen (1904-1911)-- and later adopted three others: John Edwin, Mary, and Elizabeth ("Betty"). Mary and John A. Christian's second child, ANNA, was born on October 21, 1876. She also attended the Misses Ely's School (1889-1890), later pursued a career in photography, and, in 1918, married Sam Auchincloss in New York.
Biographical data was taken from the collection, the 1870 and 1880 United States Censuses, and Who Was Who in America, Vol. I, 1897-1942 (Chicago: Marquis-Who's Who, Inc., 1968), p. 147. For further biographical information about Brown, see Brown, Edwin Hacker, Department of Commerce Building Code Committee Papers and Brown, Edward Josiah, Genealogical Data on William Brown and Related Families, both in the Minnesota Historical Society manuscript collections.
From the guide to the Edwin H. Brown and family papers., 1866-1960., (Minnesota Historical Society)
