Joseph Taliaferro Brown was born in Mississippi on January 26, 1849. After briefly serving in the Confederate Army near the end of the Civil War, he moved to Texas where he worked for the railroads. In 1886 Brown formed a partnership with an Oklahoma rancher, John Wyeth, and drove a herd of cattle to Birney (Rosebud County) Montana where he established a cattle ranch along the Tongue River. Eventually his two sons, Albert Gallatin Brown (1885-1949) and Joseph Taliaferro Brown II (1888-1971), joined him in operating the ranch. Over the years the Brown operation partnered with several other Montana cattle producers including George W. Brewster. Joseph Taliaferro Brown died on October 26, 1908.
From the guide to the Joseph T. Brown Papers, 1887-1917, (Montana State University-Bozeman Library, Merrill G Burlingame Special Collections)
