Mrs. Louisa Brown Passes 93rd Birthday

Mrs. Louisa Brown, one of Madison’s oldest residents, passed her 93rd birthday anniversary last Wednesday. On Sunday, twenty-one members of her family were present for a basket dinner in her honor at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Minnie Creasman. An immense birthday cake was brought by her daughter, Mrs. W.F. Thompson of Carthage, Ill., Mrs. Brown cutting and serving it to each. Mrs. Brown was born Sept. 26, 1852 near Ash, and has continuously made her home within a few miles of her birthplace. She is the mother of 11 children, six of whom are living, George Brown, P. R. Brown of Centralia, Mrs. W.F. Thompson of Carthage, Ill., Mrs. Clarence Garnett of Paris, Mrs. Eleanor Thompson and Mrs. Creasman, all of whom were with her Sunday. She also has 27 grandchildren; 23 great-grandchildren, and four great-great-grandchildren.

Besides her children, others present Sunday were Mrs. George Brown, Mr. and Mrs. Archie Stauterman and daughter, Marion, and Mrs. P.R. Brown and daughter, Mary, of Centralia. Elmer Thompson, Mr. and Mrs. Merit Van Buren, Mr. and Mrs. Harry Creasman and son Donald, Mrs. Billie Bradley and daughter, Linda, of Madison.

Mrs. Brown has lived through four wars, and during World War II ten of her grandsons and great-grandsons have served in the armed forces. One of these grandsons, Jack Brown, gave his life for his country in August 1944. Other grandsons who have taken part in this war are: Paul Reed Brown, with the air corps; Ray Brown, air corps; Cleo Garnet, with the tank corps of the Seventh Army; Verne Creasman, serving in Europe as an engineer with the air corps, now en route home; John William Brown, served as a dentist with the U.S. Navy in the southwest Pacific; great-grandsons are Billy Creasman, with the infantry in Europe; Franklin Creasman, in the Philippines; Bobby Creasman, merchant marine, and Jackie McGee, with Naval Air Corps at Norman, Okla. 

Mrs. Brown has seen the days of the oxen drawn wagon to the time of cars, airplanes and radios. At the age of ten she assumed the care of two sisters and two brothers at the death of their mother. During the Civil War her father took his family to Illinois out of the way of the war in Missouri, crossing the Mississippi River en route to Illinois on a ferry boat.

Mrs. Brown took her first bus ride today, when she accompanied her daughter, Mrs. W.F. Thompson, to Carthage, Ill., for a visit. She has never seen a movie although her great-grandson, Jackie McGee, has been in a number of movies in Hollywood before entering the Navy on his 18th birthday a short time ago. Mrs. Brown has smoked her corncob pipe the past thirty years, but doesn’t approve of cigarette smoking for girls of the present generation.

Source: Undated article from an unknown newspaper; submitted by Don Duvall.