Senator John Brown

John Brown was one of Kentucky's great early statesmen and can arguably be called Kentucky's Founding Father.  John Brown was a man respected by presidents and common folk alike, who had a successful and honorable career despite difficult times. John Brown was not immune to controversy but his honesty and integrity helped keep him from being embroiled in it.

John Brown was born in Augusta County, Virginia, on September 12, 1757. John Brown was the son of Reverend John Brown and Margaret Preston Brown, immigrants from Ireland. The son of a Presbyterian minister and schoolmaster, John was well educated, first at his father's Liberty Hall Academy, and then at the College of New Jersey (now Princeton).  His studies at Princeton were halted, temporarily, as a result of the approach of English troops during the Revolutionary War.

John Brown's role during the Revolutionary War is unclear. The family belief was that Brown served under General Washington and the Marquis de Lafayette in the Continental Army, however no documentation has been located to prove this theory. Two years after he left the College of New Jersey (1778), John Brown enrolled at William and Mary where he studied law. Again, in the fall of 1780, his studies were interrupted by the War and the arrival of the British forces. Brown then continued to study law in the office of Thomas Jefferson near Charlottesville, Virginia.

Upon completion of his studies with Jefferson, John Brown established his own law office in Danville, Kentucky. Shortly thereafter, John Brown joined an organization called the Political Club. This organization was concerned with the elevation of Kentucky to statehood and spent much of its time working to create a framework for a new state. Through this club, John Brown began his political career. John brown's first step on the political ladder was in the Virginia State Senate, where he served from 1783-1788. In 1787, John Brown was nominated by his peers to represent the county of Kentucky in the state of Virginia at the Continental Congress, a post he held for one year. In 1788, under the new Constitution, John Brown was elected to the United States House of Representatives. John Brown served as a Representative for four years during which time he presented to Congress a petition to separate the county of Kentucky from the state of Virginia. In June 1792 Kentucky became the 15th state, and John became Kentucky's first US Senator. He served in the U.S. Senate until 1805, twice holding the position of President Pro Tempore.

During this period of professional growth, John Brown experienced a great deal of personal changes. In 1799, John Brown wed Margaretta Mason of New York City.  John and Margaretta had five children: Mason (1799-1867), Orlando (1801-1867), Alfred (1803-1804), Alfred (1804-1804), and Euphemia (1807-1814). In 1801 the family moved into Liberty Hall, the home John Brown had constructed in Frankfort.

In 1805, John Brown was defeated for reelection to the Senate and retired to Liberty Hall. John Brown remained active in a number of public matters for the remaining thirty years of his life. In 1800, he purchased a ferry that crossed the Kentucky River in Frankfort. John Brown also managed hundreds of acres of property in central Kentucky and 20,000 acres near Chillicothe, Ohio. He was a founding member of the Frankfort Water Company and director of the first Bank of Kentucky. In the 1812 John Brown was appointed by the legislature to oversee the construction of a public house of worship on the public square of Frankfort. In 1829 John Brown became the Sheriff of Franklin County. John Brown served on the board that oversaw the brick Capitol building and the limestone one that replaced it and is now known as the Old Capitol. In 1836, John Brown presided over the organizational meeting of the Kentucky Historical Society.

John Brown led a very long life for the times; he died in Lexington on August 29, 1837, at the age of 79.  John Brown's body was shipped home to Frankfort and buried in the family plot in the cemetery at Benson Creek Presbyterian Church. John Brown remained interred there until 1847 when his sons moved the family plot to the new Frankfort Cemetery they helped develop. John Brown and his family are buried on a hillside overlooking Frankfort about 50 yards from Daniel Boone.