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Biography For Neal Brown

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Author:
Bill Hart

Background:

Neal Brown was born in Fort Atkinson, WI on February 24, 1856.  His father, Thurlow Weed Brown, came from Auburn, NY, published a temperance newspaper in Fort Atkinson, and was one of the original advocates of prohibition in Wisconsin.  Neal attended the law school of the University of Wisconsin in Madison, graduated in 1880, and immediately began a law career in Wausau. 

Accomplishments:

Neal Brown practiced alone until 1885 when he joined the newly-formed Wausau Law and Land Association as head of the law department.  In addition to building a reputation as an astute and successful attorney, Brown began an early involvement in politics.  In 1891 he was elected to the state assembly and to the state senate in 1893 and 1895.  He twice ran unsuccessfully for the United States Senate as a Democrat.

 

Neal Brown’s greatest contribution to Wausau’s growth was his organizational involvement in significant industries.  As a leading figure of the Wausau Group, Brown assumed major responsibility for incorporation of Wausau Sulphate and Fibre Company (later Mosinee Paper Company), Grand Rapids and Nekoosa Street Railway Company, Employers Mutual Liability, Wausau Electric Railway Company, Great Northern Life Insurance Company, and Marathon Paper Mills in Rothschild.  Indeed, it was Brown who is credited with the passage of legislation which allowed the Wausau Group to develop the water powers of the Wisconsin River, an effort which led to the formation of the electric companies and paper mills.

 

Literature and philosophy were important concerns in Neal’s life.  He wrote extensively on such widely diverse topics as “The Comedy of History,” “The Paper Industry and the Tariff,” “Songs by Neal Brown,” and “Critical Confessions.” Brown was one of the “philosophers” who met informally to discuss literary and political topics of the day.

 

Neal Brown died on September 18, 1917, at age 61, at a sanatorium in Watkins, NY, where he had gone for treatment of a heart condition.  The following day, the headline of The Wausau Daily Record Herald read: “Hon. Neal Brown Dead: Grief is Universal." He is buried in Pine Grove Cemetery in Wausau, WI.

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Other Information

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Date of Birth: 2-24-1856

Place of Birth: Wisconsin

Date of Death: 9-18-1917

Place of Death: New York

Place of Burial: Pine Grove Cemetery Wausau, WI

Race: W

Father's Birthplace: New York

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