In celebration of the 250th Anniversary of our country, local members of the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution will highlight the patriots buried in Southeast Missouri.
William R. Brown was born in 1760 in Fairfax County, Virginia. He resided in Bedford County, Virginia for several years during the Revolutionary War. He then lived in Kings Salt Works, Washington County, Virginia, for about nine years, and that is where he married Elizabeth Scott about 1797.
From Virginia, William and Elizabeth moved to Kentucky where they resided about four years before moving to Ste. Genevieve County, Missouri around 1818.
William R. Brown served as a Private in the Virginia Militia. Based on his pension application, William had multiple enlistments and served under Lt. Samuel Campbell and John Phelps; Col. Donaldson, Lt. Matthew Pate, and Ensign Jonathan Carter; was in a regiment attached to Col. William Washington’s Horse Cavalry. His unit joined Gen. Nathaniel Green’s company and served at the Battle of Guilford Courthouse in North Carolina on March 15, 1781. He was discharged three weeks after this battle. William was drafted again in the fall of 1781 and served under Col. William Trigg and Captain David Beard during the Battle of Yorktown. William was sick and on furlough on October 19, 1781, when Cornwallis surrendered.
William R. Brown was found in the land records of the County of Ste. Genevieve and Territory of Missouri in 1819, two years before Missouri became a state. He and his son, John S. Brown purchased 400 arpens of land along the Saline Creek. William and Elizabeth had eight children: John S., James Scott married Mary Varner, Elizabeth married Burwell Johnson, Temperance married Willis Y. Owsley, Rody (Rhoda) married Breton West, Agnes married James Wright, Ailsey married John McNew, and W. R. William died in 1844 and is buried in the Roth Cemetery, located off the Roth Cemetery Road in Ste. Genevieve County, near the Perry/Ste. Genevieve County line.
A new marker was dedicated by the Sons of the American Revolution on May 23, 2022. Numerous descendants attended the dedication.
Sources:
Goodspeed’s History of Southeast Missouri, 1888
William R. Brown estate filed March 23, 1847, Records of Probate Court, Ste. Genevieve County, Missouri
MO-1840 Census of Pensioners Revolutionary or Military Services:https://us-roots.org/colonialamerica/census/1840/1840mo.html
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/158577042/william-r.-brown.
Compiled by Lori Franklin and Jean Smithee (descendant).