Joshua Brown, was a native of Southern Indiana, and when a young man came to Elkhart County as one of the first pioneers, and after his marriage located in Cleveland Township, where he bought land and cultivated it until 1847. Selling out, he then moved into Cass County, Michigan, where he acquired a tract of 300 acres and occupied it until his death when about seventy-three years of age. Joshua Brown married Mary Proctor, whose father, John Proctor, was also an early settler of Elkhart County.
William Joshua Brown, Joshua and Mary's son, was only an infant when his mother died and he was reared by his father and step-mother. His early life was spent as a farmer, and from March, 1865, to August of the same year he served with a Michigan regiment in the Civil War. After following farming for a time he acquired an outfit and began the drilling of wells and was in that work for a number of years. In 1885 he moved to Elkhart and is still living in that city, where for about fifteen years he kept a store, handling second-hand goods. On August 14, 1865, he married Eliza Clara Hilton, who was born in Union, Cass County, Michigan, December 17, 1844. Her father, Hiram Hilton, was one of the early settlers of Cass County, but in 1850 went out to California as a gold seeker, making the journey across the plains with teams and being several months en route. He started to return by way of the Isthmus, but died while on the way. Hiram Hilton married Ann Eliza Covey, who survived her husband many years and was three times married.
William and Eliza Brown had ten children who grew up, their names being Mary E., Clarence and Clara, twins, Aaron Cassius, William Orrin, James, Myrtle, Jennie, Lettie and John all born in Cass Co, Michigan.
Taken from the "HISTORY OF ELKHART COUNTY" supervised by Abraham E. Weaver, 1916. With additions by Cindy Kimes , 1998.