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SAMUEL A. BROWNE, secretary and treasurer of the Pentwater Lumber Company, is a gentleman to whose energy and ability the village of Pentwate, as well as Oceana County is largely indebted for its present prosperity. He came to the county in 1869, from Chicago, having purchased, in connection with W. B. Phillips, of that city, the lumbering interest of Richmond & Bean, and in a short time he gave the business a wonderful impetus, by extending the field of operations from the adjacent plains to the immense pine forests up the north branch of the Pentwater, containing some 200,000,000 feet of the choicest pine. This was done by a system of dams, four in number, rendering the river navigable for logs. This has been of incalcuable benefit, to the village and and to the whole region bordering on the river, as it has made possible the development of that section of the country. To show the value of the country thus opened up, we may mention that at one sale the Pentwater Lumber Company sold $204,000 of pine land, and some quarter sections in Crystal have sold as high as $20,000. Mr. Browne, on his arrival at Pentwater, saw at once the prime necessity of railroad communication, and set himself at work with characteristic energy to secure that boon, nothing daunted by the prediction of failure in consequence of the failure of former attempts in the same direction. He secured a pledge of $50,000 in stock, and the right of way, and in three months preparations were under way to lay a track from Montague to Pentwater. Seeing that the fruit and stock interests would become, after lumbering was over, the paramount interests of Oceana, Mr. Browne threw his energy into these channels, and demonstrated in a number of cases the value of sandy soil for fruit raising, by taking up locations in Weare, Crystal, etc., that had been run over by the lumbermen and abandoned. This has been of signal service in the development of the county. He has at the present time a farm in Golden with 20,000 fruit trees under successful culture. But his chief triumph is in his stock farm of 240 acres, on Section 12 of Golden, purchased in 1878, on which he has fine herds of thorough-bred Jerseys, Short horns, and Galloways, the latter being probably the finest collection in the state. In pigs he keeps the choicest Berkshires. But it is in the trotting stock that Mr. Browne has acquired a reputation far beyond the limits of the state, having some fifteen of the choicest brood-mares, (some with a record as low as 2.28,) and keeping a stud of from thirty-five to forty horses. Mr. Browne, with his Scottish-Irish origin, inherited an intense detestation of slavery, and was during the war a warm friend and supporter of the Union. Being in St. Louis when the war was about to break out, he raised a company of militia, and was with Gen. Lyon at the capture of Camp Jackson, and was offered the colonelcy of Blair's regiment, but was obliged to decline the honor, on account of the severe and extended ilness of his wife at that time. During Lincoln's great campaign in 1858, against Douglas for the senatorship, Mr. Browne drove the former throughout the southern portion of Illinois, and is proud to reckon the martyred president among his friends who have passed to their reward. Mr. Browne was born in Antrim, Ireland, September 18, 1834, settled in Chicago in 1854, came to Pentwater in 1869, and has been president of the village, school moderator, and presidential elector for the Ninth Congressional district in 1880. He married in 1856, at Ballymina, Ireland, Miss Jane Hanna, also of Scottish-Irish descent, by whom he has four surviving children, the eldest of whom, William H., is manager of the large saw-mill. The others are Miss Maggie J., Samuel A., and Charles F. We may add that during Mr. Browne's residence in Muskegon, when he was a partner in the extensive lumber business at Pt. Sherman, he took an active part in the development of that section, in connection with the harbor, the Boom Company, and in many other ways. But to enumerate all the public services of the subject of our sketch, would prolong this to undue length, and we content ourselves with giving but one more instance of his public spirit. When putting through the railway, finding it impossible to procure right of way and depot grounds at a reasonable price from the then owner of the farm on which the village of Shelby is located, Mr. Browne concluded, in company with Mr. Pettinger, of Shelby Township, F. A. Nims, of Muskegon, and J. G. Gray of Pentwater, to purchase the farm from Mr. Bryant for the sum of $4,000, then deed to the railway company, free, the depot grounds and right of way through the land, and at once had the property platted, and in this way originated the present thriving village of Shelby, now the largest in Oceana County. |