52 Cousins~The Simeon Epps Brown and Mary Jane Bays Brown Family

The “52 Cousins” series of biographical sketches are Artificial Intelligence (AI) compiled narratives of selected individuals from my Genealogical database. The selected AI will used documents and data from my RootsMagic Genealogical Software. All genealogical data is my research material acquired over the past 46+ years of research. Today's Biography of Simeon Epps Brown and Mary Jane Bays Brown was compiled with the assistance of Claude Sonnett 4:

 Simeon Epps Brown

and Mary Jane Bays Brown

1838 – 1928  •  1851 – 1938

A Confederate Soldier and His Family in the Mississippi Hill Country

Quick Facts

Full Name	Simeon Epps Brown — also recorded as Simon Epps Brown, S. E. Brown, and Eppes S. Brown
Born	14 February 1838, Alabama
Died	6 July 1928, Bellefontaine, Webster County, Mississippi (tombstone and Find A Grave records show 1930 — see Research Note)
Buried	South Union Cemetery, Bellefontaine (Eupora), Webster County, Mississippi
Parents	Frederick Epps Brown (1804–1885) and Judith Clark (1806–1881)
Spouse	Mary Jane Bays (14 December 1851 – 5 March 1938), married 1866, Webster County, Mississippi
Children	9 documented — Lenora, Thomas Elisha, Daisy Emily, Martha Agnes, Ranson Edward, William Alonzo, Andrew Bryon, Frances Vernon, and Charles Epps
Military Service	Private, Company K, 15th Mississippi Infantry Regiment, C.S.A. (1861–1865)

Early Life and Family Origins

Simeon Epps Brown was born on 14 February 1838 in Alabama, according to the inscription on his tombstone at South Union Cemetery. He was the son of Frederick Epps Brown (1804–1885) and Judith Clark (1806–1881), a couple who — like so many families of the era — were on the move during Simeon's childhood, following the wave of settlement pushing westward out of the Carolinas and Georgia.

By the time of the 1850 census, the family had settled in Choctaw County, Mississippi. Frederick Brown, then 47 and working as a farmer, was recorded as born in South Carolina; his wife Judy (Judith), 41, was born in Georgia. Living in their household that year were Thomas (age 15), Andrew (15), Epps — young Simeon, going by his middle name (12), Martha (10), John (7), Woodson (5), and Emily (2). The younger children's Mississippi birthplaces suggest the family arrived in the state sometime in the 1830s.

Historical Note — Land Newly Opened for Settlement Choctaw County, Mississippi lies within the vast territory ceded by the Choctaw Nation to the United States under the 1830 Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek. In the years immediately following the treaty, the region was surveyed and opened to white settlement, drawing thousands of families from the older Southern states. The Brown family's own migration path — from the Carolinas and Georgia into Alabama and then Mississippi — mirrors this larger movement almost exactly, placing them among the first generation of settlers to farm this particular corner of the state.

 

A decade later, the 1860 census found the family in Township 20, Choctaw County. Frederick, now 57, and Judy, also 57, headed a household that included Simeon E. Brown, age 22, still living and farming alongside his father, along with younger siblings John C. (17), Frederick W. (14), Emily (12), Frances (9), and Millie L. (7). At 22, on the eve of the Civil War, Simeon was a grown man working the family farm — his life, like that of so many young Mississippians of his generation, was about to be interrupted by war.

Siblings of Simeon (as recorded in the 1850 and 1860 censuses)

Name	Age in 1850	Age in 1860	Notes
Thomas Brown	15	—	Listed only in 1850
Andrew Brown	15	—	Listed only in 1850
Simeon ("Epps") Brown	12	22	Subject of this biography
Martha Brown	10	—	Listed only in 1850
John / John C. Brown	7	17	Likely the same child in both records
Woodson Brown	5	—	Listed only in 1850
Emily Brown	2	12	Listed in both records
Frederick W. Brown	—	14	Listed only in 1860
Frances Brown	—	9	Listed only in 1860
Millie L. Brown	—	7	Listed only in 1860

The two households don't line up perfectly — some children present in 1850 (Thomas, Andrew, Martha, Woodson) are absent from the 1860 household, likely because they had grown and moved out on their own by then, while younger siblings (Frederick W., Frances, Millie L.) appear for the first time in 1860. This kind of shifting household is completely normal for the period and simply reflects children coming of age and leaving home between census years.

Civil War Service, 1861–1865

Mississippi seceded from the Union on 9 January 1861, and within months the state's young men were answering the call to arms. Simeon Epps Brown enlisted as a private in Company K of the 15th Mississippi Infantry Regiment, Confederate States Army — a unit whose Compiled Confederate Military Service Record confirms his enrollment for the duration of the war, 1861 through 1865.

Historical Note — The 15th Mississippi Infantry The 15th Mississippi Infantry Regiment organized at Corinth, Mississippi in May 1861, drawing volunteer companies from Holmes, Choctaw, Quitman, Montgomery, Yalobusha, and Grenada counties — Simeon's own home ground. The regiment was soon sent into Kentucky, where it fought at Camp Wildcat in October 1861 and suffered heavy losses at the Battle of Mill Springs (also called Fishing Creek) in January 1862, a fight in which its commanding general, Felix Zollicoffer, was killed. The 15th went on to serve throughout the war in the Western Theater, engaging at Shiloh (April 1862), Corinth (October 1862), and later in the Atlanta Campaign, including Peachtree Creek (July 1864), before marching north to Tennessee for the battles of Franklin and Nashville (November–December 1864). The regiment's last fighting came at Wyse Fork, North Carolina in March 1865, shortly before the general Confederate surrender in April. The family's records do not specify which of these engagements Simeon personally marched into, but as a private who served through the war's duration, his service very likely carried him through some portion of this long campaign trail.

 

Simeon survived the war and returned home to Mississippi, where — like most of his generation — he faced the long work of rebuilding a farm and a life in the difficult Reconstruction years that followed.

Marriage and Homesteading — Mary Jane Bays

In 1866, in Webster County, Mississippi, Simeon married Mary Jane Bays, daughter of Henry Bays (born 1827) and Frances M. Greenlee. Mary Jane had been born on 14 December 1851, also in what would become Webster County, making her thirteen years Simeon's junior.

Historical Note — A County Renamed Beneath Their Feet The Brown family's records show them living in three differently-named counties — Choctaw, Sumner, and Webster — without the family ever having moved. That's because the ground they farmed changed jurisdiction, not the family. The county was organized in 1874, carved out of Chickasaw, Choctaw, Montgomery, and Oktibbeha Counties during Mississippi's Reconstruction-era legislature, and was first named Sumner County. In January 1882, the state legislature renamed it Webster County in honor of Massachusetts statesman Daniel Webster. This explains why the 1880 census records the family in "Sumner County" while the 1900, 1910, and 1920 censuses show the very same farm in "Webster County" — it is the same land throughout, just relabeled by the state twice within a dozen years.

 

Over the next two decades, Simeon and Mary Jane raised their family on this same patch of Mississippi hill country, building a household that would eventually include ten children — nine of whom are documented here, with names, dates, and (where recorded) marriages.

Children of Simeon and Mary Jane Brown

Name	Born	Died	Spouse / Marriage
Lenora Brown	abt. 1871, Sumner Co., MS	—	—
Thomas Elisha Brown	21 Oct 1873, Sumner Co., MS	14 Aug 1930, Webster Co., MS	—
Daisy Emily Brown	23 Mar 1876, Sumner Co., MS	6 Feb 1956, Webster Co., MS	Thomas Jefferson McCluskey (1862–1925)
Martha Agnes Brown	22 Jun 1878, Webster Co., MS	20 Sep 1965, Bellefontaine, Webster Co., MS	John Leslie Watson, m. 8 Dec 1897, MS
Ranson Edward Brown	18 Apr 1881, Webster Co., MS	10 Oct 1968, Bellefontaine, MS	—
William Alonzo Brown	26 Aug 1884, Webster Co., MS	20 Jul 1943, Leflore Co., MS	Margaret Caledonia Shaw, m. 23 Dec 1906, MS
Andrew Bryon Brown	24 Feb 1885, Webster Co., MS	17 Mar 1959, Sharkey Co., MS	Clara Stephens (1886–1953)
Frances Vernon Brown	29 Dec 1888, Webster Co., MS	12 Jul 1983, Bellefontaine, MS	—
Charles Epps Brown	7 May 1893, Webster Co., MS	25 Feb 1984, Bolivar Co., MS	Irene E. Holmes (1896–1996), m. 1919, MS

 

Research Note — A Tenth Child? The 1900 census records that Mary Jane had borne 10 children, 9 of whom were then living. Only nine children appear across the family's records here, so a tenth child — likely one who died in infancy or early childhood before ever appearing in a census — may remain undocumented. This is a common gap in nineteenth-century family records and would be worth pursuing in Webster County birth or church records if they survive for this period.

 

Later Years on the Family Farm

The family's progress can be traced steadily through the census records of the turn of the century. In 1900, the household in Beat 2, Webster County, recorded "Eppes S. Brown," age 62, and his wife Mary J., 48 — noted as married 34 years, with 10 children born and 9 living. Still at home were Daisie (24), Edward R. (19), William A. (15), Andrew B. (14), Francis I. (10), and young Charlie E., just 7 years old.

By 1910, the household had grown quieter, with only Fannie (20) and Charlie (17) still living with their aging parents, now married 44 years. The 1920 census shows just Simon E. Brown, 81, and Mary J., 68, with their daughter Francis V., 27, still at home — the last of the children yet to marry and leave the farm.

Death, Burial, and Legacy

Simeon Epps Brown's death is recorded as 6 July 1928 in Bellefontaine, Webster County, Mississippi. He was buried at South Union Cemetery, where his tombstone bears the simple inscription: "S. E. Brown, Feb. 14, 1838 – July 6, 1930."

Research Note — A Date Discrepancy The family's records show a conflict worth flagging rather than quietly resolving: the death date is recorded as 6 July 1928 in one place, while both the cemetery tombstone transcription and the Find A Grave memorial give 6 July 1930. Since the tombstone and Find A Grave citation agree with each other, 1930 may be the more likely date — but until an original death record or obituary is located, the discrepancy should be treated as unresolved.

 

Mary Jane Bays Brown outlived her husband by roughly a decade, dying on 5 March 1938 and joining him at South Union Cemetery. Her own tombstone reads simply, "Wife of S. E. Brown."

Together, Simeon and Mary Jane's documented family spans an extraordinary sweep of American history — from a young private marching off to the Civil War in 1861 to their youngest son, Charles Epps Brown, living all the way into 1984. Between those two points lie ninety years of the fields, church houses, and county courthouses of the Mississippi hill country the Browns called home.

Simeon Epps Brown is my 2nd Cousin 4X Removed.  

Sources

This biography draws on the family group sheet and supporting citations compiled for the Brown family, including the U.S. Federal Census records of 1850, 1860, 1870, 1880, 1900, 1910, and 1920; the Compiled Confederate Military Service Records for Simeon E. Brown (Fold3); tombstone transcriptions from South Union Cemetery, Bellefontaine, Mississippi (Rootsweb, Webster County cemetery project); and Find A Grave memorials #89390058 (Simeon Epps Brown) and #89389993 (Mary Jane Bays Brown), created by Beth Austin. General historical background on Choctaw County settlement, the 15th Mississippi Infantry, and the Sumner/Webster County name change was drawn from published county and regimental histories.

 

Prepared by Charles Purvis  •  CPurvis1@gmail.com