Famous Union County Man, Harassed by the Luck of Oil, Finds His Perfect Peace
Uncle Nap Brown will find his elusive peace today.
In a quiet little cemetery eloquent with the calm he had sought so unerringly since the 'monotonous' exhaust of gas engines on pumping oil wells drove him from his Arcadia one mile south of the city, to another farm that resembled the green fields of his youth, the body of Napoleon B. Brown, 80, enriched with the flow of crude that smeared itself over the fields his father cleared, will be laid to rest.
In a modest room of the home he built to escape the discordant yelpings of the masses who trooped from their home in El Dorado to their work in the oil fields south of the city, last night lay the body of the pioneer, the "fugitive from wealth," and yet the overtaken.
The little home was built in the EI Dorado East Field several years ago, it was built in the heart of a little glen that spoke of peace-the peace that Uncle Nap loved more dearly than dollars poured into his lap from the cornucopia of King Petroleum. He lay in a room of that little home last night-and outside dozens of gas engines barked discordantly, pulling from the heart of the soil he loved so well the black fluid that drove him from his home, the "home of his father," to newer fields.
Uncle Nap, as he is known to newspaper readers of every state in the Union, loved the soil. He was a part of the soil. When EI Dorado first began to appear, a log cabin or two beside trails beaten by homing cows and errant pigs, Uncle Nap was the farmer-born.
It was in 1840 that Napoleon B. Brown and his brothers and sisters came with their father, F. B. Brown, to the Arcadia. A small tract of land that promised food to the family was hidden under green foliage, swaying trees.
That was the Bryant place, the place where Uncle Nap remained until his father and mother were dead, until he had married and his sons and daughters, Miss Susie, M. E., Albert, Grady, and William had reached an age where they were thrilled by the prospect of oil being discovered on the farm that was not so rich as it once was.
Not so many years ago, two or three, the oil was discovered. Arcadia became a Babylon. Rig builders appeared, stayed a few hours and departed, leaving derricks that pierced the sky Uncle Nap had watched for years across the tassels of growing corn. The drillers came, they sweated for a few days, swore orders at their rough-necks, and departed-leaving oil that flowed into steel tanks. Then there were the barking engines, the "sentinels of the night" that kept him from enjoying the hours of sleep to which he had become accustomed through the active years of close association with the open, with the soil, with life.
The engines spoke of wealth; royalty checks began to appear among the mails he took from his newly rented post-office box in the "footloose" city that for years had been a quiet place where he might go for a few hours on Saturday afternoon and gossip with his neighbors-who thrilled at the touch of the soil. Uncle Nap found himself rich-he never awoke from the shock-wealth brought controversy, distrust. It killed old association-but worst of all it brought noise.
Uncle Nap moved to a quiet spot to build another Arcadia. He accepted the demands urged upon him by his new business, that of looking after his oil interests, buying new automobiles, signing papers that might mean a gift of thousands to charity, or the receipt of many more thousands to his own bank account. It was a quiet little farm east of EI Dorado, the mad oil town.
Last night his body lay in a room of the home he built on that quiet little farm. Outside the gas engines barked on oil wells that constantly added to the fortune from the first well drilled on his "Arcadia."
At 4 o'clock this afternoon he will be buried with Rumph-McWilliams undertakers in charge at Lambert Cemetery, six miles from the city.
The above article appeared on the front page of the EI Dorado Daily News on Tuesday, August 11, 1925, in EI Dorado, Arkansas.
Napoleon Bonaparte "Nap" Brown was born on 14 Feb 1845 in Lauderdale County, Mississippi.1 He appeared in the 1850, 1860, 1880, 1900 and 1910 census for Union County, Arkansas. 2 3 4 5 6 He was a son of Epps Rivers Brown and Dorinda Adair and grandson of John H. Brown and Sarah Rivers. He served in the military Civil War in 1861–1865 from Union County, Arkansas. He died on 10 Aug 1925 at the age of 80 in Union County, Arkansas.7 He was buried on 11 Aug 1925 at Old Shady Grove Cemetery in Union County, Arkansas.8 9 10
Napoleon Bonaparte "Nap" Brown and Martha Ann "Missie" Moody were married on 11 Dec 1884 in El Dorado,Union County, Arkansas.11 Martha Ann "Missie" Moody, daughter of Tom Moody and Martha Lambeth, was born on 17 Aug 1866 in Calhoun County, Arkansas.12 13 14 15 She died on 1 Aug 1949 at the age of 82 in Union County, Arkansas.16 She was buried in the Old Shady Grove Cemetery in Union County, Arkansas.17 18
Napoleon Bonaparte Brown and Martha Ann Moody had the following children:
i. Epps Matthew Brown, born 8 Oct 1885, El Dorado, Union County, Arkansas.
ii. Albert Lee Brown was born on 25 Dec 1886 in Union County, Arkansas.
iii. Jewel Brown was born on 20 Aug 1889 in El Dorado, Union County, Arkansas.
iv. Lula May Brown was born on 1 May 1890 in Union County, Arkansas.
v. Susie Brown was born on 28 Jul 1893 in Union County, Arkansas.
vi. Thomas Grady Brown, born 30 Aug 1897, Union County, Arkansas.
vii. Sam Cougar Brown was born in Dec 1899 in Union County, Arkansas.
viii. Virgil Brown was born on 28 Dec 1900 in Union County, Arkansas.
ix. William "Bill" Brown, born abt 1904, Union County, Arkansas.
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1. Jim Tipton, Find A Grave, digital image, http://www.findagrave.com; Headstone for N B Brown; (14 February 1845–10 August 1925); Memorial # 74040595; Record of the Shady Grove Cemetery; Union County, Arkansas, USA; Accessed on 14 August 2011.
2. 1850 U. S. Census, Union County, Arkansas, population schedule, El Dorado, Union County, Arkansas, Page 226A, Line 31, Dwelling/Family 21/21, Household of Epps R. BROWN; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : viewed 24 July 2011); citing NARA publication Roll: M432_30.
3. 1860 U. S. Census, Union County, Arkansas, population schedule, Dorado, Union County, Arkansas, Page 316B, Line 17, Family/Dwelling 703/651, Household of Epps R. BROWN; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : viewed 24 July 2011); citing NARA publication Roll: M653_51.
4. 1880 U. S. Census, Union County, Arkansas, population schedule, Franklin, Union County, Arkansas, Page 225A; Line 21, Dwelling 64, Family 68; L.[afayette] BROWN, Household of L.[afayette] BROWN; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : viewed 24 July 2011); citing NARA publication Roll: T9-0058.
5. 1900 U. S. Census, Union County, Arkansas, population schedule, Franklin, Union County, Arkansas, enumeration district (ED) #124, Page 90B; Line 79, Dwelling 76, Family 76, Household of N. B. BROWN; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : viewed 14 August 2011); citing NARA publication Roll: T623_0078.
6. 1900 U. S. Census, Union County, Arkansas, population schedule, El Dorado, Union County, Arkansas, enumeration district (ED) #0128, Page 41, Line 27, Dwelling 305, Family 316, Household of Napoleon BROWN; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : viewed 14 August 2011); citing NARA publication Roll: T624_0066.
7. Find A Grave, http://www.findagrave.com, Accessed on 14 August 2011; Headstone for N B Brown; Memorial # 74040595.
8. Ibid.
9. Ibid.
10. Napoleon Bonaparte "Nap" Brown obituary, El Dorado Daily News, El Dorado, Union County, Arkansas, 11 August 1925, Front Page. (Copied from microfilm and provided to Charles Purvis by Vickie Rushton Bickle on 18 October 2011.)
11. State of Arkansas, marriage no. Certificate # not available (11 December 1884), Name: N. B. Brown and Spouse: Mattie A. Moody; database on-line; www.Ancestry.com, Union County, Arkansas.
12. Find A Grave, http://www.findagrave.com, Accessed on 14 August 2011; Headstone for Martha Ann "Missie" Brown; Memorial # 74040708.
13. 1900 U. S. Census, Union County, Arkansas, population schedule, Franklin, Union County, Arkansas, ED #124, Page 90B; Line 79, Dwelling 76, Family 76, Household of N. B. BROWN.
14. 1900 U. S. Census, Union County, Arkansas, population schedule, El Dorado, Union County, Arkansas, ED #0128, Page 41, Line 27, Dwelling 305, Family 316, Household of Napoleon BROWN.
15. 1930 U. S. Census, Union County, Arkansas, population schedule, Franklin, Union County, Arkansas, enumeration district (ED) #70-16, Page: 15B (3401 penciled in); Line 69, Dwelling 343, Family 345, Household of Epps M. BROWN; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : viewed 14 August 2011); citing NARA publication Roll: T626_0096.
16. Find A Grave, http://www.findagrave.com, Accessed on 14 August 2011; Headstone for Martha Ann "Missie" Brown; Memorial # 74040708.
17. Ibid.
18. Ibid.
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