Blog no. 59

Col. Hugh Brown was born on February 8,1762, in North Carolina, supposedly to Rev. Duncan Brown and an unknown mother. It is known that he had at least one sibling, but due to there being only few records about the Brown family, I was not able to prove any names in this blog. 

At a younger age, Hugh rode with Brig. Gen. Francis Marion in the Revolutionary War. It is unknown at this time if he was actually a colonel, but his headstone states that as his rank.

Sometime before 1790, in North Carolina, Hugh married Catharine Fort. Since there are not many records of their lives, it is unknown how many children they had. They had at least three children named John Brown, Esq., Anna “Annie” (Brown) Bunch, and James Whitfield Brown. 

The Brown family moved to Spring Hill, TN and Hugh’s father became prominent in the early development of the area and was a founder of the Manual Labor Academy. The academy was later known as Jackson College. 

In Hugh’s older age, two of his nephews, Neill Smith Brown and Maj. Gen. John Calvin Brown, lived with him while going to school at Jackson College. The two brothers later went on to become politicians. Neill became the 12th Governor of TN, United States Minister to Russia, and TN Speaker of the House, and John became the 19th Governor of TN.

Sadly, on May 13, 1851, in Spring Hill, Maury County, TN, Hugh died. He was buried at his family cemetery, Brown Cemetery, off of modern-day Kedron Road inside Hunters Pointe Subdivision. Hugh and his family were early settlers of Spring Hill, TN.