Armstead, Armisted, Armistead C. or A. C. Brown (January 10, 1816 – December 17, 1902) was an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

farmer, miner and lawyer from Wisconsin and later California, who served a single term in the

1st Wisconsin Legislature The First Wisconsin Legislature convened from June 5, 1848, to August 21, 1848, in regular session. Members of the Assembly and Senate were elected after an election on February 1, 1848, that ratified the proposed state constitution. Major event ...

as a Whig member of the Wisconsin State Assembly. He then moved to California as a Forty-Niner, where he became one of the founding fathers of

Amador County Amador County () is a county located in the U.S. state of California, in the Sierra Nevada. As of the 2020 census, the population was 40,474. The county seat is Jackson. Amador County, located within California's Gold Country, is known as "The ...

, becoming a merchant, judge and legislator in Jackson, California.

Background

Brown was born in

St. Charles County, Missouri St. Charles County is in the central eastern part of the U.S. state of Missouri. As of the 2020 census, the population was 405,262, making it Missouri's third-most populous county. Its county seat is St. Charles. The county was organized Octo ...

, on January 10, 1816, one of the four sons and two daughters of Thomas Brown (a cabinetmaker and farmer) and Mary Elizabeth (Ribolt) Brown. In 1820, the family moved to Illinois, where the father died. His mother afterward married again, and died in 1830. Brown received a rudimentary education in his youth while working on the family farm. In 1832 he moved to Wisconsin, where he worked in lead mining, and served in the Black Hawk War as a member of the territorial militia. He studied law on his own, and was admitted to the Wisconsin bar. On February 26, 1837, he married Phillippia Williams.

Public life in Wisconsin

In 1844 Brown was one of the leaders in Grant County to the movement opposing the first proposed Wisconsin Constitution, because it allowed

resident aliens In law, an alien is any person (including an organization) who is not a citizen or a national of a specific country, although definitions and terminology differ to some degree depending upon the continent or region. More generally, however, ...

to vote. After serving as a Representative from Grant County in the 4th and 5th sessions of the Legislative Assembly of the Wisconsin Territory in 1846 and 1847 (he was an unsuccessful nominee for Speaker in the latter session), Brown was elected to the first Assembly in early 1848 as a Whig, to represent the Grant County district which included the districts of Hurricane, New Lisbon, Pleasant Valley, Potosi and

Waterloo Waterloo most commonly refers to: * Battle of Waterloo, a battle on 18 June 1815 in which Napoleon met his final defeat * Waterloo, Belgium, where the battle took place. Waterloo may also refer to: Other places Antarctica *King George Island (S ...

. He was succeeded in 1849 by Democrat

Davis Gillilan Davis Gillilan or Gillilian (March 17, 1812 - August 8, 1852) was an American merchant, miner and politician from Dubuque, Wisconsin Territory and Potosi, Wisconsin, who held various elected offices in Dubuque and served a single one-year term as ...

Off to California

In 1849 Brown crossed the

Great Plains The Great Plains (french: Grandes Plaines), sometimes simply "the Plains", is a broad expanse of flatland in North America. It is located west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains, much of it covered in prairie, steppe, an ...

as part of the

California Gold Rush The California Gold Rush (1848–1855) was a gold rush that began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California fro ...

, and began

placer mining Placer mining () is the mining of stream bed (Alluvium, alluvial) deposits for minerals. This may be done by open-pit mining, open-pit (also called open-cast mining) or by various surface excavating equipment or tunneling equipment. Placer minin ...

in Shasta County; one account credits him with naming the boomtown of Shasta. Having been successful, he decided to move permanently, returning for his family by "the water route": down the

Pacific coast Pacific coast may be used to reference any coastline that borders the Pacific Ocean. Geography Americas Countries on the western side of the Americas have a Pacific coast as their western or southwestern border, except for Panama, where the Pac ...

to the

Isthmus of Panama The Isthmus of Panama ( es, Istmo de Panamá), also historically known as the Isthmus of Darien (), is the narrow strip of land that lies between the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean, linking North and South America. It contains the country ...

, across the Isthmus, thence to New Orleans, from there up the Mississippi River. He cut all business ties left in Wisconsin, and in 1851 again crossed the Plains, this time in company with his wife and six children. Brown took up residence in Jackson in

in 1851, and became a merchant, bringing his goods by team over the mountains from the coast, and a landlord. He resumed the practice of law.

Public life in California

With the dissolution of the Whigs, Brown affiliated with the Democratic Party. He was elected to three terms as a Union Party member of the

California State Assembly The California State Assembly is the lower house of the California State Legislature, the upper house being the California State Senate. The Assembly convenes, along with the State Senate, at the California State Capitol in Sacramento. The A ...

: 9-5-1865, 1-26-1866 and 11-3-186. At the end of his third term he chose not to seek re-election and declined any further runs for legislative office, instead returning to his law practice in Jackson. In 1876 Brown was elected the probate judge of Amador County, an office he filled for five years before once again returning to the private practice of law. In 1887 he was admitted to practice before the

Supreme Court of California The Supreme Court of California is the highest and final court of appeals in the courts of the U.S. state of California. It is headquartered in San Francisco at the Earl Warren Building, but it regularly holds sessions in Los Angeles and Sacra ...

Later years

Phillippia died in April 1896. Brown retired from practice in 1897, having made extensive investments in local real estate, to the management of which he devoted his time well into the subsequent century. He died on December 17, 1902. The 15-room Greek Revival brick house he had built in 1859, one of the few to survive the city's devastating 1863 fire which destroyed over 30 tenements Brown owned at the time, now houses the museum of the Amador County Historical Society."Amador County Museum" Amador County Historical Society website
/ref>

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, Armstead C. 1816 births 1902 deaths American people of the Black Hawk War Businesspeople from California California lawyers California state court judges Republican Party members of the California State Assembly Members of the Wisconsin State Assembly Members of the Wisconsin Territorial Legislature 19th-century American legislators People from Jackson, California People from St. Charles County, Missouri People from Grant County, Wisconsin People of the California Gold Rush Wisconsin lawyers Wisconsin Whigs People from Shasta County, California American lawyers admitted to the practice of law by reading law 19th-century American businesspeople 19th-century American judges 19th-century Wisconsin politicians 19th-century California politicians