Cleyson Leroy Brown (February 3, 1872 - November 12, 1935) was a telephone company co-founder, financier, innovator, and philanthropist in the United States. He founded Brown Telephone Company, today known as Sprint Corporation. Brown, whose name was often abbreviated to C. L. Brown, was a welfare capitalist and benefactor of the community of

Abilene, Kansas Abilene (pronounced ) is a city in, and the county seat of, Dickinson County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 6,460. It is home of The Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum and the G ...

. A pioneer in Kansas

electrification Electrification is the process of powering by electricity and, in many contexts, the introduction of such power by changing over from an earlier power source. The broad meaning of the term, such as in the history of technology, economic histor ...

and

telephony Telephony ( ) is the field of technology involving the development, application, and deployment of telecommunication services for the purpose of electronic transmission of voice, fax, or data, between distant parties. The history of telephony is i ...

, Brown consolidated and expanded many early telephone systems, power generation plants, and electrical distribution systems in Kansas and other states. One of his legacy companies, United Telecommunications, merged with Southern Pacific Communications to form

Sprint Corporation Sprint Corporation was an American telecommunications company. Before it Merger of Sprint Corporation and T-Mobile US, merged with T-Mobile US on April 1, 2020, it was the fourth-largest mobile network operator in the United States, serving 54.3 ...

. Parts of his social legacy endure two miles south of Abilene in the Brown Memorial Home for the Aged and in Camp Brown, the Coronado Area Council scout camp at Abilene. Brown's mill/power dam on Turkey Creek is still a cornerstone of the adjoining Brown Memorial Park.

Early life

Brown’s father, Jacob Brown was a

grist mill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and Wheat middlings, middlings. The term can refer to either the Mill (grinding), grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist i ...

owner. Brown lost his arm when he was ten in a mill accident. He had worked as a teacher and also managed a creamery in Wichita. Brown first built a local electric company, Abilene Electric Light Works to generate electricity from the Smoky Hill River.

Entrepreneurship and philanthropy

Cleyson Brown founded the Brown Telephone Company in 1899 in

with his brother Jacob Brown.The local request to start a phone company to challenge the local Bell Telephone company was only five years after the Bell Telephone patents had expired. It is lately known as Sprint.

Other ventures

Brown then ventured into shoe stores, grocery stores, gravel and sand company, hotels, news service, and broadcast station, insurance companies and oil concerns creating an empire. He also formed the Brown Memorial Foundation (1926) in memory of his parents. A park in around 200 acres was built for the public for free, which included an amusement park with a lake, zoo, golf course, tennis courts, and other attractions.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, C. L. 1872 births 1935 deaths People from Adams County, Pennsylvania People from Dickinson County, Kansas History of Kansas