Henry J. Brown Sierra County, New Mexico

Henry J. Brown, the owner of a large ranch devoted to the raising of goats, and also interested in mining, makes his home in Kingston and his residence in New Mexico dates from 1886. He was born in Kendall county, Texas, November 9, 1857, and was there reared. His educational privileges were limited. He attended school for only three or four months and walked a distance of three or four miles to the schoolhouse with his rifle upon his shoulder, owing to the fear of Indian attacks. His home was in a frontier district and the story of Indian atrocities and depredations was a familiar one. He was about twenty-eight years of age when, in 1886, he came to New Mexico, locating near Crow Spring, ninety miles east of El Paso. Here he became connected with the cattle industry, having the first ranch in that part of the county, but he lost a great number of cattle from drinking alkali water. They died off so rapidly that he removed to Tierra Blanca, where he remained for about three years, and then, on account of a mistake in the government survey, which cut off his homestead from a water supply, he was again forced to move. He took up his abode in Kingston, where he turned his attention to the dairy business, which he conducted for about a year. In 1892 he located upon his present ranch, a mile below Kingston, and was engaged in raising cattle until 1896, when he began raising Angora goats. He has since continued in this line of stock-raising with excellent success, and has become one of the prosperous representatives of stock farming in this section of the Territory. At the same time he has been interested to a greater or less extent in mining properties.

Mr. Brown was married in Texas in 1880 to Miss Mary Gobble, and they have seven children. In his social relations he is an Odd Fellow, belonging to Percha Lodge No. 9. He has a wide and favorable acquaintance in the Territory, where he has now lived for twenty years, and in the work of general improvement and progress he has borne a helpful part, while at the same time he has gradually advanced his individual business interests.

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Source: History of New Mexico, Its Resources and People, Volume II, Pacific States Publishing Co., 1907.