Biography of Herman L. Brown, pages 507/508.  History of DeKalb County, 
Indiana; B. F. Bowen & Company, Inc., Indianapolis, 1914.

Herman L. Brown

	The life history of him whose name heads this sketch is closely 
identified with the history of DeKalb county, Indiana. His life has been 
one of untiring activity, and has been crowned with a degree of success 
attained by those only who devote themselves indefatigably to the work 
before them.  He is a high type of business man and non more than he 
deserves a fitting recognition among the men whose genius and abilities 
have achieved results that are most enviable and commendable.
	Herman L. Brown, on of the successful business men and public-
spirited citizens of Auburn, DeKalb county, was born in Concord township, 
this county, on June 12, 1876, and is a son of Samuel, Jr., and Sidney 
Jane (Servison) Brown.  Samuel, Jr., was a son of Samuel C. and Experience 
Brown, while his wife was descended on the maternal side from the Jackson 
family, so prominent in American history, of which President Andrew 
Jackson was a member.  The subject’s parents were native of Morrow county, 
Ohio, where the family was very numerous, and the various members of which 
stood high in the civic, social, and business life of the community.  In 
that county Samuel Brown was reared to manhood, and at the inception of 
the Civil war he recruited a company of soldiers of which he was commissioned 
captain, but on his way to the front he was taken sick and, because of 
continued physical disability, he received an honorable discharge from the 
service.   In 1865 he and his wife came to DeKalb county, Indiana, locating 
in Concord township, where they established their permanent home, and where 
Samuel Brown died on March 1, 1879.  He left three children: Calvin H., now 
auditor of Allen county, Indiana; Willis B., who is the wholesale buggy 
business at Waterloo, Iowa; and Herman L, the subject of this sketch, who 
was but three years of age at the time of his father’s death.  The mother 
of these children, who subsequently became the wife of Samuel Culbertson, 
died on November 17, 1911.
	The subject of this sketch was reared on the paternal farmstead until 
seventeen years of age, receiving his elementary education in the common 
schools and during the vacation periods assisting with the cultivation of 
the farm. He attended Adrian College, at Adrian, Michigan, which he left 
in 1894 and began teaching school in DeKalb county.  He followed this 
occupation a number of years, the last three of which were as professor of 
mathematics in the Auburn high school.  He was naturally well qualified for 
the profession of teaching and was very successful in this line of work.  
In 1908 at the close of the school year, he engaged in the farm produce 
business in partnership with his father-in-law, John Wimer, at Auburn, in 
which they met with splendid success and a year later they bought the 
Vandalia elevator, running the two concerns.  They are eminently successful 
in these lines, their largest success being attained in the shipping of 
onions and potatoes, of which they have handled enormous quantities. Their 
field covers about eight counties and their operations are constantly 
increasing in scope and importance.
	Mr. Brown is a man of impressive personality, broad intelligence, 
and has the characteristics, which beget esteem, confidence and friendship.  
His integrity is of the most insistent and unswerving type and no shadow 
rests upon his career as an active business man and sterling citizen.
	In 1899 Herman L. Brown was married to Marguerite Wimer, daughter of 
John Wimer and wife, who are represented elsewhere in this work.  To Mr. 
and Mrs. Brown have been born three children: Bernard W., Donald B., and 
Kathryne Lucile. Fraternally, Mr. Brown belongs to the Knights of Pythias 
and, with his wife, to the Pythian Sisters.  They are also members of the 
Methodist Episcopal church, in which they take an earnest interest and to 
the support of which they contribute liberally.  They move in the best 
social circles of the city and are deservedly popular among their 
acquaintances.

Submitted by:
Arlene Goodwin
Auburn, Indiana
Agoodwin@ctlnet.com