Nellie Brown Groves, the youngest child of Salmon and Abbie Hinckley Brown, was born in Rohnerville in 1878. Today she is living in Poulsbo, Washington.

I first learned of this remarkable little lady when I was checking out a batch of books about the abolitionist John Brown, from the local library. Susan Groves, a young library assistant, asked me why I was interested in John Brown. I explained that the widow of John Brown had once lived in Humboldt County, as had several of his children. I was just curious about all the Browns.

“Why, I’m descended from John Brown; my grandmother has lots of pictures and clippings about the family; I have a pebble that was picked up in the creek that runs through the Salmon Brown property at Bridgeville. I’ve never been there,” she said, “but I’ve heard about it from my greatgrandmother.”

Thus I became acquainted with the Groves family of Bainbridge Island, who pride themselves in the accomplishments of their famous ancestor.

Salmon Brown at his home in Portland. Photo courtesy of the Groves family, via the Humboldt Historian.

According to Marjorie Groves, Nellie’s daughter-in-law, Mrs. Groves has a few vivid memories of her Humboldt days. Her earliest memory is of a wagon trip from Bridgeville to visit her grandmother, Mary Brown. It was a trip that took all day and involved crossing a large body of water, so it seemed to the little girl. (Since Mary Brown left Rohnerville in the winter of 1881, Nellie was probably about 2 1/2 years old at the time.) She remembers the two-mile walk to school and the lady who came out from town to give her violin lessons.

Salmon Brown had operated a flourishing business out on the Bridgeville ranch since 1875. The 14,000 black Spanish Merino sheep that ranged over 3,000 acres made him a prosperous man. It is interesting to note that Salmon’s biography in Elliott’s History of Humboldt County, 1882 made no mention of the fact that he was the son of a man whose deeds inflamed the nation. Apparently, it was not a negative reaction that he feared, but a well-meaning public who was determined to overwhelm the family with kindness. Twice Brown felt compelled to publish in local papers a refutation of the rumor that his mother and his family were in dire financial straits.

The May 27, 1871 Humboldt Times carried a notice signed by Salmon Brown and his sister, Sarah, stating that “… John Brown’s family… are all well and are doing well, and wish to maintain decent self respect and merit the reputation of having ordinary sagacity, if possible …” Ten years later the Times carried a similar statement again.

It was in 1891 that the Brown family moved to Ferndale, where they spent the next two years. According to the memoirs of Nellie’s mother, Abbie, their departure from the Bridgeville ranch, and subsequently from Humboldt, was precipitated by the hard winter of 189091, when they lost 8000 sheep. (The Rohnerville Herald reported a fire that devastated 2000 acres of the Brown ranch in the fall of 1890.) Then, in 1893, came a sharp drop in the wool market, heralding a four-year national depression. Proud Salmon Brown was suddenly destitute.

After more than 20 years in Humboldt, the family packed their wagons and headed north to Salem, Oregon. Of the eight children, only Cora and Minnie, who had accompanied their parents on the trip from New York to California, remained behind. Cora had died in 1878 after a fall from a bucking horse. Minnie had married Tom Burns and was busy raising her family.

In Salem, Salmon set up a meat business. Nine years later, when the two boys, John and Edward, left the States to try their luck in Alaska, he and his wife made their home in Portland.

It was in these later years that Salmon and Abbie began to look back on their lives and realize that they were an important footnote in the history of the United States. Abbie’s memories of their hazardous journey across the plains in the midst ofthe Civil War were published in the Portland papers. Salmon’s articles about his famous father appeared in several west coast publications.

During the last years of his life, he was bedridden. In 1919, Salmon Brown, aged 82, took his life with a gun said to have a sentimental connection with his father, John Brown.

Talented Nellie was 14 when the family came to Oregon. In Salem she continued her musical studies and added art to her widening interests. By the time she was 18, Nellie had developed not only musical and artistic expertise, but also a certain flair for the dramatic. While she played violin for the Presbyterian Church orchestra in Salem, she heard about the work of the Salvation Army. Entranced by the Army’s good works and the opportunity it offered for travel, little Nellie Brown became Lieutenant Brown and played in the Army Band.

A year later she met her future husband, Edward Groves. The two worked up a vaudeville act and toured the circuit for a few years. Finally, they settled in Washington state, where Edward took up the practice of dentistry, first in Aberdeen and later in Seattle. Nellie bore him one son, Wellington.

At the age of 85, she was once again deeply involved in the musical world. She organized the Seattle Senior Citizens String Ensemble, in which she played first violin. For five years she kept this group playing at churches, at social groups, and in the lobbies of Seattle’s hotels. Failing eyesight forced her to give up these activities, but she was able to keep house alone for several more years before the disabilities of her 98 years confined her to a nursing home.

On July 17, 1980 five generations of John Brown’s family gathered around a cake lit with 102 candles to sing Happy Birthday to his grandaughter, Nellie Brown Groves.

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The story above was originally printed in the May-June 1980 issue of The Humboldt Historian, a journal of the Humboldt County Historical Society, and is reprinted here with permission. The Humboldt County Historical Society is a nonprofit organization devoted to archiving, preserving and sharing Humboldt County’s rich history. You can become a member and receive a year’s worth of new issues of The Humboldt Historian at this link.