Brown, Stephen Colgrove

Stephen Colgrove Brown (1900-1979)

Hinsdale, NH

On July 22, 1900 Calista (Gould) Brown gave birth to her son, Stephen Colgrove Brown, in Hinsdale, NH.  He was named after his grandfather, Stephen Colgrove of Vernon, VT.  This was the third child for Fred L. Brown, a white 39-year old laborer, and Calista Gould, a black, 32-year old, housekeeper.  Stephen is listed as Black on the birth record.  

The Brown family most likely didn’t stay in New Hampshire long.  Stephen’s sister Elizabeth was born in Springfield, MA, two years later, in 1902.  Parents Fred and Calista divorced soon after their second child’s birth.  Fred remarried by 1905.  Calista Brown moved to Exton, PA with her two children.

When World War I broke out, Stephen Brown became a private in the army and was mustered out of Hoboken, NJ.  He served from August 1914-April 1919 in France.  His army transport paperwork indicates he received a shrapnel wound while in service.  His mother Calista, in the meantime found work in East Bradford, PA, as a domestic servant in a private home.  

Following his service in the war, Stephen married Georgia Burnise Brown of Virginia and the couple settled in Downingtown, PA.  By 1940, they had moved to Miami, Florida where they both worked as servants within a private household.  They moved back to Pennsylvania after more than a decade in the South.  Georgia worked as a school maid until her death in 1958.  

Stephen Brown died in February 1979 in Atlantic City, NJ.

SOURCE MATERIALS

Find-a-Grave

Massachusetts Birth Records, Springfield, 1902- Ancestry.com

New Hampshire Birth Records, Hinsdale, 1904- Ancestry.com

Pennsylvania Death Records, Darling, 1939, 1953, 1958- Ancestry.com

Pennsylvania, U.S., World War I Veterans Service and Compensation Files, 1932- Ancestry.com

U.S. Army Transport Document, 1918- Ancestry.com

U.S. Federal Census, 1810, 1840, 1850, 1860, 1920, 1940- Ancestry.com

U.S. Social Security Administration Records, 1979- Ancestry.com

Vermont Birth Records, 1858, 1867- Ancestry.com

Vermont Death Records, 1859, 1869, 1945- Ancestry.com

Vermont Marriage Records, 1859, 1895, 1905- Ancestry.com

World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942- Ancestry.com

GENEALOGICAL SUMMARY

STEPHEN COLGROVE BROWN, born in Hinsdale, NH, on July 22, 1900, son of Fred L. Brown (white) and Calista Gould (black). He married GEORGIA BURNISE BROWN in 1920 in Pennsylvania. Stephen died in Atlantic City, NJ, in February 1979.