Lewis William Brower, was born Aug. 20, 1845, near Eaton Preble County, Ohio. He was the son of George S. Brower and Sarah (Sarber) Brower. George S. Brower's father, John Brower, descended from the Brouwers who came from Holland to New York in the early 1600s. George and his wife moved from Ohio to Crawfordsville, Indiana where he engaged in the manufacture of hay tools.

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Cornelius Brouwer married into the Broadus family of New York who leased to the organizers of Trinity church for 99 years, the land on which that famous old church now stands. Litigation for the return of this land to the heirs was kept up for many generations, but nothing ever came of it.

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Lewis William Brower's war record as obtained from the War Department follows: "The record shows that subject man enlisted in the Navy July 7, 1865, at Cincinnati, Ohio for one year, as seamen, served on the 'Grampus’ and ‘Victory’ to July 9, 1864, when discharged.

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Returning home after his discharge, he started for the West on horseback where he spent most of the time in Kansas City until 1869 when he came South. Reaching Claiborne Parish, LA., he stopped below Homer one day to ask for his dinner, as was the southern custom in that time at the house most convenient at that hour. This happened to be the farm home of Robert Emmet Reed who, on finding he was a mill wright, asked him to stay and help him and his partner, Dr. Meadows, get started a mill they owned. While engaged in this work, Mr. Reed's sister, Sarah, whose father, Watson Reed, had gone to Brownsville, Texas at the close of the war, returned for a visit to her brother's family. Lewis William Brower and Sarah Reed (b. July 10, 1845, near Saratoga, Hempstead County, Arkansas) were married at her brother's home Feb. 4, 1872. They moved to Nevada County Ark. in the summer of 1876 and lived about three miles southeast of Prescott, where he engaged in the lumber business and continued until a few years before his death, Oct. 11, 1919.

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On Dec. 9, 1886, he moved his family to Prescott, living in the Joe Howell residence on "Christian Ridge” until the following fall in 1889 when he purchased the Harvey place on E. Elm St. (now number 503). This was a large rambling old house built by Dr. Harvey, a Methodist minister and with a half block of ground, which was bought for $600.

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Lewis was extremely patriotic and had an intense devotion and respect for his flag and country. He learned to love the South and allied himself with all its interests, but his loyalty to the "old line" Republicans never wavered, though he never voted that ticket after he made this part of the country his home. He had lumber hauled in and built the first two-plank sidewalk in Prescott, extending from his residence on E. Elm to town. He also built the same from the corner of Fifth and Main to town proper. Most of the residents on these two streets paid something toward the expense of this.

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Sarah died April 14, 1905. Both she and Lewis were buried in DeAnne Cemetery at Prescott. Their children:

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Florence Morrow, b. Dec. 24, 1872, Claiborne Parish, La. She married William Tucker Hart of Henderson, Tenn.

Kathleen, b. June 3, 1886, Prescott, Ark. She married Charles Henry Moore of Franklin, Ky. Died at Prescott, Arkansas February 12, 1944.

 

Information provided by his daughter, Florence (Brower) Hart (1940’s)