Leuthold C. Brown

Leuthold C. Brown was born, according to Republicans in Illinois, in a log house at the corner of Wabash and Congress in Chicago on January 23, 1849. He was the third of nine children to Hackaliah Brown, a carpenter, and Cornelia Olivia Hough, a teacher. Both of his parents were born in New York and traveled to DuPage county as children with Cornelia settling in Bloomingdale Township.

Brown moved to DuPage county in 1852 and studied at Wheaton from 1865-1867 in the Academic (Gentlemen) and Commercial courses. Luthold, sometimes represented as Luthold, was slightly crippled as a child. However, as an adult he overcame these infirmities and worked as a jeweler and watchmaker in Elgin and Grand Crossing, Illinois and San Francisco. In 1875, while working at the Cornell Watch Company, he and a colleague, Charles R. Bacon, were assigned patent no. 166,741 for their safety center pinions for watches. He later returned to Wheaton, setting up shop as a jeweler. Here he served a term as the city treasurer.

Brown married Evelyn A. Piper, who was born in Oswego, NY, on June 14, 1871. Together they had three children, Ernest Clair (born ca. 1871), Dora I. (born ca. 1878), Leuthold H. Brown (born ca. 1879) and Vera C. (born ca. 1896). Brown participated in the dedication and cornerstone-laying ceremonies for the county courthouse in 1896. He was appointed postmaster for Wheaton by the McKinley administration and reappointed under Roosevelt. As of the 1907 census of federal civil employees, Brown was still listed as the postmaster of Wheaton with his son, Leuthold, serving as assistant postmaster. Leuthold died tragically on July 1, 1920 in Wheaton after being bludgeoned at the hand  of his son-in-law Nolen Robinson, the husband of Vera. Evelyn died on June 28, 1920 from injuries suffered in the same attack.