Brown-Wilson-Phillips Families

from Betty Matteson Rhodes' Venango Township website

Commemorative Marker for Middlebrook Church
Marriage site of Moses Brown and Polly Wilson

"On this spot was built in 1801 the first meeting house erected in Erie County by American citizens for the worship of Almighty God. The building was known as the Middlebrook Presbyterian Church . The first structure, built in one day, destroyed by fire was supplanted by a larger log building the following year and this was in use until about 1843. This marker was erected in 1926 the 125th Anniversary by the Presbytery of Erie and the Erie County Historical."

Middlebrook Cemetery

Finley Hospital

"That little town, as you might suppose it, off there on the brow of a hill, is indeed a town, but of wounds, sickness, and death. It is Finley Hospital, northeast of the city, on Kendall Green, as it used to be call'd."

~ Walt Whitman

William W. Brown
Son of Moses & Mary Brown
Died Sept.1, 1863

In F[inley ?] Hospital, Washington D.C.
22 y, 4 m

Moses Brown
Died Aug. 21, 1861
Aged 71 years
Mary

Hannah, Sanford, James
Children of Moses & Mary Brown

Eliza Jane Brown’s family has a much longer history than that of her husband William Simons. Her earliest known ancestor can be traced back to 18^thcentury Wales.

            Thomas Phillips was born in 1740 in Wales. He was married to Betsy Carson. It is unknown when Thomas came to North America, but in 1797, his sons John and David came to possess 1,100 acres of land on which Phillipsville now stands. Three years later, in 1800, John and David, along with a "James M." (presumably the brother of John and David) are listed in the tax rolls. John, a General from the War of 1812, went on to serve in numerous public offices such as County Commissioner, Assemblyman, and Canal Commissioner.

            An 1880 recollection by James D. Phillips of Union City, recorded in the Erie Observer, tells the story somewhat differently. It states that "Thomas Phillips, with his sons John, David and Thomas, Jr., and his daughters Elenor, Hannah and Polly, moved from Northumberland County, Penn., in the year 1797.... John Phillips took up 1,400 acres of land, Thomas, Sr., 200, and David 200 acres.... James Phillips, son of Thomas, Sr., and brother to John, David and Thomas, Jr., moved from Lancaster County, Penn., in 1827. He left Waterford on the morning of the 1st day of June at sunrise, and cut the road most of the way to Phillipsville, a distance of eight and a half miles, arriving at sunset."

            There are a number of discrepancies arising from this account, however. If Thomas Sr. arrives in 1797 and took up land, why is he not on the 1800 tax roll? Perhaps he sold his land in those three years. But if James Phillip only moved to the area in 1827, why did his name appear on these same rolls? And what about the differing accounts of the amount of land taken up by John and David Phillips?

            In any case, besides his four sons, Thomas Sr. (who died in 1806 and was buried from St. James in Lancaster, PA) also had three daughters: Elenor, Polly and Hannah. Elenor married John Hunter. Polly married Burrill Tracy.   And Hannah married Nathaniel Wilson.

            Nathanial Wilson was known to be in Venango County as early as 1800 because he is registered as a taxable citizen along with John and James Donaldson, another family name that shows up on the family tree. Nathaniel Wilson was born in 1775 of Joseph Wilson and Mary Speda. He married Hannah Phillips in 1799. They had at least one child, a daughter names Mary Polly Wilson. Nathaniel Wilson can be found on the federal censi of 1820, 1830 and 1850, until his death in 1851. We also know that the Wilsons were members of the Church of Middlebrook Congregation / Early Presbysterian Church in at least 1827 - 1829. It is possible that Nathaniel was buried in the Middlebrook Cemetery, though the tombstones are now so deteriorated that they are illegible. (Modern wooden crosses, numbered, now mark the spots where gravestones were found; the stones themselves are piled atop one another, awaiting a restoration that will likely never occur.) Daughter Mary Polly Wilson married Moses Brown in this church on December 30, 1829. A stipend of $1.50 was given to the parish.

            Moses Brown seems to have moved to the area some time between the 1820 census and his 1829 marriage to Mary Polly Wilson. He was the son of Moses Brown Sr. and Jane Kennedy Donaldson. We know nothing else about his father, but we do have some history about his mother. Jane Kennedy had previously been married to a Mr. Donaldson and had had six children with him. During the Revolutionary War, she followed her husband and son, who were soldiers, as was the custom. Women often accompanied the soldiers to help with meals and such. When the father and son were discharged from service (perhaps at the end of the war in 1783?) they headed home separate from Jane. The husband and son never made it. The son’s body was later found, but the husband's never was.

            Sometime in the next seven years, Jane married Moses Brown. Together they had two children: Jane and Moses (b.1790).   It was this Moses Brown Jr. who married Mary Polly Wilson. They settled north of Lowville in the township of Venango. On January 28, 1828, Moses Brown bought land in Venango Township from John Warren for the sum of $200. The land was situated south of that of Bailey Donaldson (a uncle of Mary Polly Wilson through her mother?).

            Moses Brown and Mary Polly Wilson had eight children:

In 1842, Moses needed the help of a strong lad to carry out the farm work, since he and his wife had seven children at this time, but they were still too young to contribute to the labour at this point. It was at this time that they welcomed William Simons into their home.

Moses Brown died on August 21, 1861 at the age of 71. It is unknown when Mary died, though the fact that her name is second on the tombstone would indicate that is might have been after Moses. They are buried in the Lowville Cemetery alongside their children Hannah, Sanford, James and William W.