Fred Brown

Black male, born 14 April 1900, in Camden, AL, according to his death certificate. The certificate lists his wife as Lula Brown of 317 N. Baylen St., Pensacola; and his mother as Rosa Brown, born in Camden, AL. Fred Brown was a railroad employee (section hand) at the time of his death on 24 January 1935 at Pensacola Hospital. The death certificate shows his cause of death  as “laceration of left chest with pulmonary collapse and empyema.” Only farther down does it specify the injury was a knife wound inflicted December 30, 1934, and the death was considered a homicide. Fred Brown was buried in the Escambia County Poor Farm by Goldstucker Brothers.

There were several articles in the local newspaper about the stabbbing; in fact, Fred Brown was arrested along with his assailant, James (“Jim”) Tate, at the time of the fight (31 December 1934). The fight took place on Romana Street between Florida Blanca and Alcaniz. “Both were severely slashed.”

Almost a month later, on 29 January, the paper reported that Jim Tate was being held on a charge of murder in the death of Fred Brown as a result of the wounds received in the knife fight. The location of the fight was specified as 409 Romana Street. “According to … the inquest before the Justice of the Peace… Brown was stabbed near the hear and through the lung.”

Jim Tate was indicted for manslaughter in late February and tried in late March, but the trial ended in a mistrial – apparently the jury could not come to a decision after deliberating for three hours. The paper reported on 12 May 1935 that Tate would be tried again, but I have not yet found any further reporting on the case. Tate does not appear in the records of State Prisoners of the time, so it is possible he was acquitted of the charges.

As is so often the case with people whose lives were poorly documented, I present findings below without solid confirmation they pertain to the correct person:

A Frederic Brown appeared in the 1900 Census for Mims, Wilcox County, AL in the household of Henry Lucas, a farmer who owned his farm. His wife was Burnett Lucas, and also in the household were Burnett’s sister, Lucy Ridgeway, and two women who appear to be Lucy’s daughters, Rosa L. Brown, 20 and Georgia A. Brown, 19. Frederic Brown is identified as a nephew, but at 2 years old was surely the son of one of the nieces and, if the death certificate is correct, that would have been Rosa Brown. None of the adults in the house were literate.

(I believe that Burnett Lucas was Lucy’s sister and that they were both Ridgeways at one time, but I am having a hard time confirming this hypothesis.)

In the 1910 Federal Census, a 12-year-old Fred Brown appeared again in the household of Henry and Burnett Lucas on Blacks Bluff Road in Mims, AL; however, Lucy, Rosa, and Georgia were no longer in the home. Henry Lucas was still working as a farmer but no longer owned the land.

I have not located Fred in the 1920 Census. I found a marriage record for Fred Brown and Lula D. Jones in Dallas County, AL on 13 December 1925.  Fred first appeared in the Pensacola records in the 1927 City Directory, working as a laborer, married to Lula D. Brown, living at 816 N. D Street.

Lula D. Jones lived on Cactus St. in Brewton, AL in the 1920 census, in the home of her sister, Annie Williams. Lula was identified as mulatto, a widow, and she had a newborn daughter named Ethel Jones.

The 1931 Directory shows Fred and Lula lived together at 1010 N. D St. By 1934, Lula was listed alone at 315 1/2 N. Baylen St.

In the 1930 census, Lula lived on W. DeSoto Street in Pensacola with her mother, Carrie Williams. She was Lula Brown, a married woman, and her daughter was identified as Ethel Brown, but Fred was not enumerated in the home.

[Carrie Williams was born in Castleberry, AL in 1878, the daughter of Len Lucas and Anna Harris. She married Thomas Williams in 1896 in Conecuh County, AL and had at least five children. She died in 1937 at the house on N. Baylen St. of Bright’s Disease and senile dementia. She was buried in St. Joseph’s Cemetery in Pensacola.]

In 1935, Lula was listed in the Florida State Census as a widow living at 317 N. Baylen St., with Ethel Brown and Carrie Williams. She was listed in the 1936 Pensacola City Directory living at 317 N. Baylen St. (the addres on Fred’s death certificate), widowed, working as a seamstress. In the 1940 census, Lula Brown was living with a boarder at 317 N. Baylen, listed as Lula Brown, a widow. She made her living as a washerwoman.

I have not tracked down Ethel, nor am I sure whether she used Jones or Brown as her last name. I cannot find Lula after 1940.

FAMILY:

Mother: Rosa Brown

Wife: Lula D. Williams Jones Brown

Stepdaughter: Ethel Jones

Maternal Grandmother [probable]: Lucy Ridgeway

Maternal Aunt: Burnett (Ridgeway?) Lucas, wife of Henry Lucas

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SOURCES:

Florida Certificate of Death for Fred Brown (No. 781), Florida Deaths, 1877-1939. Database. FamilySearch. http://FamilySearch.org : 14 June 2016. Index based upon data collected by the Genealogical Society of Utah, Salt Lake City.

“Fighters Arrested,” The Pensacola Journal 31 DEC 1934, p. 3

“Negro Is Held On Charge Of Murder,” The Pensacola Journal 29 JAN 1935, p. 3.

“Loses Damage Suit Against Sheriff,” The Pensacola Journal 23 FEB 1935, p. 1.

“Negro Faces Trial for Manslaughter,” The Pensacola Journal 26 MAR 1935, p. 7.

“Mistrial Ends Stabbing Case,” The Pensacola Journal 27 MAR 1935, p. 7.

“New Term Opens In Record Court,” The Pensacola Journal 12 MAY 1935, p. 2.

Household of Lucy Ridgeway: Year: 1880; Census Place: Allenton, Wilcox, Alabama; Roll: 35; Page: 285D; Enumeration District: 187. Ancestry.com and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 1880 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com

Ancestry.com. U.S., City Directories, 1822-1995 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.

Household of Lula Brown: Year: 1930; Census Place: Pensacola, Escamlia, Florida; Page: 12A; Enumeration District: 0026; FHL microfilm: 2340050. Ancestry.com. 1930 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2002.

Brown, Lula; Brown, Ethel; William, Carrie (1935): Ancestry.com. Florida, U.S., State Census, 1867-1945 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2008. Original data: Schedules of the Florida State Census of 1885; (National Archives Microfilm Publication M845, 13 Rolls); Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29; National Archives, Washington D.C.

Florida Certificate of Death for Thomas Williams, Jr. (No. 4573), Florida Deaths, 1877-1939. Database. FamilySearch. http://FamilySearch.org : 14 June 2016. Index based upon data collected by the Genealogical Society of Utah, Salt Lake City.

Florida Certificate of Death for Carrie Williams (No. 21027), Florida Deaths, 1877-1939. Database. FamilySearch. http://FamilySearch.org : 14 June 2016. Index based upon data collected by the Genealogical Society of Utah, Salt Lake City.

Household of Lula Brown: Year: 1940; Census Place: Pensacola, Escambia, Florida; Roll: m-t0627-00586; Page: 6B; Enumeration District: 17-43. Ancestry.com. 1940 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012.