Napoleon Brown

Man of color, according to his death certificate born 2 January 1906 in Luverne, Crenshaw Co., AL. HIs father was George A./H. Brown (born Cincinnati, OH); his mother was Annie Brooks (born Thomasville, GA). He died on 15 November 1936 at the TB Sanatorium in Pensacola, FL of pulmonary tuberculosis, for which the signing physician (C.W. Sween) had treated him since 12 November. His residence was 315 N. Baylen St., Pensacola, and he had been in the city for 30 years at the time of his death. The informant on his death certificate was Annie Brown White, also of 315 N. Baylen Street. Napoleon was a laborer in public works. He was buried in the Escambia County Poor Farm by Morris Funeral Home.

The reason I specified “according to his birth certificate” when it came to Mr. Brown’s birthdate is because I have found evidence he was probably at least a few years older than that birthdate would indicate. I suspect, though, that Annie Brown White, the informant, and Annie Brooks, his mother, may be the same person – in which case she would have been in a position to know the year of his birth. Perhaps it was a transcription error, or a date suggested to her by her assertion of his approximate age. The census records indicate he was born between 1892 and 1900, which seems more realistic, considering the following:

A Napoleon Brown appears in the newspaper twice in May of 1909, having been fined $2 in recorder’s court for riding a bicycle on the sidewalk, and a week later sentenced to 25 days in jail for “acting in a disorderly manner at a negro moving picture show on East Belmont street.” Was a three-year-old cited for these crimes? It is not out of the question, given the racial climate of the times, but it seems more likely he was between 9 and 17 years old.

The 1910 census for Pensacola, Escambia County, FL shows a household headed by Annie Brown who rented her home at 317 E. La Rua St. She was identified as Mulatto, 36 years old a widowed. She had been in her “present” marriage for 11 years. In her lifetime she had given birth to 2 children, one of whom was still living. She was born in Georgia of two parents born in Georgia and worked as a cook for a private family. Also in the household were her son, Napoleon Brown, Mulatto, 10 years old (which age appears to have been corrected, but the original age cannot be deciphered). He was born in Alabama as was his father. He worked as a messenger boy for Hannah Bros. (a pharmacy). Despite Annie’s supposedly having only one living child, Lilly E. Jackson, also in the household, was identified as her daughter. (Annie Brooks married William Jackson on 26 December 1910 – after the census was taken – and I wonder if there is a connection there.) Lilly was identified as Black, 14 years old, born in Georgia of two parents born in Georgia, and worked as a housemaid for a private family. There was one boarder in the home.

Napoleon was listed in the 1910 Pensacola City Directory as a clerk, at 317 E. La Rua St., with Anna Brown, a widwo. If he were 10 years old, this was unusual.

I have not located any of the family in the 1920 census. That year there was a Napoleon Brown listed as a prisoner in Columbia County, FL; apparently the man convicted of manslaughter in Polk County, FL in 1915. His place of birth – and that of his parents – was Pennsylvania. While “Pensacola,” could be misinterpreted as “Pennsylvania” by an inattentive census enumerator, subsequent newspaper articles regarding his conditional pardon and further petty criminal enterprises in the Tampa area confirm he is not the same man, as he was convicted of theft in December 1936, after the death of Napoleon Brown in Pensacola.

A marriage record for Napoleon Brown in Escambia County, FL shows he Jeanette O’Bannon on 9 March 1929. In May of that same year, Jeanette Brown and Napoleon Brown pleaded guilty to charges of drunkenness, and were each sentenced to a fine of $10 and costs or 30 days. There is no indication which penalty was administered.

In the 1930 census, Napoleon headed his own household at 604 N. Tarragona St., Pensacola. He was 38 years old, married (at the age of 37), and worked as a bayman on the loading dock. He was identified as Negro, born in Georgia of a father born in Kentucky and a mother born in Georgia. Jennette Brown was 25, married at the age of 24, and was born in Alabama of a father born in Florida and a mother born in Alabama. She was identified as Negro and worked as a seamstress out of the home. Sharing the household was Taft O’Bannon, Jeanette’s brother, 21 years old and single, who worked as a tailor at a dry cleaning establishment.

The next time Napoleon appears in records is in an account of his arrest in June 1931, along with Jeannette and a man named A.B. Rowe. Rowe had been slashed with a knife during an altercation, but could say for certain which of the Browns had done it. In 1933, the pair ended up in court again, this time “Janet Brown was sentenced to pay $15 and cost or serve 30 days for tearing up $12 worth of clothing owned by Napoleon Brown.”

Jeanette died on 1 April 1934 of angina pectoris (which is a slightly vague diagnosis indicative only that her death involved cardiac-related chest pain). Her death certificate listed Napoleon Brown as her husband and her residence as 1218 N. Guillemard St., Pensacola.

By 1936, Napoleon was listed in the Pensacola City Directory as living at 315 N. Baylen St., with a spouse by the name of Katherine, though I have found no marriage record for them. I cannot positively identify her after Napoleon’s death.

I cannot positively identify George Brown. I know from my own family that someone living in the right part of northern Kentucky can be described as living “in Cincinnati,” so that may not be the exact place he was from. The 1930 census which says Napoleon’s father was born in Kentucky may be informative; however, I cannot identify a George Brown from Kentucky as being his father, either. (The problem is not being unable to find a George Brown; it’s finding too many to know which one made his way to Pensacola for a time.)

FAMILY:

Mother: Annie Brooks (aka Brown, White, Jackson)

Father: George Brown

Spouses: Jeanette O’Bannon; Katherine

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SOURCES:

Florida Certificate of Death for Napoleon Brown (No. 18872), 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.

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

“Recorder’s Court Yesterday Morning,” The Pensacola Journal, 7 MAY 1909, p. 5.

“Record’s Court Yesterday Morning,” The Pensacola Journal, 14 MAY 1909, p. 3

Death certificate for Jenette Brown (No. 6399), 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.