Ervin M Brown

Ervin M Brown was born in 1901, the first of 3 children to Adam T Brown and Florence N Hayford. At the age of 2, Ervin's father Adam died tragically in an explosion at the family farm of an old steam engine he was working on. Ervin and his sister, Muriel Joy, his yet unborn sister Adeline and his mother Florence went to live with his maternal grandmother, Martha Ann Hayford (re-married to Nathan Patchen). In yet another tradgedy, Florence became sick and died in 1908, leaving her mother to raise the children. When Martha died in 1919, the children lived with childhood friends until they could survive on their own. Ervin M became a successful businessman, working for the Post Office, running his own trucking business and a bait shop out of his basement, and married Viola Pierce in 1922. Ervin was a devoted sportsmen, hunting and fishing, and in yet another tradgedy, drowned while fishing with friends on Lake Wisconsin in 1944, leaving 3 children of his own - Bette, Carolyn and Ervin Jr. Ervin was very involved in the Odd Fellows Lodge, and very respected in the community.