William Ripley Brown
Politician. Republican. Born: July 16, 1840, Buffalo, New York. Died: March 4, 1916, Kansas City, Missouri. Served in U.S. House of Representatives, 3rd District: March 4, 1875, to March 3, 1877.
The future congressman from the state of Kansas, William R. Brown, was born in Buffalo, New York, on July 16, 1840, and educated in Phillips Exeter Academy, Exeter, New Hampshire, and graduated from Union College at Schenectady, New York in 1862. Brown then went to Kansas, settling in Emporia where he studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1864. He served as judge of the ninth judicial district of Kansas from 1867 to 1877 and was elected to a single term in the U.S. Congress in November 1874 (served, March 4, 1875-March 3, 1877). Unsuccessful in his bid for renomination in 1876, Brown resumed the practice of law in Hutchinson and was register of the United States land office in Larned from 1883-1885. He moved to El Reno, Oklahoma, in 1892 and served as probate judge of Canadian County from 1894-1898. Brown was a resident of Los Molinos, California, at the time of his death, which occurred at the home of his daughter, Mr. Hunt C. Gardner, in Kansas City, Missouri, on March 4, 1916; he was buried in Lawrence, where he had once lived, on March 6, 1916.
Entry: Brown, William Ripley
Author: Kansas Historical Society
Author information: The Kansas Historical Society is a state agency charged with actively safeguarding and sharing the state's history.
Date Created: June 2011
Date Modified: May 2012
The author of this article is solely responsible for its content.
