Esther Ellen Brown was the daughter of Captain James Brown and Esther Jones Raper Brown. She was born at Salt Lake City, Utah on March 8, 1849, shortly after the Brown Family reached Utah on its way to Brownsville (Ogden), Utah.
In her youth Esther Ellen Brown met James Leech Dee an English Welshman, who was born 25 February 1842 at Hanley, Stake Upon Trent, Staffordshire, England, the son of Thomas Hill Dee, the first of the Dee family to join the Mormon Church, and Elizabeth Reese Dee. James had one brother, Thomas Dumcomb Dee. James had been married and divorced from Ann Eliza Webb, they had two sons. Ann Eliza went on to become Brigham Young's 27th and final wife.
Esther Ellen Brown and James Leech Dee were married by the Civil Authorities at the Valley House, Salt Lake City, in the Fall of 1866 when Esther Ellen was a beautiful girl of seventeen and James Dee was twenty-four, and then in the Endowment House, Salt Lake City, Utah, 24 November 1873.
James was a building contractor specializing in plastering types of homes, which were the style in those days. Esther and James went to Ogden to live among the Brown's and the Dee's and other fine pioneer families. James became financially independent and had a fine white stucco plaster home at 2450 Grant Avenue, Ogden, Utah.
James Leech Dee and Esther Ellen Brown Dee raised three girls and four boys:
Elizabeth Ellen Dee, 29 July 1867
James Stanley Dee born 16 October 1869
Charles Oscar Dee born 20 November 1871
Alice Pearl Dee born 22 July 1874, died 15 Septtember 1875
Elsie Grace Dee born 12 August 1876
Thomas Leroy Dee born 6 February 1879
Ernest Leon Dee born 13 December 1885.
Esther was a wonderful housekeeper and entertained extensively. She was an active member of the Relief Society. James was a High Priest in the Second Ward Weber Stake, Ogden, Utah. James bought Esther one of the first pianos received at Ogden. He owned a fine stable of horses and had his private two-seated "gig" two-wheeled vehicle, which he loved to ride in, driving his lovely horses in tandem style on Sunday afternoons through the streets of Ogden, many years before they modernized.
The Thomas D. Dee Memorial Hospital, Ogden, Utah is named after James Dee's younger brother. There were two brothers, James Leech Dee and Thomas Duncomb Dee, James being the eldest.
Esther Ellen Brown Dee died 26 October 1893 at Ogden, Utah and her husband, James Leech Dee died 6 June 1897 at Ogden, Utah.
Sources:
PAF - Archer files
Brown Book of Remembrance by Hattie Critchlow Jensen and Loella Brown Tanner prior to 1948
