James Moorhead Brown was born as the fifth son of Captain James Brown and Martha Stephens Brown in Brown County, Illinois, seventy miles from Nauvoo, on November 17, 1834.
When James Moorhead was seven years old his parents were converted to Mormonism by Jacob Foutz. After one sermon Captain Brown was converted and went to Nauvoo to see the Prophet Joseph Smith who advised him to settle his business in Brown County and move to Nauvoo. Consequently, Captain Brown and family moved to Nauvoo and lived there two years. They then moved to Augusta, a small town on the Skunk River where he purchased a grist mill. There was no organized branch of the Church there and no strong opposition to it but the people were down on the Brown's and the other few members of the Church who lived there.
When the news of Joseph Smith's murder was made known it caused a great sensation in Augusta and even the unfriendly neighbors of the Brown's were shocked. When Brigham Young later decided to lead the people across the plains, the Brown family left Augusta and sailed down the Mississippi River to Winter Quarters to make ready for the eventful journey by them into the wilderness.
When the United States officers appeared and made an appeal for volunteers to fight in the Mexican War in 1846, Captain Brown was among the first to volunteer and he was accompanied by his two sons, Alexander and Jesse, and his new wife, Mary McRae Black Brown, and her little six year old son, George David Black. His son, James Moorehead, stayed with the family and with them made the trek across the plans, arriving in what is now Ogden, Utah in 1848. At that time there were very few houses in Ogden except the ones at Goodyear Fort [Fort Buenaventura], where his father had recently settled. James Moorehead said the place was all sagebrush, grass, and willows. Bears were plentiful and troublesome. One night they killed four sheep and a dog. Foxes, wolves, and Indians infested the place. There were plenty of praire chickens to eat which were a welcome additon to their fare. Also sage hens and geese.
Bones of buffalo were plentiful. Generally speaking the Indians and the white people got along very well until they saw the land was productive. Then the Indians asserted their ownership and began to help themselves to the growning corn. An Indian was killed by mistake when someone fired a gun to frighten them away and this caused great trouble and Captain Brown sent to Salt Lake for help and a body of men came on horseback and drove the Indians from the settlement.
James Moorehead said his first impression of Ogden was that it was the most forbidding place he had ever seen. One of the women in the company said she would rather go a thousand miles further and risk finding a better settlement.
The first home in Ogden outside of the Goodyear Fort was built by James's father, Captain Brown and Datus Ensign.
When Johnson's Army approached the valley men were sent out to meet them and keep them from coming down to Salt Lake. One of the methods used was to climb the mountains and collect a quantity of big rocks where they could be rolled down upon anyone passing along the canyon.
When the army later was stationed at Camp Floyd one of President Young's sons had a contract for supplying the army with wood which James Moorehead helped to fill. He said the soldiers expressed themselves as having been fooled by the authorites in Washington about the state of affairs in Utah.
James Moorhead's missionary experiences began when he was sent on a mission to the Indians at Fort Supply and in Malad Valley, which was successful. He was always active in church work and became a High Priest and was a High Counsellor in the Weber Stake and a block teacher for many years, retiring only on account of deafness. He was a member of the Ogden Police Force for twelve years.
He became acquainted with Brigham Young in 1846 and esteemed hm as a leader of the highest rank. He also was acquainted with the other Church leaders.
James Moorhead especially admired Daniel H. Wells, who was a wealthy land owner in Nauvoo, but was not a member of the Church at the time, but later joined and left Nauvoo with President Young, and later becme his counsellor in the First Presidency.
When James M. Brown went on his mission to Fort Supply in Wyoming as a missionary to the Indians, he met a beautiful half-breed Indian girl who had been reared in the home of Brigham Young. Her mother, a full-blooded Indian had married a French fur trader named Baptiste Exervia. Adelaide was their first child.After Baptiste died, Sally remarried a man named Barney Ward, by whom she had two daughters.
Adelaide Exervia went to Fort Supply/Laramie to visit her mother Sally Exervia Ward and her two half-sisters. Adelaide was a beautiful girl, slender with sparkling black eyes and black curly hair. At this time a celebration was going on in Fort Laramie and while it was in progress young Adelaide had perched herself on the top rail of the corral, swinging her bare legs.
The young, nineteen year old missionary, James Moorhead Brown, spotted her there and inquired who she was and immediatley said, :"That is the girl I am going to marry!" Twenty days later they were married and made their home in Ogden. When James saw her they fell in love with each other and they were soon married by his cousin James Stephens Brown. When his mission was finished, James and his young bride went to Ogden Ogen and made their home there in the same location on Washington Boulevard between 28th and 29th Streets. Here they reared a family of seven sons and three daughters. To help her husband, Adelaide kept boarders for many years.
Early in the 19th century a terrific battle took place at Battle Creek, Wyoming, practically all of the Indians were killed. As the white men wer leaving the field of battle they saw an Indian baby sucking its dead mothers breast. One of the men took the baby home with him and named her Sally. Later Sally was taken to St. Louis and adopted by a merchant with whom she lived several years. Learning that she was a native of the far west, she longed to join her own people. When she was only a young girl she ran away and began her search for her native tribe.
Sally wandered for many days and experienced untold harrowing difficulties. She swam one of the tributaries of the Mississippi River before she reached the westn ranges. Finally she found the Shone Indians, her own tribe and settled with them at the Fort Laramie Reservation.
Sally later married Baptiste Exervia and traveled with him over much of the western country. Sally bore her husband two children, John and Adelaide. A few years later her husband died of the spotted fever. After his death Sally met the Mormon pioneers and turned little Adelaide over to Brigham Young who took her into his home to teach her the Christian religion and the ways of the white man. Unusually keen and intelligent, Adelaide learned to do fine sewing and in an artistic way made many beautiful quilts of flower design in beautiful colors, and she became a good cook and housekeeper.
James Moorhead and Adelaide Exervia Brown's children:
James William Brown - June 22, 1856
Moroni Franklin Brown - Sep 23, 1857
Phoebe Adelaide Brown - May 14, 1859
Nephi Francis Brown - Sept 23, 1860
Francis Adora Brown - Feb 26, 1862
Adelbert Brown - Feb 27, 1864
Albert Brown - Nov 17, 1865
Hubert Brown - Sep 17, 1867
Lewis Herbert Brown - Nov 10, 1869
Martha Zina Brown - June 7, 1872
Nancy Viola Brown -Jan 10, 1876
Adelaide's death on 15 December 1895 at age 57 was reportedly from tuberculosis. Four of their children died before age 21, at least two of them are thought to also have died from tuberculosis.
Fifteen years later, James married Matilde Hornsby in 1910.
James died the 26th day of December 1924 at ninety years of age.
