Sunset at Gowanus Bay

Sunset at Gowanus Bay
Sunset at Gowanus Bay, Henry Gritten, 1851

Monday, June 4, 2012

Jacob W. Brower of Surry Co., North Carolina

This short biography of Jacob W. Brower of Surry Co., North Carolina was first placed online July 10, 2009.

The article appeared in the Surry County Genealogical Association Journal vol. 23 (2003). Jacob W. Brower, originally of Randolph Co., N.C. came to Surry Co., N.C. as a young man and settled at Mt. Airy. He became a very prosperous mill owner and manufacturer. The 1860 census declares his real estate worth $31,000 and personal estate $17,000, both values that are very rarely seen in 1860. His son John Morehead Brower was a U.S. Representative from N.C., 1887-1891. Jacob was also a slave owner and is found with a record of his slaves (unnamed) on the 1850 and 1860 slave schedules in Surry Co. After the Civil War, there appear in Mt. Airy, Surry Co., a couple of “black” and “mulatto” families (as described by the U.S. Federal census) in Mt. Airy, Surry Co. with the BROWER surname. No doubt these are the emancipated slaves of Jacob W. Brower.

Jacob W. Brower has not yet been placed among the known Brouwer, Brower or Brewer families. However, I suspect that he is a descendant of Hubert Brower since some of Hubert’s descendants, with the surname Brower, migrated to Randolph Co., N.C. in the late 1790s or first decade of the 1800s.

Additional details of Jacob W. Brower, his descendants and some of the former slave families with the Brower surname can be found online at the Brouwer Genealogy Database. Please use the Master Index to look up Brower, Jacob W. (b.1812, d.14 Oct 1868). His wife was Mary Martha Albright. Links to two of his slaves (Nelson and James) are provided in Jacob W. Brower's profile. It would be welcome to hear from anyone with verifiable information regarding Jacob’s ancestry.

BGB 124

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