Archives West Finding Aid

John J. Browne was born in Greenville, Stark County, Ohio, on April 28, 1843, the son of Andrew and Elizabeth (Goff) Browne. Andrew's father had come from Ireland, and the Goffs were of Pennsylvania German stock. J. J.'s mother died when he was two years old, and he then went to live with maternal grandparents in Indiana, going first to the public schools of Columbia City, Whitley County, and later to Wabash College in Crawfordsville. After he left college, he taught in the high school in Columbia City and acted also as superintendent of schools in Gosehn Indiana. He left teaching to go to law school at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor where he graduated in 1868.

He practiced law for a year in Columbia City, then for four years in Oswego, Kansas, where he was also county superintendent of schools. In 1873 he came to Portland, Oregon, to practice law and was appointed as superintendent of schools of Multnomah County and then re-elected to the office. The dampness of the coast brought back a bronchial asthma that he had had earlier, and this made him decide to come to the dry climate of Eastern Washington.

In 1878 he came to Spokane Falls, which had a population at that time of 54 people. Mr. Browne and A. M. Cannon bought a half interest in 120 acres of Glover's original holding. The Browne-Cannon section included the middle falls, representing nearly one-half of the water power of the river. Mr. Browne practiced law for seven years and then gave his entire attention to his business interests. In 1888 he founded the Browne National Bank; With others he financed the construction of the first street railway; established the Spokane Chronicle, which he later bought personally; he built the Auditorium Block containing the Auditorium Theater; he became President of the Spokane Mill Company and the Spokane Cracker Company.

During the Panic of 1893, his bank failed, and his correspondence for that and succeeding years describes his efforts to raise money to pay his depositors and revive the bank. He was successful and later organized banks in other towns of the Inland Empire. In 1889 he was elected a delegate to the State Constitutional Convention and was Chairman of the Committee on State, County, and Municipal Indebtedness. See Durham's Spokane and the Inland Empire, Vol. II, p. 760, for a text of a speech advocating conservation of timber and use of water power, but under the control of the states rather than the federal government. The address was made to the U. S. Senate Committee on Public Lands in 1910.

He was married in Iola, Kansas in 1874 (June 16) to Miss Anna W. Stratton, the daughter of the Rev. H. W. Stratton. Their children were: Guy C., who married Caroline Mayer and had three children, Karl M., Marguerite, and John J.; Earle P., who wedded Florence Littlefield, of Wenatchee and had two daughters, helen and Anne; Alta, who married Boyd Hamilton, whose child was Dale B., the family home being at Couer d'Alene; Irma S., the wife of G. M. Ross of Couer d'Alene, whose child was Alta; and Hazel, the wife of E. M. Sweeley of Twin Falls, Idaho. Mr. Browne died in 1912.