Rash's Surname Index
Notes for Ellis Yarnall III BROWN
Ellis Y. Brown III, 95, of Downingtown, passed away quietly on Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2008, at his home in East Brandywine in the last days of his 95th year.
Mr. Brown was born in Downingtown on Dec. 13, 1912, to Ellis Y. Brown Jr. and Mary Downing Brown. He was the eldest of four sons.
While growing up, Mr. Brown had an interest in animal husbandry and outdoor activities, which he later put to good use in his 50-year livelihood as a family farmer.
Mr. Brown was a lifelong member and attendee of Uwchlan Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends of Downing-town.
He attended elementary school at the Downingtown Friends School and later attended Westtown School. He graduated from Suffield School in Connecticut in 1932. While there, he participated in several sports, including varsity baseball and football where, despite having a bantam wrestler's build, he proudly played right guard.
In his youth, Mr. Brown maintained several favorite horses and became an accomplished horseman. For years, he enjoyed riding in several of the well-known foxhunting clubs in Chester County.
Mr. Brown married Lucile Anne Dobson of Guthriesville at the Brandywine Presbyterian Church on May 25, 1940. They enjoyed 57 years of marriage and raised three children.
Along with his brothers and cousins, Mr. Brown excelled at the game of quoits at family get-togethers. In later years, he usually could defeat any of the younger members of the family, including his sons and grandchildren who might challenge him in this backyard game.
When the children were young, the family enjoyed annual summer vacations at the shore in Beach Haven, N.J.
According to his brother, Tom, at the Browns' 50th wedding anniversary celebration in 1990, Ellis was known among his family as being one of the best fox hunters, Phillies fans, and poultrymen in Chester County.
During World War II, he was employed with his father at the Downingtown Manufacturing Co.
For many years, he was the director of the Downingtown National Bank and a member of the Pennsylvania Farm Association.
In the mid-1940s, Mr. Brown began farming on a small homestead in Whitford, and in 1950 moved his family to his father-in-law's larger farm near Guthriesville, where a new house and a barn extension were added to support a serious farming effort that continued for the next 50 years. With his wife, Lucile, and their three children, Mr. Brown began growing annual crops of wheat, alfalfa and corn to support their yearly herds of beef cattle, occasional hogs and a large flock of commercial chickens. The poultry operation supplied eggs to Shaw's Hatchery in West Chester, which in turn supplied fertile eggs for vaccine development.
In addition, Mr. and Mrs. Brown ran a weekly egg route to many local customers for more than 40 years. Many said there was no better egg than an "Ellis & Lucile Brown egg" supplemented by home-grown vegetables (asparagus, string and lima beans) from their garden in season.
Approaching retirement in the 1990s, with the farming operation winding down, Ellis and Lucile enjoyed traveling together in their station wagon packed with camping gear. They usually did an annual vacation loop, visiting their daughter, Mary, in Maine and their son, William, in New York, before returning to the farm where their son-in-residence, Ellis IV, had taken over the numerous steer and chicken chores in their absence.
Mr. Brown continued to maintain a reduced chicken flock and egg-route operation until his early 90s.
He is survived by his brother, Francis G. Brown of Downingtown; and by his children, William S. Brown of Fort Ann, N.Y., Mary G. Brown Glass of Ellsworth, Maine and Ellis Y. ("Pat") Brown IV of Guthriesville. He is also survived by grandchildren, Sam, Anna and Dara Glass of Maine, and Owen Brown of Coatesville; daughters-inlaw, Sheila E. Tuttle and Gwendolyn Habecker Brown; his grandson's wife, Dana Tolf Brown; and his great-granddaughter, Kelly Marie Brown; as well as numerous nieces and nephews.
Besides his parents, he was predeceased by his wife, Lucile; brothers, Thomas D. Brown of Paoli and Richard W. Brown of Erie; and his grandchild, Bonnie C. Brown of Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
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