James Henry Brown (2/28/1845-11/8/1935) was born in Boston, Massachusetts to Charles and Mary Brown. Not much is known about his childhood. The summer of 1860 found him working on the farm of an older couple near Alfred, Maine. Brown was seventeen when he enlisted in the 27th Maine Infantry regiment on September 30, 1862. The 27th mustered into service at Portland, Maine for nine months service. After less than a month of training, the regiment was sent to Washington, D.C. on October 22, 1862, and remained there for the rest of 1862 and the first part of 1863, guarding the Capital and the supply lines of the Army of the Potomac.
In late March 1863, the regiment was posted at Chantilly, Virginia. Then on June 24 ordered back to Arlington Heights, Virginia to prepare for discharge from service on June 30. They saw no action during this tour of duty.
When asked for volunteers because of a manpower shortage due to the battle at Gettysburg PA, James Brown re-enlisted as a private in Company L of the 2nd Maine Cavalry. The 2nd Maine was organized from November 30, 1863, to January 2, 1864. The regiment left Maine in April 1864 and was stationed in New Orleans until May 26 when it was moved to Thibodeaux, Louisiana. It did picket duty and scouting around Thibodeaux until July 27 when the regiment was reposted to Pensacola, Florida.
While in Florida, Brown transferred to the Navy and served as a gunner’s mate on the USS Manhattan. A new gunship, the Manhattan was commissioned in 1864. Brown fought at the Battle of Mobile Bay under Admiral David Farragut of “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!” fame. During this battle, the Manhattan took the surrender of the Confederate ironclad Tennessee and later bombarded Fort Morgan. The Manhattan later blockaded the mouth of the Red River until the end of the war.
James Brown was only twenty years old when the war ended in 1865. After the war Brown remained at sea serving on the sailing ship “Flying Cloud” from 1865 to 1868. In 1870, age 25, he was found in Bodega, Sonoma County, California working in a sawmill and living in a lumber camp bunkhouse with twenty-six other men. For about the next twenty years he remained in Bodega, working as a lumberman, with possible periods spent at sea. Brown then moved to southern California and in 1892 registered to vote in Tustin. Three years later, on March 6, 1895, he married Sarah M. Goodwin. Their wedding took place at the home of a neighbor, W.L. Shatto. He was 50 and she was 36.
Sarah Goodwin (2/6/1859-4/7/1935) was born in Rushford, Wisconsin to John and Mary (Daggett) Goodwin. She had one brother and three older sisters. By 1880, her widowed mother, Mary, had moved the family to San Francisco where 21-year-old Sarah worked as shoe fitter. In approximately 1883, the Goodwin’s moved to Tustin. Both of Sarah’s younger sisters were married in Tustin. Sadly, in 1889 Sarah’s sister Effie was involved in a murder-suicide that shocked the southland. Mary Goodwin passed away in the Fall of 1892 and Sarah inherited her house on Pacific and Third street in Tustin where James and Sarah would make it their home for the rest of their lives.
Despite a line in his obituary claiming he helped develop the citrus industry in the area there is very little evidence of his ever being involved in horticulture or owning an orchard until his later years. Census records and early city directories consistently identified his occupation as a laborer. Regardless of his profession, James Brown was popular in his community. On his ninetieth birthday a large party was thrown at his house attended by dozens of friends.
When he passed away at home on November 8, 1935, at the age of ninety he had been commander of the Sedgwick Post 17 of the GAR for the past eight years. The local newspaper published two funeral notices, an obituary and an article describing the funeral service with a picture of the 21-gun salute. James H. Brown was laid to rest at Santa Ana Cemetery on November 12, 1935, seventy-three years after he had answered his country’s call to arms.
Sarah Brown continued to live the house on Pacific and Third. She and James had been married for forty years and like her husband she had been community spirited and was also involved in veteran’s affairs. She served at least one term as president of the Daughters of Union Veterans and she sat on the executive board of the California-Nevada division of the Women’s Relief Corps of the GAR. Sarah passed away on April 7, 1945, at the age of eighty-six and was buried next to her husband at Santa Ana Cemetery.
See Museum file for the sources of this Family Profile
Researched by Timothy Zierer
Created: 9/30/2021
