William Benjamin Brown, 1908-1943

Headstone GPS Coordinates: 

Birth: 20 August 1908, Squaw Valley, Okanogan County, Washington

Death: 18 October 1943, Port Orchard, Kitsap County, Washington

Relatives in Seabeck Cemetery: Larry Roy Brown

American Revolutionary War Patriots*: Thomas C. Pasley (Virginia) DAR #A134095

Disclaimer: These lines have not been officially proven by NSDAR standards.

 

William Benjamin Brown was born on August 20, 1908, in Squaw Valley, Washington, a rural community nestled in the rugged hills of Okanogan County. He was the son of William R. Brown, a man born in Arkansas, and Rose Myrtle Pasley, who came from Idaho. His earliest years unfolded against the backdrop of a frontier-like environment. Okanogan County, sparsely populated at the time, attracted homesteaders, ranchers, and orchardists who carved out a living in the challenging terrain of north-central Washington.

The 1910 census shows two-year-old William listed with his parents, his older brother Chester, and a young woman named Hazel Pasley. Hazel’s exact relationship to the family is uncertain—she may have been Rose Myrtle’s younger sister or perhaps her daughter from an earlier relationship.

By 1920, the Browns had moved about 100 miles south into Methow Valley, another fertile stretch of land in Okanogan County, well known for its orchards and farming potential. At this time, William was eleven years old, living with his parents, Chester, and his younger sister Eunice. The move was typical of families in the early 20th century West, following opportunities for land, farm labor, or seasonal work in orchards.

As William came of age, he likely began contributing to the family’s livelihood. In the 1930 census, a “B.W. Brown” appears in Methow Valley, age twenty-one, listed as a laborer in an orchard. Okanogan County’s orchards offered steady, if physically demanding, employment for young men in the region.

The next year on September 29, 1931, William married Martha C. Neyhart in Okanogan. Martha was the daughter of Ralph and Olive Neyhart of Skagit County, a region of western Washington known for its farmland. She had grown up surrounded by her extended family, and the marriage joined together two families rooted in different parts of the state.

Their joy as a young couple was soon tempered by tragedy. Their first child, Larry Roy Brown, was born on December 22, 1932, but lived only one month. He died on January 23, 1933, from bronchial pneumonia—a common but often fatal illness. His death certificate records his burial at Crosby, Washington, with Martha’s mother, Olive Neyhart, listed as the informant. Family ties suggest Olive may have encouraged the burial there, near her own family in Seabeck. Olive herself was living in Crosby by the mid-1930s, sharing a household with her brother Larry Selby, and other Selby relatives had been buried in Seabeck years earlier.

William and Martha persevered after their loss. By April 1940, the census listed them once again in Okanogan County, in the Methow Valley area. William—recorded this time as “Ben”—was thirty-one, Martha twenty-five, and they had a five-year-old son, R. Richard. William was working steadily, and later that year he completed his mandated World War II draft registration card in Twisp, Washington, listing his occupation with the Department of Highways. This work reflected a shift in rural employment during the Depression years, when government programs and state projects offered stability that farm and orchard work could not always provide. Although registered, William was never called to serve in the military. At that stage of WWII, draft boards generally gave preference to younger, unmarried men, sparing older husbands and fathers like William from conscription.

In 1943, however, the Browns’ lives were altered again. That October, William and his family had moved west to Waterman, near Port Orchard in Kitsap County, where William found work clearing timber and continuing his employment with the state highway department. On October 18, he was suddenly stricken with a heart attack while working near his home. Despite the efforts of his wife and a neighbor who found him, William died at just thirty-five years old. His passing was reported in the Kitsap Sun: 

“William Benjamin Brown, 35, was found dead last evening near his Waterman home by his wife and a neighbor woman. He was clearing timber and was apparently stricken with a heart attack, dying shortly afterwards. He was born August 20, 1908, in Squaw Creek, Wash., and came to Waterman eight months ago with his wife and son. The deceased was employed as a laborer on the state highway department near Port Orchard.”

Martha remarried not long after William’s death and would marry at least once more before her own passing in 1980.