Joseph Brown

Joseph Brown (1823December 3, 1899) was mayor of Alton, Illinois, serving from 1856 to 1857, and the 21st mayor of St. Louis, Missouri, serving from 1871 to 1875. Childhood and young adulthood Brown was born in 1823 in Jedburgh, Scotland. He lived there with his family until he turned eight. Afterwards, he and his family immigrated to the United States, settling down in Alton, Illinois. Brown received a good education, partially completing his college career before going to work in the milling business at the age 18. After a few years, Brown met Miss Virginia Keach. In 1854, they got married, and later had two daughters. Brown was also well known in the river traffic. He oversaw many of his steamers' construction. At the start of the American Civil War, Brown retired from this business to pursue real estate operations. However, he continued on assisting in the construction in many of the gunboats and ironclad ships for the Navy.