Charles Hathaway Brown, son of Hiram N. Brown, and brother of Henry N. Brown, was born Oct. 21, 1842, in West Woodstock, Conn., and removed with his father’s family in 1854 to Putnam, where his later boyhood was passed and his preparation for business was received. In July, 1870, associated with F.W. Perry, the two established the present extensive business of the well-known hardware firm of Perry & Brown, of Putnam. During this intervening third of a century, Mr. Brown has gradually but steadily come to the front until he is one of Putnam’s most substantial business men and prominent citizens. He is of that type of men who have never sought public office, but public office has sought him. In 1884 he was elected treasurer of the Putnam fire district, the duties of which he discharged and acceptably filled until 1896. Since the last named year, Mr. Brown has been the efficient treasurer of the city of Putnam. In 1887 he was elected registrar of voters and each year since has been re-elected. In 1896 he was honored by his fellow-townsmen with a seat in the General Assembly of the State, and in 1901 he became, by the suffrages of his district, the sixteenth, a member of the State Senate, in both bodies serving with intelligence and ability. In the House he was a member of the committee on Banks and Banking. Senator Brown is a member of the corporation of the Putnam Savings Bank; is a director in and president of the First national Bank of Putnam; director in the Putnam Light and Power Company.
On Sept. 1, 1866, Senator Brown was married to Caroline E. Spaulding, and to them have come three children, two of whom, Wilfred and Dell, are deceased. Harriet Hathaway, the third child, has been liberally educated, attending first the Putnam schools, later Wellesley College, Wellesley, Mass., graduating in 1897. She is a member of Elizabeth Porter Putnam Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution.
There have been several branches of different Brown families in New London county, among them the posterity of Rev. Chad Brown, who, with his wife Elizabeth and son John, came to New England in the ship “Martin,” landing at Boston in 1638. Mr. Brown entertained religious and political sentiments in sympathy with Roger Williams, and went to reside with him at Providence, R.I., and rose to prominence in that plantation. He had studied theology before coming to New England, and in Providence became settled over the church there, following Roger Williams. James Brown, of Newport, R.I., in the fourth generation from Chad (through John and James), born in 1700, married Ann Noyes, born in 1704, and their son James removed to Norwich, Conn. A brother of James Brown of the fourth generation from Chad, who was born in 1702, married Dorothy Noyes, a sister of Ann, the wife of James Brown, settled in Stonington, Conn., and made that town his home through life. These Noyes sisters were the daughters of Dr. James Noyes. Then another progenitor of the Browns in new London county was Thomas Brown, through his sons, Moses, John and Eleazer Brown, of Lynn, Mass., all of whom removed in early life to Stonington, Conn., and were the ancestors of the greater number of the Browns of Stonington.
Source: Commemorative Biographical Record of Tolland and Windham Counties Connecticut; J.H.Beers & Co., Chicago; 1903.