Part 7: Grand Father John Brown is Back!

The Pennsylvania Rail Road

The Pennsylvania Railroad (reporting mark PRR) was an American Class I railroad, founded in 1846. Commonly referred to as the "Pennsy," the PRR was headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The PRR was the largest railroad by traffic and revenue in the U.S. for the first half of the twentieth century. Over the years, it acquired, merged with or owned part of at least 800 other rail lines and companies. At the end of 1925, it operated 10,515 miles of rail line; in the 1920s, it carried nearly three times the traffic as other railroads of comparable length, such as the Union Pacific or Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe railroads. Its only formidable rival was the New York Central (NYC), which carried around three-quarters of PRR's ton-miles.

Notre Dame Paris France

John Brown came home but how do you keep John down on the farm after he saw Paris? My grandfather saw other people from around the world. He learned many things that he could not learn on the farm. He learned that not all people of color came from the farms in America.  He saw the Cities in America.

He started hearing about jobs in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Harrisburg, and Cleveland. Wouldn't it be nice to get a job and earn a constant paycheck he thought.  He and many other men in Stony Point thought that way.

He started seeing my grandmother, Eliza Lucinda Blue (Lucy). I am sure she knew who she was about to hook up with. After all, John Brown had money in his pocket. Few people of her age did. He had so much money that he bought his sister, Arlene Brown, wife of Joshua Lee Tyree, a farm. Joshua was part of another branch of Eliza Thorn's family. You know from looking at your local family members, you buy someone something this expensive and you are asking for trouble from other people in your family.

But soon,  John Brown had other problems.  Lucy somehow got pregnant.  Hey, John is a Brown and Lucy is the sister-in-law of Nellie Beasley.  She is the Grand Daughter of Old Man Beasley. 

They got married and got out of town while the getting was good. With the remaining money that John had, after the wedding, they caught a train and headed for Pittsburgh, Pa.  A short time later, they found out that they did not have enough money to get to Pittsburgh. They stopped in Steelton, Pa. and stayed in that town for the rest of their lives. They got married in Feb. 1923 and my mother Jean Brown was born in March 1923. As you probably guest, they got married at Free Union Baptist Church before they left. 

As I said before, birth out of wedlock was not the same then as it is today. Today, no one cares. They put it on TV and advertise it. But 80 years ago, this was called a sin by church leaders, families, and friends.  This crime that I could care less about hung over my mother all her life.

The Locust Street stairway in 1911

My Grandmother got a job, taking care of the rich people's homes in Camp Hill. My grandfather got a job in Bethlehem Steel in Steelton.  Before he died decades later, he became a Supervisor.