To look at Browntown today with just two stores, you would hardly believe that in the 1890’s it was a busy thriving village. The first settlers came from eastern Virginia over the mountains through the gaps, settling and building log houses on the western slopes of the Blue Ridge mountains.
The people were mostly of English origin and had family names of Watkins, Northcraft, Manuel, Santmyers, Trail, Brown, Hamburgh, Taylor, Smith Sandberry, Van Meter, Vaught, Rollings, McCauley, Boyd, Compton, and Johnson. These names were found in early tax rolls of Gooney Manor, sold by the owner, Lord Fairfax. Browntown, of course, is in Gooney Manor.
Many of the really old log houses were torn down when the National Park was made on the upper slopes of the Blue Ridge. There are still some of the old houses left, but most have been modernized or sided over. Two fine old brick houses near Browntown have quite an interesting history. One, called Liberty Hall, is on road 622—a short ways east of Browntown Road, which it crosses at Boyds Mill. Georgian style, the house is built of brick said to have been brought from England in 1750. It was known as the Woodward house built by an English architect. I have been told he later married a sister of Mrs. Woodward. The architect then built a very similar house currently owned by William Robinson.
There is an old house, originally known as Oak Grove, on the Browntown-Bentonville road (now renamed as Waterhouse Lane) that was built by John Boyd Sr. for his son. The roof is supported by rafters that are round oak poles, each numbered with a Roman numeral.
An interesting story is told of the house owned by the late Mrs. E. G. Van Valey on Road 634, about a mile east of Browntown. During the Civil War when the Yankees were raiding farms to take horses and food, the Marlow family living in the house drove their horses inside, hiding them in an inside room (it is now a bathroom) and saved the horses from being stolen.
In the 1890s, Browntown had a tannery, a barrel stave mill, a saw mill, and some grist mills. F. P. Cover of Hanover, Pa. came to open the tannery on the east side of the Browntown Road on the bottom land in front of what is now known as the Irvin Masemer property. Jacob Masemer built the big white house after the tannery was removed about 1900. Mr. Masemer came with Mr. Cover, and built the tannery and many other buildings. Mr. Masemer brought with him Adam Overdeer, a cabinetmaker, to do all his finishing work.
Mr. Overdeer had his cabinet shop across from the present bridge in Browntown. The building was removed along with a grain and feed store that stood next to it in the 1940’s. Next beyond it, where the Baptist Church now stands, was a barroom run by Henry Compton. That building was moved back from the road when the church was built and was used for an office for the Cover Tannery, and later as a residence by a Tom and Julia Forsyth. It has been remodeled and is now the home of Ashby Jones.
To my thinking a very sad thing was the terrible waste of the huge chestnut oak trees on the mountains. They cut down huge oak trees often more than 36 inches in diameter just to get the bark for the tannery and left the timber on the ground to rot.
The barrel stave factory was owned by a C. T. Edmonds and built on Gooney Run a little further south than the tannery. The factory whistle blew at 7 a. m., noon, and quitting time. Browntown wasn’t so quiet in those days. The barrels made were used by the folks around Browntown who had fine apple orchards and distilled apple brandy and whiskey.
Still further south on Gooney Run was a sawmill, and at the forks where the stream from Smeltzer’s Hollow joins Gooney was Good’s grist mill, and above that Charles Baggarly had another grist mill. Lloyd Watkins also had a grist mill. Going back north along the Browntown road where 622 crosses it. S. M Boyd had a flour mill, hence that crossroad is still known as Boyd’s mill though the mill has long been gone. All these mills were worked by using the method called mill races, but not by dams. One of the most interesting mills is located on the property owned by the E. J. Dryers. This is an up and down saw, a rarity as it is one of the two known in the state—the other is in a museum near Richmond.
A pin factory on the flats behind where L. E. Smeltzer now operates a store was operated by two Indian men named Pee-Wee and Adkins.
In 1897, Mr. Cover and Mr. Baublitz were responsible for having Jacob Masemer build the Ebeneaer Lutheran Church—the only one in Warren County at that time. Before that the Lutherans had held services every fourth Sunday in the small Union church. The Lutheran church continued services for many years as the German families who had come to work in the tannery were Lutherans. Then as the oider folks died and the tannery was closed, the younger folks moved away to obtain work, the congregation died out, and the church was closed. After some years the church was sold to the Baptists in 1943.
Besides, the Lutheran and Union churches, another small church just north of Gooney Lodge was called the Gooney Manor Church. The original building has been replaced by a modern building that looks like a one room schoolhouse. The Brethren have a church located about two miles south of Browntown, and above that is the Cool Spring Church, much later in origin.
Mr. Masemer built a barroom just east of the present location of Smelzer’s store after the earlier barroom was moved to make way for the church. Henry Compton and George Alexander ran the barroom for Mr. Masemer. This building was later torn down.
Where O. J. Rudacille now operates a store and postoffice was a store operated by Mr. Baublitz, also from Pennsylvania. Later Rennie Cooper operated his trucking business and store from this building. Then the building was sold to O. J. Rudacille who rented it to Keene Updike to operate a grocery store.
Lafayette Updike operated a small general store in 1850 on a road that ran in back of the Stephen Boyd home—later owned by Tom Updike, now owned by the late Pete Deavers family.
Jake Masemer built a garage for Keene Updike next to Adam Overdeer’s cabinet shop had been, and next south to that was a building that many years ago had been a general store. Both these old buildings have been made into apartments. Before being cut up into apartments, the Keene Updike building was used as a grocery store by Mr. Steele.
The older family names seem to have disappeared and the greatest part of the population is Marlow, Manuel, Rudacille, Compton, Updike, Partlow and Jones. As the younger folks leave to find employment and the older folks die, the farms and homes are being sold. Many newcomers from Washington, D. C. are buying the old places for summer and retirement homes.
The Browntown post office was inaugurated as Hamburgh Post Office on May 10, 1821 with Charles M. Johnson as postmaster. The name was changed to Browntown on September 17, 1873 with James W Boyd as Postmaster.
The school house was a small two-room building, and now has four rooms and takes students up to the 7th grade.
Browntown was blessed in their Dr. Updike, he was the father of Julian Updike, county clerk. After the passing of Dr. Updike, the village was served by Dr Mauntz, the grandfather of Dr. Dennis McCarty, a surgeon in Front Royal.