Joshua Brown (Texas pioneer)
Joshua David Brown (1816–1876) was a Texas pioneer who became the first settler of Kerrville, the seat of Kerr County in the Texas Hill Country west of San Antonio. Brown donated the original 4-acre (16,000 m2) townsite for Kerrville, and the community was named after his friend and fellow Kentucky native, James Kerr (1790–1850). Brown made his living by making shingles harvested from cypress trees growing along the Guadalupe River.
Brown was born in Madison County, Kentucky in 1816. His parents, Edward Brown and Anastasia Campbell Brown, migrated to Sabine County, Texas in the 1830s and Joshua followed them in 1837. After arriving in Texas, military service followed for Brown; after leaving the military he returned home and received a certificate for 640 acres of land. Brown was living in Gonzales when he became interested in shingle-making. It was during this time at Green DeWitt's Colony at Gonzales, that he became friends with James Kerr, a fellow soldier and later a land surveyor and official of the Colony. Brown then moved to a small settlement named Curry's Creek in Kendall County, where he learned the craft of shingle-making using cypress trees. In 1846, Brown and a group of ten men (all shingle-makers) went up the Guadalupe River to look for cypress trees, and selected a site to develop which would later become Kerrville. Brown and his men remained and worked at the camp for a few months until the Apache's drove them from the area. Brown and his men returned to the area in 1848 and remained this time, naming their settlement Brownsborough. Settlers followed them to the camp and established sawmills and farms along the river and streams.
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