Old Missoula

Scotty Brown – “Youth has hope, faith and optimism”

Scotty Brown Main Speaker Tonight at Father-Son Dinner (1939)

“Scotty Brown, well-known local sheepman, tonight will deliver the principal talk at the annual father and son banquet for Missoula district Boy Scouts which is expected to attract a crowd greater than the record number of 512 in 1938. The event starts promptly at 6:30 o’clock at Loyola auditorium.”

The above paragraph is from a front page Daily Missoulian article on Feb. 10, 1940.

Scotty Brown was something more than an ordinary Montana sheepman. Brown’s talk was a powerful one about what he thought it meant to be an American. An article the following day in The Daily Missoulian, quoted some of it:

 

Boy Scouts and fathers, numbering more than five hundred, turned out Friday evening to attend the annual father-son banquet of the Missoula district of the Western Montana council and heard Scotty Brown, prominent and popular sheepman of this area, talk on “The Privilege of Being an American.”

A feature of the evening was the introduction by Mayor Dwight Mason of all elected and appointed Boy Scout officers who, starting at 9 o’clock this morning will assume control for the day of both city and county governments.

Main Address

In the main talk of the evening, Scotty Brown emphasized how fortunate citizens of the United States are in having the freedom and liberty offered in this country. “I get more money from my tax dollar than from anything else.” Citing an example, he said that in Scotland, his birthplace, which he considers next to the United States in freedom, that only an average of one person in every family can possibly go to university, while in America the entire family may attend.

“Youth has hope, faith and optimism,” he said. “We pass to you a heritage (that of the United States) that has never been surpassed in the history of the world.”

Defining for the scouts what he thought the best citizen he had ever met, Scotty Brown pointed to the “common every day man who fulfills his duty and does his job a well as he can.” “It doesn’t matter if you have money. If you do your duty and are sincere, you are the best citizen that you can be,” he said.

 

Some other prominent Missoula men in the audience included Evan Kelley, chief forester of Region One, E. H. Myrick, supervisor of the Lolo Forest, and Dr. George Simmons, president of the University of Montana.

So, who was Scotty Brown, the prominent sheepman for whom is named the iconic bridge across the Blackfoot River near Ovando, as well as the nearby, Brown’s Lake.

His death in 1958 was also front-page news in The Daily Missoulian:

 

Scotty Brown, Long-Time Resident, Dies

Matthew (Scotty) Brown, 83, long-time resident of western Montana, died Monday evening at his home at 202 West Sussex Ave.

Mr. Brown was born April 29, 1875 at Kilmaurs, Ayrshire, Scotland, the second youngest of 12 children of Matthew and Agnes Brown. He came to the United States in 1897 to “read law” in the office of his oldest brother in Chamberlain, S. D. About 1898, he became interested in the sheep business and moved west of the Missouri River to White River and near the present day town of Kadoka, S. D., where he went into business on his own.

He returned to Scotland in 1900 to marry Margaret Roy Tait and took his bride to the sheep ranch he established in South Dakota. Mr. Brown was a candidate for the U.S. Senate from South Dakota in 1908.

They moved to Montana in 1911 and settled in the Blackfoot Valley on a ranch at the mouth of Montour Creek near Ovando, where Mr. Brown built the commonly known “Scotty Brown” bridge. He raised purebred Clydesdale horses, farmed, and bought and sold livestock until 1918 when he sold the ranch and two and one-half sections of land. He then went to France where he served with the Young Men’s Christian Assn. and Red Cross, remaining for a year after World War 1 to assist with the armed services property salvage operations.

While Mr. Brown was in France his family resided in Missoula. Returning here he became associated with S. Silberman & Sons, Chicago, as a wool buyer and also worked for several firms as a stock buyer for feeder operations. For some time he was in the sheep business with the Nyer Brown firm of Dixon.

He owned several farms in the Flathead Valley prior to establishing a 320-acre ranch at St. Ignatius which he stocked with purebred black angus cattle. He sold the ranch in 1949, later buying a smaller place near St. Ignatius which he farmed until about three years ago, when he retired from active farming, stock and wool buying due to illness.

Mr. Brown was a member of Missoula Lodge 13, AF&AM, and one of the world’s oldest Masonic lodges in Scotland. He was a member of the First Presbyterian Church and of the Missoula Rotary Club. He was a member of the Board of Education at Montana State University from 1922 to 1924.

He is survived by two daughters, Mrs. Margaret J. Disch, presently teaching in a U.S. Army dependent school at Tokyo, Japan, and Agnes L. Brown, teacher at Missoula County High School; one granddaughter, one grandson and several nieces and nephews. Mrs. Brown died in Missoula in 1947, and a son, Clark, died in 1945 in New York.

The body is at the Squire-Simmons-Carr Mortuary.

 

The editor of The Daily Missoulian also had the following to say about Scotty Brown the next day:

 

In the imprint he made upon a large circle of associates during his many years of residence in western Montana, Scotty Brown leaves a rich and enviable heritage.

During the 47 years since he came to this community at the age of 36 the man little known as Matthew M. Brown, but very much so as Scotty Brown, utilized his outstanding business ability and driving energy in a wide variety of agricultural pursuits. He was a wool and livestock buyer of unusual acumen, and successively made his mark as a breeder of high quality horses, sheep and cattle.

But, more than anything else, the thing that made Scotty Brown a marked man in any group was his warm and engaging personality. The keen wit and unassuming manner which he brought with him from his native Scotland served him well in the land of his adoption. His active mind and strong physique combined to keep him unusually active until he neared the age of 80.

Down the years the sparkling humor and sage philosophy of Scotty Brown brightened and enriched the lives of countless associates. In his death we lose a man of foreign birth who personified the finest attributes of Americanism.

 

Scotty Brown’s funeral services were noted in the Oct. 25, 1958 Daily Missoulian.

Funeral services were conducted Friday at First Presbyterian Church for Matthew (Scotty) Brown, long-time western Montana resident who died at 83. The Rev. Richard A. Jones officiated and burial was in the family plot of Missoula Cemetery under the direction of the Squire-Simmons-Carr Mortuary. Pallbearers were H. O. Bell, Leon L. Bulen, Theodore Jacobs, W. S. Myles of Tacoma, Wash., L. M. Tarbet and Waldo Phillips of St. Ignatius. Honorary pallbearers were C. W. Ellingwood of Hamilton, Don MacKenzie of Missoula, Harry Miller of St. Ignatius, Howard Nye of Billings and A. W. Olson, G. Evan Reely, John Schramm and George F. Weisel Sr. of Missoula.

 

 

Along with her father Scotty, Miss Agnes L. Brown, was also a well-known Missoulian and a highly regarded Missoula County High School teacher. An article about her from The Daily Missoulian on May 22, 1967, appears below:

Agnes L. Brown Dies; Long-Time Teacher

Agnes Longmuir Brown, longtime Missoula resident and teacher in Missoula County High School for 37 years, died Saturday. She had been hospitalized for a long period.

Miss Brown was born in Chamberlain, S. D., Aug. 8, 1901, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Matthew (Scotty) Brown, prominent residents of Missoula for many years.

She attended elementary school in the Blackfoot Valley, where her father was engaged in ranching. In 1916 the family moved to Missoula and Agnes entered Missoula County High School, from which she graduated in 1919. In 1923 she graduated from the University of Montana with honors, and the following fall went to Plains to teach. After teaching two years there she accepted a position in Missoula County High School, where she remained as teacher and department chairman until her retirement in June, 1962. She was chairman of the Social Studies Department at the High School from 1947 until 1962. In 1952 she received a Masters Degree with honors from the University.

Miss Brown took an active part in many educational, church and civic affairs. She was the first woman elder of the First Presbyterian Church in Missoula, and was a member of the Electa Chapter of the Order of Eastern Star, a life member of both the National Education Association and the Montana Education Association. Sher was chairman from 1956 – 1960 of the State Ethics Committee of Montana Education Association, and president of the Northwestern District of MEA in 1946-47. In 1952 she was honored by an invitational trip to a conference at Rensaeler Polytechnic, Troy, N. Y., as an outstanding teacher in Montana. In 1955 she was honored at Theta Sigma Phi Matrix table, for outstanding service to the community. She was a member of the International Society of Delta Kappa Gamma, educational sorority, and president of the local chapter from 1958 – 1960.

Miss Brown was the author of a number of articles in Montana Education Association Journal and was the author of a 50-year history of the First Presbyterian Church in Missoula. She also helped prepare a history of Missoula schools.

Since her retirement she has been living in the family home at 202 W. Sussex Ave. She is survived by a sister, Mrs. Margaret Brown Disch of Oakland, Calif., a nephew, Clark T. Brown of Chico State College, Chico, Calif., a niece, Mrs. Guillermo Rolland of Madrid, Spain; two aunts, Mrs. A. J. Riggert of Big Arm and Mrs. William Reid of St. Ignatius; an uncle, Alec H. Tait, Dairy, Scotland; and cousins William T. Riggert of Missoula, Jessie Riggert Johnson of Helena and Mrs. John Ralston of St. Ignatius.

The body is at Squire-Simmons-Carr Mortuary. Funeral services will be held in the First Presbyterian Church, Wednesday at 3 p.m. with Dr. Richard A. Jones officiating.

 

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