Rev. Brown's Log Cabin

In 1868 the Swedish immigrant Daniel Peter Brown arranged for two of his fellow countrymen
to build him a log cabin from the trees growing on his claim in Riverside Township in Clay
County, Dakota Territiory, near the Vermillion River.  Compensation for these builders came
in the form of logs from Brown's homestead claim, that thye could use to build their own 
dwellings.

Daniel Brown was a clergyman-a preacher, and his cabin became an early gathering place
for religious and educational purposes among the Swedish immigrant homesteader in Clay
County.  Church services and confirmation classes, baptisms and communions, weddings
and funerals were led by Brown and conducted in his log cabin.  The preaching of Brown
became the inspiration in the lives of many of the early Scandinavian homesteaders in Clay
County.  The teacher Brown held school classes in the English language for the immigrant
children in his log cabin until country school districts could be organized.

Re. Brown was skilled in English, Latin, German, and a Native American dialect.  He used
his ability to help Swedish immigrants locate homesteads and to serve as a translator when
they filed for homestead claims at the US Land Office in Vermillion.  Brown's cabin became
destination for Swedes and Norwegians first entering Clay County, seeking assistance.

Rev. Brown served in the Union army during the Civil War.  He was mustered in at Fort
 Snelling, Minnesota and later discharged honorably from St. Louis, Missouri.  He was a
 soldier in Ulysses S. Grant's forces during the siege of Vicksburg, Mississippi, which changed
 the course of the Civil War in the western campaign.

Brown's origins are a mystery, and his demise is an unsolved crime.  He declared himself
a Swede, but the rest of his background he kept to himself.  The first record of him in the
United States is of being a preacher among Swedes in Carver County, Minnesota in the
1850's.

He sold his homestead in about 1882 and he moved to St. Helena, Nebraska.  It is believed
he met with foul play on a trip to Yankton, South Dakota.  His body was never found.  All that
was found was his empty knapsack-his most guarded possession.  When Rev. Brown sold his
homestead, he made provisions in the deed that he retained ownership of a few acres of 
his homestead in case he would want to return to his cabin and live.  He never returned.

His cabin today still remains on the original Brown homestead.  1932 saw the desire to
preserve the cabin on the part of the children of the homesteaders that Brown had helped
decades before.  The cabin was then moved to its present location.  1974 saw a second 
desire to preserve the cabin by the repair and replacement of many of the logs and the 
transfer of ownership of the cabin to the Clay County Historical Society.  A third desire to 
preserve the cabin was begun in 1999 with the formation of a committee and a discussion
regarding the future of the Brown cabin

Donations to this project are welcome, and can be directed to the 
Clay County Historical Society, c/o Brown Cabin, 19 Austin Street, Vermillion, SD  57069