Throughout my research, pictures of Frances and Rebecca Brown have been quite elusive. Nonetheless, it is very exciting to find one of them together. Frances is on the left. The realtives who gave me this photo don’t know where or when this was taken, but knowing the dates of birth for each of the women, and estimating their ages in the photo, I would say it was taken around the turn of the century.

Photograph of Charles, Rebecca and Floy Brown in front of their house. The back of the photo reads “Mama, papa, and Floy at home last summer”, most likely written by Harriet or Frances, Charles and Rebecca’s other two daughters. The railing and posts on the front porch are probably the exact same as they are to this day.

Rebecca Alice Slocum was born to Edward and Renewed Hazard Slocum on January 16, 1844 in Rhode Island. Rebecca came to Vancouver when she was 24 years old with her uncle William C. Hazard. She was a member of the prominent pioneer Slocum family of early Vancouver. Rebecca married Charles E. Brown right here in the Brown House in 1874. Charles and Rebecca would eventually have three daughters, Floy, Frances and Harriet. Rebecca lived in Vancouver for forty years until she passed away on October 17, 1910 from heart failure. Photo courtesy of Rebecca’s great-granddaughter Anne Hurley of Corvallis, OR.

Rebecca Alice Slocum was born to Edward and Renewed Hazard Slocum on January 16, 1844 in Rhode Island. Rebecca came to Vancouver when she was 24 years old with her uncle William C. Hazard. She married Charles Brown right here in the Brown house in 1874. The couple would go on to have three daughters, Floy, Frances and Harriet. Rebecca passed away in the early hours of October 17, 1910 due to heart failure and her obituary below appeared in the Columbian later that day.

I found a copy of this postcard while researching the Brown House at the Clark County Historical Museum. The Brown House is pictured on the front. The postcard is from Mrs. Charles Brown (Rebecca) and is to her daughter Harriet Brown Carpenter.

The postcard reads: “When will you ever write again. Have you received the Union suits. All well- Floy and Will had a fine trip to Willamette valley”. Mother, Mrs. Charles Brown.

Floy, mentioned in the postcard, is the daughter of Rebecca and sister of Harriet. Will is Floy’s husband, Will DuBois.

A union suit is a type of one piece long underwear typically worn by men. It traditionally buttons up the front and has a button up rear “access hatch”. These would have been very common at the time Rebecca wrote this postcard in the early 1900’s. To get a better idea of what a Union suit looks like I have placed a vintage ad below.

1866
Alonzo and Isabella Cook, original owners.

June 19, 1874
Charles and Rebecca Brown. Charles died April 19, 1901.

June 1901
Homestead claim by Rebecca Brown. Rebecca died in 1910.

September 12, 1925
Heirs of Rebecca Brown deeded it to Alice Hubbard. Alice died April 3, 1935. It is unsure who occupied the house for the next five years.

April 13, 1940
Mary Prindle, Alice Hubbard’s sister, sold the house to William and Julia Frost, another sister and brother in-law. Mary may have inherited the house from her sister Alice after she passed away.

May 31, 1946
Law office of Bates and Burnett became owners. This was the first decentralized law office in the City of Vancouver.

June 8, 1960
Attorney James Gregg and wife Barbara became owners.

September 2004
The law firm of Stahancyk, Kent, Johnson and Hook purchased the Historic Charles Brown House.

Tombstones of William Hazard and C.W. Slocum. William Hazard was the uncle of C.W. Slocum, as well as Rebecca Slocum Brown. Both men are pictured on the March 10th posting of this journal. These tombstones sit just a few yards away from each other at the Old City Cemetery in Vancouver.

Seated left; C.W. Slocum, right; Wm. Hazard. Standing are C.W. Knowles and daughter Ruth. C.W. Slocum once owned a very prosperous general store in early Vancouver located at 3rd and Main Streets. C.W. Slocum is Rebecca Brown’s brother and Wm. Hazard is their uncle.