Copyright © 2021 by Wendy Waszut-Barrett
George H. Brown was a foreman carpenter at Sosman & Landis. He supervised construction at the studio and installed counterweight rigging systems on site.
His passing was recorded in the memoirs of Thomas G. Moses. In 1911, Moses wrote, “Mr. Brown, our foreman carpenter, died February 27th, very suddenly.”
On Feb 28, 1911, George H. Brown was listed in the obituary section of the “Chicago Tribune”:
“BROWN – George H. Brown. Feb 27, 1911, beloved husband of Mary Brown, father of Annie and George, at his residence 2901 Edgewood-av. Funeral notice later. Member of Harrison council No. 527, National Union and International Alliance Local No. 2 Stage Employee” (page 5).
Brown was born in New York, sometime during the month of October 1849. He was the son of Robert B. Brown (1820-1888) and Elizabeth Pague (1824-1900). George H. Brown grew to adulthood in Chicago during the 1860s. The Brown family had moved west by 1857, briefly staying in Wisconsin where George’s youngest brother, William, was born. By 1860, the Brown family was living in Chicago and George was twelve years old. The 1860 US Federal Census reported that the Brown household included: Robert B. Brown, 40 yrs. old (born in New York); Elizabeth Brown, 39 yrs. old (born in New York), Robert T. Brown, 14 years old (born in New York); George H. Brown, 12 years old (born in New York); Mary E. Brown, 9 years old (born in New York); and William Edwin Brown, 3 years old (born in Wisconsin).
George’s father initially worked as a bookbinder in Chicago. He continued this occupation until 1867 when he was listed a broom maker in the “Chicago Directory,” living at 350 W. Indiana in the rear portion of the building. At some point between 1864 and 1867, Brown went blind and left the bookbinding industry. George would have been between fifteen and eight years old when his father went blind. There is a great likelihood that George began as an apprentice somewhere or simply moved out to reduce the overall household expenses, sending money home to his family.
His father continued to work as broom maker until his passing in 1888. However, by 1869 he also began reseating chairs. On July 1, 1869, the ”Chicago Evening Post” reported, “Robert B. Brown, a blind man, residing at 553 Fulton street, supports his family by reseating chairs, and will be grateful for any work of this kind that may be sent to him, or he will send after and return chairs to ant part of the city” (page 4). The Brown family continued to reside at 553 Fulton for the next two decades, until after Robert’s passing.
The two oldest Brown boys, George and Robert, moved out of the family home by 1870. The census that year listed Robert and Elizabeth as living with Mary and William, now ages nineteen and thirteen. By 1880, there were still two children at home, but this time it was William Brown and Robert T. Brown. Various members of the Brown family continued to live at 553 Fulton until shortly after Robert’s passing. Robert B. passed away on Sept. 12, 1888, but his widow Elizabeth was still listed as living at 553 Fulton in the 1889 “Chicago Directory.”
George has been almost impossible to track due to his name. There are simply too many George Brown’s working as carpenters across the country at this time in the mid- to late-nineteenth century. The title “stage carpenter” was also not commonly used in city directories or census reports, reducing the accuracy of any search. There are even TWO George H. Browns listed as “foreman” in the Chicago City Directory in the 1880s and 1890s, with no indication of the industry that they worked in at the time. To date, I have only located two records pertaining to a “stage carpenter” Brown, the likely candidate for Sosman & Landis’ foreman carpenter.
The US Federal Census 1900 listed a stage carpenter named George Brown living in Chicago at 619 Humbolt Street. He was fifty years old, married and living with his two children. The report listed that George and Mollie Brown were married in 1889. Extraneous information pertaining to their children, Anna and George Jr., provide a little more information about the Brown’s life after George leaving his parents’ home.
George’s wife Mollie was born in Missouri, sometime during November 1867. Their first child, Anna, was also born in Missouri, sometime during October 1885. This suggests that George worked in Missouri during the 1880s, met Mollie and married her and started a family there. However, I have yet to locate any marriage records for the couple that states a particular county in the state. My best guess is Kansas City, especially since two Sosman & Landis stage carpenters, Claude Hagan and Joe Wikoff, worked in in Kansas City at this time. For context, Sosman & Landis established a regional branch in Kansas City during the mid 1880s.
George’s youngest child, George H. Brown, Jr., was born in Chicago in April 1895, suggesting a return north prior to this time. I suspect that he was employed as a stage carpenter at Sosman & Landis, but have yet to locate a definitive connection. In between Missouri and Illinois, I think he worked in New York.
After completing what felt like thousands of online searches, delving deep into newspaper article, census reports, city directories and other public records, I was only able to locate one bit of information that may have indicated Brown’s whereabouts in 1892. Stage Carpenter Brown was present when the Metropolitan Opera House in New York was destroyed by fire. I am going to include the article in its entirety. This provides a possible motive for George Brown’s return to Chicago at this time.
On September 1, 1892, the “Carlisle Weekly Herald” reported the following news from New York (Carlisle, Pennsylvania, page 4):
“WORK OF THE FLAMES.
The Metropolitan Opera House of New York Destroyed. A Boy and Girl Burned to Death.
The Most Beautiful Place of Amusement in America Burned in an Hour – A Paper Box Factory in Flames – The Augusta Chronicle Office Also Destroyed.
“New York, Aug. 29. – The magnificent Metropolitan Opera House, burned by Braodway, Seventh avenue, Thirty-ninth and Fortieth streets, one of the finest and most expensive of modern play-houses, with an auditorium of greater idmensions than any other in the world, a structure believed to be absolutely fire-proof, lies in ruins, Fire gutted it with a loss of $400,000.
About 9:30 o’clock in the forenoon Stage Carpenter Brown, his assistant, Engineer Scatterwood and Cornelius Horan, a boy, the only persons in the immense opera house, were startled at beholding a fierce mass of flames burst suddenly forth through the giant stage and spread with marvelous rapidity. The flooring laid over the orchestra at the time of the Christian Endeavor convention in July last for the chairs for the delegates, had not yet been removed, and this once ignited carried the flames quickly to the main entrance. The engineer turned the crank to the large water tank above the stage, and let its hundreds of gallons of water crash down upon the flames, but the water produced no visible effect. There were twenty-five lines of hose in the building, and the stage carpenter turned one of these in the flames, but in a moment was obliged to fly for his life.
Nothing But the Walls Standing.
When the steamers responded the entire interior was a fiery furnace. Within half an hour the roof had been burned through and the flames and smoke shot up in the air. This rent, however, and an east wind, sweeping the flames back toward Seventh avenue, assisted the firemen in saving the Broadway front, in which are located the Bank of New Amsetrdam and Zancheri & Gazzo’s restaurant, surmounted by six upper stories occupied as apartments. The stage and everything from the proscenium arch to the 127-foot-high rear wall on Seventh street has been entirely swept away, leaving only bare brick walls standing. In the auditorium the five tiers that rise above the orchestra still remain, but all the trappings of the boxes, the upholsterings of the chairs, the frescoes of the walls and dome have vanished. In the boxes and the tiers above the iron frames of the chairs alone remain. The flames burned fiercely here, but they did not make their way through the roof and still remain at. This point. Further than the entrance doors to the auditorium the flames did not succeed in making their way.
A Boy Meets His Death.
The boy Horan who was employed by Albert Operti, the scenic artist, was hemmed in by the flames on the third floor. Groping his way to one of the windows overlooking Thirty-ninth street he leaped down to a storm door shed on the ground floor. He was so badly burned that he died at the Bellevue hospital shortly after. When Operti arrived, distracted, he saw vanishing in smoke all the works of art which he had been painting for use at the Columbian celebration to occur in this city in October, and new scenery for Daly’s and Casino and the Academy of Music, all of which will be a total loss.
The estimated loss on the Opera House fixtures is $250,000. The damage to the building is $150,000. The loss is covered by insurance and Secretary H. M. McLaren declares that a meeting of the stockholders will be immediately called and the work of refitting the Opera House be begun as soon as the water will permit. The interior of the theatre had been overhauled and thoroughly fitted for the opening of the season. Abbey, Schoefle & Grau had leased the Opera House for the season.”
Now, if this is the same stage carpenter Brown as the one who worked at Sosman & Landis, it places him back in Chicago at the perfect time to be employed at Sosman & Landis when Masonic scenery and stage machinery production begins to dramatically increase. It is also about the same time that the firm’s head stage carpenter, Charles S. King, passed away in 1894. In the past, I have tried to track down the development of a rigging system known as “Brown’s Special System.” Brown’s Special System was installed by Sosman & Landis as dozens of Scottish Rite theaters, beginning about 1902. Here is a past post from 2018 about the system: https://drypigment.net2018/08/10/tales-from-a-scenic-artist-and-scholar-part-475-browns-special-counterweighted-system/’
I suspect that George H. Brown was associated with the design and became the primary installer of the system. Brown’s Special Counterweighted System allowed more drops to be crammed into a limited amount of space on stage, resulting in the increased sale of scenery and stage machinery.
Marketed by M. C. Lilley, Sosman & Landis was subcontracted to manufacture and install rigging systems in dozens of Masonic theaters across the country during the first two decades of the twentieth century. Extant examples include Scottish Rite theaters in: Portland, Oregon (1902); Little Rock, Arkansas (1902, now in Pasadena, California); McAlester, Oklahoma (1908, now in Salina Kansas) Wichita, Kansas (1908); Santa Fe, New Mexico (1912) Tucson, Arizona (1914); and Grand Forks, North Dakota (1915), just to name a few.
The key figure in the marketing of this system was also a man named Brown – Bestor G. Brown, M. C. Lilley’s western sales representative in Kansas City, Missouri. He formed an alliance with the fellow Scottish Rite Mason, Joseph S. Sosman, a founder of Sosman & Landis in Chicago. For Masonic theater projects, Sosman & Landis provided all of the design, manufacture and installation of both painted scenery and stage machinery. Their rigging system was designed to be operated by a non-professional stage crew; a variety of Masonic members who came from various backgrounds, most without any prior backstage experience. For context, Scottish Rite members, and not professional stage hands, ran all backstage activities and scenic effects during Scottish Rite productions at Scottish Rite Reunions twice a year. The Scottish Rite productions served an educational purpose, like morality plays.
I first came across the designation, “Brown’s Special System,” in a series of letters between Bestor G. Brown, and the Austin Scottish Rite. In the correspondence, Brown explained that there was only one stage carpenter who superintended the installation at Scottish Rite theaters.
Salesman Brown, however, was mistaken given credit as the namesake of the design. Over the years newspapers would erroneously refer to Bestor G. Brown as a “Masonic stage Carpenter.” An article from 1903 even credited Brown as the individual who “created and developed the application of modern scenic properties to the dramatic presentation of all Masonic degrees and in this work is almost invariably consulted everywhere throughout the United States.” This mistake is understandable if the studio designer and salesman share the same last name.
By the time, George H. Brown arrived at Sosman & Landis, there were at least two other stage carpenters responsible for installing scenery and machinery across the country. W. H. Clifton superintended installations at opera houses, theaters and Elks auditoriums. The first mention of Clifton working for the company is 1889, and he continues into the first decade of the twentieth century. Newspaper articles report that Clifton was sent to superintend the work, requiring him to spend time on site – often about four weeks. His duties on site included fitting the stage carpets and conducting a final run through of all items with the client.
Charles S. King (1839-1894) was another individual in charge of installing scenery and stage machinery for Sosman & Landis. King began his career in 1859, and by 1887 had installed 200 stage systems. In 1889, he was credited as working at Sosman & Landis for fifteen years; this makes him one of the firm’s earliest employees.
David A. Strong (1830-1911) was a scenic artist and stage mechanic who specialized in Masonic work. Thomas G. Moses even credited him as the “Daddy of Masonic Design” in his memoirs. We know that Strong was a member of the Theatrical Mechanics association and the in same Theatrical Mechanics Association Chicago Lodge No. 4 as John Bairstow, who worked on the stage house for the Chicago Auditorium. However, as Strong grew older he was limited to studio work, and this is why I think that Brown was brought on board. In the end, both Strong and Brown passed away the same month; Strong died February 11 and Brown died Feb. 27.
George Brown was actively employed as a stage carpenter at the time of his passing in 1911. The 1910 US Federal Census report listed his occupation as “carpenter” in the “theatre” industry. That year he was living with his wife Mollie and their two children at a home on Edgarwood Avenue. At the time of his passing in 1911, George was sixty-two years old. His children, Anna and George Jr., were ages twenty-six years old and sixteen years old, respectively.
George H. Brown’s gravestone at Forest Home Cemetery in Forest Park, Illinois.
Brown was buried at Forest Home Cemetery in Forest Park, Cook County, Illinois. His gravestone says 1856-1911, but his death certificate on file listed Brown’s birth as Oct. 28, 1855. This contradicts other historic records.
A decade later, George Brown Jr. is listed as a stagehand in the 1920 US Federal Census, still living with his mother, but now at 1549 Central Park Avenue in Chicago.
To be continued…
Great to have more background on the Santa Fe Scottish Rite Temple.