Norris Brown

Norris Brown
United States Senator from Nebraska
In office March 4, 1907 – March 4, 1913
Preceded by	Joseph Millard
Succeeded by	George W. Norris
Personal details
Born	(1863-05-02)May 2, 1863 Maquoketa, Iowa
Died	January 5, 1960(1960-01-05) (aged 96) Seattle, Washington
Political party	Republican

Norris Brown (May 2, 1863 – January 5, 1960) was a Senator from Nebraska.

Brown was born in Maquoketa, Iowa. The son of William Henry Harrison and Eliza Ann Phelps Brown, he attended Jefferson Iowa Academy and graduated with a law degree from the University of Iowa College of Law in Iowa City, Iowa, in 1883. He was admitted to the bar in 1884 and commenced his law practice in Perry, Iowa. He moved to Kearney, Nebraska, in 1888 and continued the practice of law. Brown was the prosecuting attorney of Buffalo County from 1892 to 1896, the deputy attorney general of Nebraska from 1900 to 1905, and the attorney general of Nebraska from 1905 to 1907. He distinguished himself in this post by winning a tax suit of over a million dollars against the railroads. The money was used to open schools in Nebraska.

Brown was elected as a Republican to the United States Senate and served from March 4, 1907, to March 4, 1913. During his term he served as the chairman of the Committee on Patents (Sixty-first and Sixty-second Congresses). He proposed permitting an income tax, later incorporated into the 16th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. He was an unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1912. He then resumed the practice of law in Omaha where he became senior partner in the firm of Brown, Crossman, West, Barton, and Quinlan. He served as attorney for the Omaha Stockyards for 30 years.

In 1942, he retired and moved to Seattle, Washington. Brown died there January 5, 1960, and was interred in Forest Lawn Cemetery in Omaha.

Brown was married twice. In 1885, he married Lula K. Beeler, who died in 1925. They had two daughters. Ann L. Howland became his second wife in 1927. She died in 1937.

References

• Norris Brown at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Norris Brown papers at the Nebraska State Historical Society

v t e United States Senators from Nebraska Class 1 Tipton Paddock Van Wyck Paddock Allen Hayward Allen Dietrich Burkett G. Hitchcock Howell Thompson Hunter Burke Butler Reynolds Hruska Zorinsky Karnes Kerrey Nelson Fischer Class 2 Thayer P. Hitchcock Saunders Manderson Thurston Millard Brown Norris Wherry Seaton Griswold Bowring Abel Curtis Exon Hagel Johanns