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CABELL COUNTY WEST VIRGINIA
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Submitted to the West Virginia Biographies Project by:
Valerie & Tommy Crook
vfcrook@earthlink.net
July 17, 2000
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The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc.,
Chicago and New York, Volume III,
pg. 543-544
Cabell
HERMAN MORRISSEY BROWN, who is giving most effective
administration as superintendent of construction for the
International Nickel Company at Huntington, was born at
Liberty (now Bedford), Virginia, on the 25th of May, 1884.
His father, Charles C. Brown, now a resident of Roanoke,
Virginia, was born at Panther Springs, Tennessee, in 1852,
and was there given his early education. After the close
of the Civil war his parents moved to Prospect, Virginia,
and later he became a locomotive fireman for the Norfolk
& Western Railroad, with headquarters at Lynchburg, Vir-
gina. He won advancement to the position of engineer,
and is now trial engineer for the same railroad company,
with residence at Roanoke, where he and his wife have main-
tained their home since 1886 and where he is an active mem-
ber of the Masonic fraternity. At Liberty, Virginia, was
solemnized the marriage of Charles C. Brown and Miss Millie
E. Morrissey, who was born at Bridgeport, Connecticut, in
1857, and of their children the subject of this review is the
eldest; Albert is general foreman at the roundhouse of the
Norfolk & Western Railroad at Bluefield, West Virginia;
James W. is assistant chief clerk to the superintendent of
motive power for the same railroad at Roanoke, Virginia;
Charles C., Jr., is secretary to the superintendent of trans-
portation of the same railroad; and Eleanor remains at the
parental home.
Herman M. Brown attended St. Andrew's School at
Roanoke, Virginia, until he was sixteen years old, and
thereafter he worked in turn in a foundry and a blacksmith
shop in that city. In 1901 he found employment as a
laborer in the service of the Norfolk & Western Railroad,
and later served an apprenticeship as a machinist in the
shops of the company. At the completion of his apprentice-
ship he took a position as a draftsman in the offices of this
railroad company at Roanoke, and the opportunity present-
ing, he entered the engineer of tests department, conducting
a seven months test in one of their fast passenger trains
operating between Richmond and Norfolk, Virginia. Leav-
ing the services of the N. & W., he entered the services of
the American Locomotive Company and later allied with
the automobile industry, which at that time was just be-
ginning. Later he entered the services of the C. & O. Eail-
road Company at Richmond, Virginia as draughtsman, from
which position he was promoted to roundhouse foreman at
Huntington, and in October, 1907, he was made general fore-
man at Thurmond, West Virginia, where he remained two
years, the next year having been passed in a similar position
at Handley. He was then transferred to Hinton, this state,
and became master mechanic. In 1911 he was made master
mechanic of the Cincinnati division, with headquarters at
Covington, Kentucky, and in 1912 he returned to Huntington,
where he served as shop superintendent for the same com-
pany. During the war he was of service to the Government
at Watervleit Arsenal. On January 1, 1921, he resigned his
position and accepted his present office, that of superin-
tendent of construction for the International Nickel Com-
pany, a position that he is well qualified to fill due to pre-
vious opportunities offered and which has been demonstrated
in the beautiful plant that is now rapidly nearing com-
pletion.
The general offices of the above company are at 67 Wall
Street, New York City. He is at the present time superin-
tending the construction of the company's new plant at
Guyandotte, a suburb of Huntington. Here will be the
company's only rolling mill, and the plant will be one of
the largest and most important placed in operation by this
corporation. A force of 400 men will be required to initiate
operations, and with the normal expansion of the business
this force will be materially increased. Mr. Brown is a
stockholder in the Guyandotte Bank and is vice president
and chief designer for the Fordette Engine Company of
Huntington. He is a democrat. He and his wife are
communicants of the Catholic Church, and he is a director
of the Huntington Chamber of Commerce, and is affiliated
with Roanoke Council No. 562, Knights of Columbus, at
Roanoke, Virginia, and with Hinton (West Virginia) Lodge,
No. 821, B. P. O. E. He maintains his permanent residence
in Huntington, and is the owner of his modern home
property, at 1411 Sixth Avenue.
On the 12th of June, 1908, was solemnized the marriage
of Mr. Brown and Miss Catherine Mae Furlong, at the
Sacred Heart Church, Norfolk, Virginia. She is a daughter
of James P. and Jane Furlong, the former of whom, a ship
chandler by vocation, died at Norfolk, Virginia, and the
latter now resides at Willoughby Beach, that state. Mr.
and Mrs. Brown have three children, whose names and
dates of birth are here recorded: Charles James, July, 1910;
Mary Eleanor, May 25, 1914; and Herman M., Jr., January
25, 1920.
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