James Brown's Purchase (2) Markers

Ogden began with a sale. Returning late in 1847 from collecting Mormon Battalion pay in California, Captain James Brown bought out Miles Goodyear's fort and claim near the Ogden and Weber rivers, livestock included. The usual figure is $1,950; this 1947 bronze casts $3,000 and calls the claim a Mexican land grant covering all of Weber County. Brown settled here in January 1848, and the place was Brownsville before it was Ogden. The granite now carries both bronzes, his etched figure and a relief of Goodyear's cabin.

What the plaque says

No 112 Captain James Brown Captain James Brown, pioneer, soldier and one of the founders of Ogden, enlisted in the Mormon Battalion of the U.S. Army in the Mexican War, July 16, 1846, at Council Bluffs, Iowa, and was made Captain of Company C. The battalion marched overland to San Diego, longest march of infantry ever recorded. At Santa Fe, Captain Brown was placed in charge of the sick detachment and ordered to Pueblo where they spent the winter of 1846-47 with a group of converts to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints enroute from Mississippi to the Salt Lake Valley. In the spring he marched his men by way of Fort Laramie and the South Pass arriving in the valley July 29, 1847, closely following Brigham Young and the Mormon pioneers. Erected July 29, 1947 Captain James Brown Early in August he left by way of Fort Hall for California to collect the army pay due members of the battalion. Returning late in 1847, he stopped at the fort of Miles Goodyear, a trapper, located near the junction of the Ogden and Weber Rivers. From Goodyear he purchased for $3,000 all of the land now comprising Weber County together with some livestock and the fort. The land was conveyed to Captain Brown in a Mexican land grant, this entire area being at that time a part of Mexico. In January, 1848, he settled here with his family and began the colonization of Brownsville, later Ogden. He was born September 30, 1801, and died September 30, 1863. This monument erected by descendants of Captain James Brown, citizens of Weber County and the Utah Pioneer Trails and Landmarks Association. Captain James Brown Original Miles Goodyear cabin purchased by Captain James Brown in 1847

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Ogden Union Station — 0.2 mi
  A grand 1924 train depot turned museum complex
• Hill Aerospace Museum — 4.7 mi
  Over 90 military aircraft displayed indoors and on the tarmac
• Snowbasin — 5.9 mi
  One of the country's oldest ski areas and a 2002 Olympic downhill venue — world-class terrain that somehow still skis uncrowded.
• Powder Mountain — 15 mi
  The largest ski resort in the United States by acreage — a famously uncrowded "PowMow" now remaking itself under Netflix's Reed Hastings.

More markers nearby

• Captain James Brown — steps away
• Jedediah Strong Smith - Ogden — steps away
• John Henry Weber — steps away
• Lorin Farr (2) Markers — steps away