The Rev. John Brown, Clara Barton and the 1886-1887 Drought Relief

In Barton's telling, railroad promoters had lured farmers from Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia with pictures of an easy new country, and then came three years of drought. She made Albany her headquarters for a winter tour of the stricken counties. Her conclusion was that Texas papers, misled by speculators, had discredited the reports of hunger, so she took the case straight to the Dallas and Galveston newspaper editors. A Red Cross contribution headed the subscription list, and, she wrote, the legislature almost at once appropriated $100,000 for food and supplies.

What the plaque says

The Rev. John Brown, Clara Barton and the 1886-1887 Drought Relief Scottish immigrant John Brown (1842-1903) moved west following his theological studies in New York. He married Mary Jane Matthews Larn near Fort Griffin and in 1884 became minister of Albany Presbyterian Church, just as West Texas farmers and ranchers were struggling to survive the effects of a prolonged drought. Local leaders selected Brown to represent them in seeking funds for the purchase of seed wheat for small farmers. Brown departed in August 1886 to appeal to financial institutions in eastern cities. Newspaper editors publicized his quest as he traveled, and he soon drew the ire of Texas editors and land and railroad promoters who feared the publicity would harm the state's economic development. Thanks to his efforts, however, several railroad cars of seed wheat were sent to Texas, as well as several thousand dollars collected by eastern Presbyterian churches. Believing it was as appropriate to ask for drought relief as to seek aid following hurricanes, Brown appealed to Clara Barton and the American Red Cross. Brown returned home, and at the request of twenty-one counties addressed the Texas Legislature. A bill passed authorizing relief funds and Gov. L.S. (Sul) Ross signed in into law. Meanwhile, the Red Cross sent clothing, household goods and tools to Albany. In January 1887, Clara Barton arrived to tour Shackelford, Stephens, Young and Callahan counties. On her way home, she visited the Dallas Morning News and lef a personal church for $20, encouraging the editor to solicit funds to help the drought-stricken farmers. In 1887, John Brown moved from Albany to Massachusetts, where he served in the state legislature. He later wrote a book entitled Twenty-Five Years a Parson in the Wild West. (2006)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Old Jail Art Center — steps away
  An art museum in Albany's 1878 stone jail, where the masons carved their initials to be sure of pay, now holding Chinese tomb figures and works by Picasso and Klee.
• Fort Griffin State Historic Site — 14 mi
  The ruins of an 1867 cavalry post on a plateau above the Clear Fork of the Brazos, judged unfit for habitation and used nine more years, now home to the official state longhorn herd.
• Fort Phantom Hill — 23 mi
  A field of lone stone chimneys north of Abilene, left by the fire after the Army left in 1854, later a stage stop and a buffalo-hide town of more than 500 people.
• Conrad Hilton Center and Mobley Hotel — 29 mi
  The 40-room oil-boom hotel in Cisco that Conrad Hilton bought in 1919 when a bank deal fell through, now a museum of the Hilton start and of Cisco's 1927 Santa Claus bank robbery.

More markers nearby

• Shackelford County — steps away
• Texas Cattle Trail — steps away
• Lt. Col. William E. Dyess — steps away
• Dr. Jack Shackelford — steps away