Daniel grew up in the post-war South without much formal education in a small, still-unincorporated community of farm homes called Panola (at head of Belser Creek on Panola Road [state road S-14-41] around present-day Mt. Pleasant RMUE Church, sort of between Pinewood & Summerton). His first farm was 400 acres near Pinewood, S. C. (and all children except Ruby were born there).

His father being a devoted churchman and disabled by a non-war accident on the way home from the War Between the States, Dan (probably as an older teen or in his early twenties) helped build a church for the now-freed people in their area on land and with timber donated by his father, Brown's Chapel [which is located at 1445-1550 West Ave. South...County Road 43-52..., just beyond the junction with Bacon Hill Road & between Pinewood & Rimini and about 5 to 7 miles from Andrews Chapel church].

Surviving the Reconstruction era in the South & to get better schooling for their children, he sold the Pinewood place to brother-in-law Rollin Kolb and moved to Sumter in about 1903, having built a home on South Salem Ave. In the early 1900s, land prices dropped; and he bought much land in the area now containing Westmark Plaza, Sumter, S. C. He also ran coal, wood, and ice businesses.

In 1912-13 (when youngest child, Ruby, was six), he was able to acquire a 1200 acre plantation in Barnwell County outside of a now-defunct small town known as Meyers Mill. They moved there with Ruby and the 3 youngest boys. His brother-in-law, Uncle Henry Hicks (Henry's wife, Fannie deceased) lived there and helped run the plantation. A black family, Fred and "Maum Katie", lived just outside of Dan's main-house yard and to the right. Later, the cotton depression hit (1928) followed by the great depression; and he could not pay taxes and lost the land.

There is some information suggesting that the Browns lived subsequently in Ellington, S. C. and then Beech Island, S. C. At some point, they sent their youngest daughter to live with her sister, Lola, & Lola's husband, Ben Cantey, so that Ruby could go to a city school. Then Dan and his wife moved in with the Canteys until they bought a home across from...and barely south of... #115 N. Salem Ave (home of his son, R. T. [in the 1950s, his home became the Teenage Canteen]). Dan's wife died, and he and Ruby moved in with his son, R. T. Brown. Ruby married within a year. He then moved to his son, Perry's, at Ellerby's Mill and ran the Comissary there. Note: in 1958, the federal Savannah River Project would consume Meyers Mill, Ellington, and other land so that one cannot go visit those areas.

Father Brown & Mother Brown married in 10 Jan. 1883 in Sumter County. He called her "Katie". Within the immediate family, she called him "Niggah". Their children referred to their parents as Momma and Poppa. They were determined that all of their children would have a good basic education. They had black sharecropper families to work their farm. They taught all of their own Brown children to be the best (precision, exactitude, honesty & dependability) that they could be at any job...and, if they worked on a trash truck, then do the best job they were able to do...that any work was honorable work...the basic "Brown" work ethic. Youngest child, Ruby, described him in 1979 as ambitious, and as looked upon as sort of a leader and fairly prosperous for those times.

Four of their boys went off into World War I, and the war ended 11 November 1918; having post-war duties in France, his sons in the war did not return home until October 1919.

In older age, after the death of his wife, Father Brown lived at #115 N. Salem Ave., Sumter, with his son's (R. T.) family. His grandchildren remember him there as a heavy snorer when sleeping. After he had a stroke on the front porch at #115, he moved to Pinewood with his daughter, Mamie Matthews, a widow with lots of kids. One of them, P. C. Matthews, was kept out of school a year as a sort of male nurse for Father Brown. His death certificate indicates death from chronic myocarditis (no autopsy...as a pathologist I have no idea how such a specific diagnosis could have been made in those days).

Resolving a Possible Genetic mystery: Father Brown never mentioned his parents to the recollection of his youngest child (daughter, Ruby Brown Patrick...interviewed by me in her old age at about age 90...she died at nearly 100). When living on the farm in Barnwell as a child, Ruby remembers going to town (Augusta, Ga.) maybe 3 times per year. Oddly, Father Brown's sister Fannie's obituary (posted on her memorial, HERE) refers to him as her half brother.

Error: But, as of more July 2017 on-line searching & seeing other family obituaries, I now believe that the funeral home or newspaper made a simple error in writing up the obituary: this lead to the obituary failing to indicate the correct half brother (who was James Alexander Brown [1848-1919]...indicated as 22 year old James in the 1870 census). The obituary incorrectly indicated Dan as a half brother to Fannie.

Up until July 2017, I had not known what to think and had considered the following. In a paper written for/to her 2nd cousin, Janet Rodriquez, Ruby mentioned, "Frankly, I seem to remember that John A. Brown was married twice. Don't remember if Sarah Ann or Fannie was the half sister." However, Fannie was born in 1859, way before her Mother Brown died (1886). Fannie died in 1913, way before most people spoke in accurate legal terminology.

So, I had pondered from about 2010-2017, "...might it be that Daniel (born 1857) was a 'foundling' baby, a very young orphan of a neighbor, or a baby born to a single, young kinsperson or neighbor?" The specific reason that I wondered this had to do with my paternal aunt, Carol Shaw Carter and how she became a Shaw. But, as it has turned out many times in my family genealogy hobby since 1966, "the system" simply made some errors in statement (in DWB's case, the incorrect info submitted for the obituary).

At some point, Dan bought (Sumter Cemetery Association perpetual care certificate # 492 for $200 for a 16 by 30 foot cemetery lot (lot #279) in which he and his wife are buried in Sumter Cemetery.