C. L. Brown
{{Short description|American businessman}}
Cleyson Leroy Brown (February 3, 1872 - November 12, 1935) was a telephone company co-founder, financier, innovator, and philanthropist in the United States. He founded Brown Telephone Company, which then became the Sprint Corporation.{{Cite news|url=https://www.kansascity.com/living/travel/article20663538.html|title=Calling all phone fans: The Museum of Independent Telephony has your number|work=kansascity|access-date=2018-09-25|language=en}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.eisenhower.archives.gov/all_about_ike/abilene_years/ikes_abilene/us_sprint.html|title=Eisenhower Presidential Library|website=www.eisenhower.archives.gov|access-date=2018-09-25}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.slim.emporia.edu/business/community/kbhf/historical/cleyson-brown-2001.html|title=Cleyson Brown 2001 - School of Business {{!}} Emporia State University|website=www.slim.emporia.edu|language=en|access-date=2018-09-25}}
Brown, whose name was often abbreviated to C. L. Brown, was a welfare capitalist and benefactor of the community of Abilene, Kansas. A pioneer in Kansas electrification and telephony, Brown consolidated and expanded many early telephone systems, power generation plants, and electrical distribution systems in Kansas and other states. One of his legacy companies, United Telecommunications, merged with Southern Pacific Communications to form Sprint Corporation.{{cite web |url= https://www.fiercetelecom.com/special-report/cleyson-brown-founder-brown-telephone-precursor-to-sprint |author= Sean Buckley |website= FierceTelecom |title= Cleyson Brown, founder of Brown Telephone, the precursor to Sprint |accessdate= 2019-06-29 }} Parts of his social legacy endure two miles south of Abilene in the Brown Memorial Home for the Aged and in Camp Brown, the Coronado Area Council scout camp at Abilene.{{cite journal |title= Patriarch of Abilene: Cleyson L. Brown and the United Empire, 1898-1935 |url= https://www.kshs.org/publicat/history/1982summer_mccoy.pdf |journal= Kansas History |publisher= Kansas Historical Society |author= Sondra van Meter McCoy |date= Summer 1982 |accessdate= 2019-06-29 |pages= 107–119 |quote= ... or C. L. Brown, as many people called him, ...}} Brown's mill/power dam on Turkey Creek is still a cornerstone of the adjoining Brown Memorial Park.{{cite web |url= http://kansastravel.org/brownsparkwaterfall.htm |website= Kansas Travel |title= Brown Park Waterfall |accessdate= 2019-06-29 }}
Early life
Brown's father, Jacob Brown was a grist mill owner.{{Cite news|url=http://www.fiercetelecom.com/special-reports/19-people-who-changed-face-wireline-telecom-industry/cleyson-brown-founder-brown-tel|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130629050105/http://www.fiercetelecom.com/special-reports/19-people-who-changed-face-wireline-telecom-industry/cleyson-brown-founder-brown-tel|url-status=dead|archive-date=2013-06-29|title=Cleyson Brown, founder of Brown Telephone, the precursor to Sprint - …|date=2013-06-29|work=archive.li|access-date=2018-09-25}} Brown lost his arm when he was ten in a mill accident.{{Cite web|url=https://www.fiercetelecom.com/special-report/cleyson-brown-founder-brown-telephone-precursor-to-sprint|title=Cleyson Brown, founder of Brown Telephone, the precursor to Sprint Mobile {{!}} FierceTelecom|website=www.fiercetelecom.com|language=en|access-date=2018-09-25}}{{Cite news|url=http://www.abilene-rc.com/news/a-bridge-to-remember/article_582e0d26-6f0b-11e8-a63b-eb9d5dd1449c.html|title=A bridge to remember|author=Kathy Hageman|work=Abilene Reflector Chronicle|access-date=2018-09-25|language=en}} He had worked as a teacher and also managed a creamery in Wichita.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gh83DwAAQBAJ&dq=cleyson+brown&pg=PA113|title=Hidden History of Kansas|last=Zink|first=Adrian|date=2017-11-06|publisher=Arcadia Publishing|isbn=9781625858894|language=en}} Brown first built a local electric company, Abilene Electric Light Works to generate electricity from the Smoky Hill River.
Entrepreneurship and philanthropy
Cleyson Brown founded the Brown Telephone Company in 1899 in Abilene, Kansas with his brother Jacob Brown.{{Cite web|url=https://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/news/2018/05/18/sprint-history-transitions-tmobile-merger.html|title=Cover Story: A timeline of Sprint's transitions, from switchboards to T-Mobile |website=www.bizjournals.com|access-date=2018-09-25}} The local request to start a phone company to challenge the local Bell Telephone company was only five years after the Bell Telephone patents had expired. It is lately known as Sprint.{{Cite web|url=http://www.robinsonlibrary.com/index.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061024050425/http://www.robinsonlibrary.com/index.htm|url-status=usurped|archive-date=October 24, 2006|title=The Robinson Library, where knowledge unlocks a world of possibilities|website=www.robinsonlibrary.com|access-date=2018-09-25}}{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=X2teC9bmsJIC&dq=cleyson+brown&pg=PA67|title=Vault Guide to the Top Telecom Employers|last=Slaton|first=Hunter|date=2006-09-22|publisher=Vault Inc.|isbn=9781581314038|language=en}}
Other ventures
Brown then ventured into shoe stores, grocery stores, gravel and sand company, hotels, news service, and broadcast station, insurance companies and oil concerns creating an empire.
He also formed the Brown Memorial Foundation (1926) in memory of his parents. A park in around 200 acres was built for the public for free, which included an amusement park with a lake, zoo, golf course, tennis courts, and other attractions.
References
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Category:People from Adams County, Pennsylvania