Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1903-10-06
LIFE STORY OF BULL LEADER.
Noted Southerner Was Poor Boy and
Son Of q Confederate.

Son Of Confederate.
William Perry Brown, whose mar
velous success in cornering the worlds
cotton supply has made him multi
millionaire in few months, is Mis-
sissippian, and was practically un-
known in New York six months ago.
He was born in Lowndes county forty
one years ago. His father, J. G.
Brown, was a South Carolinian, who
went to Mississippi with his parents
when a boy, became a prosperous
planter, a gallant Confederate soldier.
and died when w. P. Brown was about
fifteen years Of age.
| From his earliest boyhood the bull
leader has been connected with cotton
in one way or another. He received
the education to be had in the rural
schools Of those days, and while still
in his teens he started to work on q
cotton plantation. He saved up few
hundred dollars, which he invested In
a general merchandise store, and for
the next few years he gave his atten-
tion to the building up Of that busi-
ness.
He was not particularly successful,
and when the store burned down one
day Brown lost everything that he had
in the world. Then he went to Colum-
bus Miss, where he worked in store,
having charge of the cotton depart
ment. 1t was there that he organized
the cotton firm Of w. P. Brown & Co.,
and moved to New Orleans eight years
ago.
He secured Offices half q square
from the New Orleans Cotton Ex-
change. The office was much smaller
than many other cotton offices in New
Orleans. Even today, when he is the
most -talked-of man In the cotton bus
mess, he still occupies the modest Sec
ond-flo apartments, consisting Of an
Office and sample room. He has been
bulling the market all these years, and
his success must be even beyond his
expectations, for not even he can ac-
curately estimate just what Is his
wealth.
His wife brought some capital into
the partnership and became member
Of the firm. Since their marriage Mr..
and Mrs. Brown have been residing in
the upper section Of the city, but Mr..
Brown is now having a fine residence
built on st. Charles avenue. There
are three children in the family, all
boys.
In personal appearance the cotton
king Is Of about the average height,
but sturdily built and we'll proper
toned. In dress he is perfectly plain,
almost to the point Of carelessness. He
is tireless worker Often he reaches
his office before his clerks and he
never leaves in the evening until all Of
the days work has received his per-
sonal attention. He is quick in his
movements, as in his speech, and yet
extremely careful In every undertak-
ing.
Il have been in the cotton business
all my life, but don't know how much
longer I will be in it," Mr.. Brown said
recently.
But his late exploits are not his only
successes. He is the man who last
year conceived the idea Of merging
the Union National Bank into the
Southern Trust and Banking compa-
ny, and later consolidated the Hibernia
National with the Southern Trust
company and organized the Hibernia
and Southern Trust company and fl
nally consolidated these banking insti-
tutions into the Hibernia Bank and
Trust company. Through his efforts
New Orleans boasts the largest bank
and trust company in the south, with
s1OOO,OOO capital 100000 surplus
and $10,O0O,000 deposits.
He is a southern man whose late
achievements are the admiration OF
one section Of the country and the as
tonishment of the other-the first and
only southerner to engineer success
full corner In the worlds greatest sta
ple,-Baltimore Sun.