The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1905-10-05
DEATH OF THOMAS BROWNING.
Surviving Son of The Great Hunter
HeShaCk BrOWninS.
To the Editor The Republican.

Wv A4N4ANSA L AlC AtC "a Dl4Otlhs
In the death of Thomas Browning,
which occurred at the home of his
son, John S. Browning, four miles
south of Oakland, on last Wednesday
evening, Sept. 81, 1905, the last con
Meeting link of an old, and in many
ways distinguished, family has been
severed. Mr.. Browning was a son of
Meshack, the author of his own
achievements as the great hunter of
the Alleganies, who died on the 18th
of November, 1859, and was buried
at Johnstown, Ga EFT county, Mary
land.
We learn from Father Stanton's
history of the growth of the church
in Western Maryland that undoubt-
edly the first white men that came to
dwell in Garrett county We're John
Friend and his six sons, in the year
1860. They built a cabin somewhere
along the YOughiogheny river. Two
OF the young men soon tired OF the
wilderness and enIis ed in the British
Army. Both were killed in battle
during the French and Indian war.
John Friend, Jr., and his brother
Charles moved up the river and es-
tablished themselves at Sang Run.
There they found four sturdy pioneers
who had preceded then, w., Mes
hack Browning, jeremiah Enlow,
VIM. w. Hoye and Nathaniel Casteel
Browning, Enlow and Casteel were
brothersin-law, all having married
daughters of James McMullen. These
six families settled along the Sang
Run within a radius of three miles
and there raised seventy two children,
and it is safe to say that up to the
time their children arrived at the age
of maturity, a doctor did not live
nearer than cumberland. But three
these seYenty-two children are now
living, viz, Judge D. Harrison
Friend, of Sang Run; William Cas-
teel and Allen Enlow. But return
ing to our subject, Thomas Browning
was a man of wonderful vitality and
retained all his faculties until few
days before his death.
He was man of strong convictions,
Democratic in politics, Catholic in
religion, firm but tolerant in both.
He possessed to a marked degree that
greatest of all virtue, charity, ever
ready to respond to the call of those
in need or distress. He was kind
and indulgent father, genial, open
hearted and devoted friend. That
he in common with all human nature
had his faults he did not deny, but
that he strOve to conquer and put
them under his feet was equally true,
and in his last declining years he
realized from the standpoint of true
Christian faith his approaching end
and did all in his power to prepare
for it, and let us hope and pray that
he was well prepared and that when
we are called one by one to follow him
to that other and better land, he,
whose death we now sincerely mourn
will be the first to meet and greet us
there.
By his request the sons of his
brothers acted as his pallbearers, as
follows: Richard IT,, son of William;
Stephen, son of John L.; Meshech.
son of James; Charles F., son of Allen;
John NJ, son of jeremiah, and John
Ramsay, son of his sister, Jane H.
His immediate family surviving is
John S., Alice and Mrs. Fannie
Haigh.
He was buried with requiem mass
from st. Peters Catholic church after
which Father James E. Connell
preached a very instructive and
touching sermon. The church was
crowded with relatives and friends of