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Brown, Joseph Emerson

lawyer, jurist, governor, United States senator, was born April 15, 1821, in South Carolina. In 1849 he was elected to the Georgia state senate; in 1852 he was a Pierce elector; in 1855 he was elected judge of the superior courts of the Blue Ridge circuit; and in 1857 he was elected governor. He was re-elected in 1859 over Hon. Warren Aiken. He was a secessionist in 1860, and was active and energetic as a war governor after the state had seceded. In 1861 he was again elected governor over the Hon. Eugenius A. Nisbet, and in 1863 he was again elected. During 1868-70 he was chief justice of the supreme court of Georgia, which position he resigned to accept the presidency of the Western Atlantic Railroad company.

During 1880-91 he was United States senator. He died Nov. 30, 1894, in Atlanta, Ga.