1905 – Agnes Duncan Brown is
recognized for her music.
AGNES DUNCAN BROWNAgnes came from Glasgow, Scotland, to marry Thomas Steele Brown, who had come to make is fortune in America. When he became ill with consumption, he sought out the Ojai Valley and Agnes attempted to nurse him back to health. He died, however, and Agnes decided to return to Scotland, but her brother, William Duncan, convinced her to stay here with him. Helen Baker Reynolds remembered visiting Agnes Brown in her home on Grand Avenue when she was a child. Helen described it as a “modest cottage with a small parlor that was elegant in a quaint, Victorian way and adorned with dark, old family portraits and what-nots filled with Wedgwood pieces and a handsome organ.” Agnes delighted in serving tea from beautiful china and silver treasures from her native Scotland. Agnes Brown was a trained singer. She loved music and played the organ for the Ojai Presbyterian Church. In 1905, she was awarded a gift for having been the organist for 15 years. Agnes walked just about everywhere she went. She walked over two miles to church every Sunday and sometimes walked the four to Thacher School to hear one of Mrs. Lord’s music recitals. Helen Baker Reynolds remembered Mrs. Brown as always stepping briskly, even when she was growing older. Agnes loved puttering in her yard and, at the time of her death, her home was reported to be a “floral show place.” She died August 5, 1935, of heart disease at the age of 91 and is buried in the Brown plot at the Nordhoff Cemetery.
WILLIAM H. DUNCANMr. Duncan is buried in the Brown family plot, as he was Agnes Duncan Browns’ brother. He came to the valley prior to the 1980s. He was a United States weather observer. He is said to have enjoyed making Scotch marmalade from oranges grown in his sister’s orchard and sharing it with his neighbors. He died January 20, 1934. 27 Source : Fry, Patricia L. &
Dennis Mullican.
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