John Robert Brown (Virginia politician)

Born near Snow Creek, Franklin County, Virginia, he attended private schools in Franklin and Henry Counties and entered the Confederate Army in 1861 as a private in Company D, Twenty-fourth Regiment of Virginia Volunteers. In 1870 he formed a partnership with his father in the tobacco business at Shady Grove; he moved to Martinsville, Virginia in 1882 and continued in the tobacco business. He also engaged in banking and was mayor of Martinsville from 1884 to 1888.

Brown was elected as a Republican to the Fiftieth Congress, serving from March 4, 1887, to March 3, 1889, winning 57.06% of the vote, defeating Democrat George Craighead Cabell; he unsuccessfully contested the election of Claude A. Swanson to the Fifty-fifth Congress. He reengaged in the tobacco business and retired from active business pursuits; Brown died in Martinsville, with interment in Oakwood Cemetery.^[1]

• United States Congress. "John Robert Brown (id: B000931)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Retrieved on 2009-04-17

• John Robert Brown at Find a Grave

U.S. House of Representatives
Preceded by George Cabell	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Virginia's 5th congressional district 1887–1889	Succeeded by Posey G. Lester