Rufus D. Brown

In 1860 he was a 22 year old merchant living on his parents farm at Mocksville in Davie County, NC. He enlisted as 3rd Sergeant of Company G, 4th North Carolina Infantry on 4 June 1861 in Mocksville. He was elected 2nd Lieutenant on 28 May (to date from 3 June) 1862.

He was wounded in action at Sharpsburg on 17 September 1862.

He resigned his commission on 25 February (accepted 16 March) 1863 "on account of disability" due to chronic illness since Sharpsburg.

By 1870 he was a successful retail tobacco merchant and factory owner in Mocksville, NC. He and his brother Dr. William Lafayette Brown, M.D. founded the Brown Brothers Tobacco Manufacturing Company and moved it to Winston, NC in 1876. They were bought out about 1900 by the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco.

About the time of his death in 1893, his son George T. Brown, who had helped manage Brown Brothers, formed a new partnership with his brother-in-law, Robert Williamson - they called their company Brown & Williamson. The company ran until 2004, when they merged with R.J. Reynolds, who still operate today. Both were among the largest companies in the world at their peak.

His service from his Compiled Service Records,1 via fold3. Personal details from family genealogists and the US Census of 1860, 1870, and 1880. His gravesite is on Findagrave.

He married Sarah Gibbs (1850-1892) in October 1868 and they had 4 children.

The Brown Brothers Tobacco Prizery (prized: pressed into hogsheads) is a local landmark in Winston-Salem, NC.

11/03/1836; Davie County, NC

10/05/1893; burial in Salem Cemetery, Winston-Salem, NC