In the book's own words, not ours, with obvious scanning errors fixed. Families often supplied these stories to the publisher, so check key dates.
Born 1831, Harrison county
From History of Ray County, Mo. (1881)
ALFRED A. BROWN.
The subject of this sketch was born in Harrison county, Indiana, on the loth of May, 1831. When he was 'about four or five years of age his parents removed to Crawford county, Indiana, where he resided until the year 1856, when he went to Scotland county, Missouri, and remained there about fifteen months, and then came to Camden, in Ray county, Missouri. Mr. Brown was married on the 21st day of October, 1861, to Miss Amanda M. Canada, a native of the state of Virginia. They became the parents of two children: Susan C, born in the month of July, 1862, and William A., born in July, 1872. He enlisted in the month of "September, 1862, in company D, 35th Missouri infantry, and was accidentally shot and wounded in the right arm, by the guard firing upon him, by mistake, at the battle of Helena, Arkansas. In the army he discharged the duties of a non-commissioned officer, and was discharged at the close of the war, in July, 1865, at St. Louis, Missouri. He learned the trade of a cooper early in life, in Indiana, and worked at that business some four or five years, and then clerked for a time in a store. He has been engaged in mercantile business almost all the time since his majority, but has only been in business at Camden for little more than one year. He is a consistent member of the M. E. Church South. He is a successful merchant, and a valuable citizen of the town of Camden, in Ray county.
As printed in History of Ray County, Mo. (1881). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.
The printed record stops around 1881. We trace your line from there down to you, with every source cited.