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The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Otago & Southland Provincial Districts]
Mr. James Elder Brown
Mr. James Elder Brown was a native of Banffshire, Scotland, and arrived in Otago by the ship “Ajax,” in January, 1849, in the tenth month of the settlement of Otago, and the ninth year of the Colony of New Zealand. Mr. Brown was then in his twenty-sixth year. He assisted in erecting Mr. Valpy's sawmill at the Water of Leith, and worked it for some time. Mr. James Blackie, the teacher who came out with the original settlers, with a three years' engagement, having failed in health, went to Sydney, where he died soon afterwards; and before he left Mr. Brown undertook to conduct the school for three months, and he completed the term. His father, mother, brothers and sisters arrived at the end of 1850, and settled down at Anderson's Bay, where they carried on farming and did mechanical work. Along with his father and brother, Mr. Brown erected the first threshing machine in Otago; it was for the Rev. Thomas Burns, to be used on his land opposite Dunedin, and was made wholly of wooden gearing, no castings being available. Mr. Brown made a model of this machine for the exhibition of 1889–90, and it is now in the possession of the Otago Museum. In those early days Mr. Brown also made a number of barn fanners and other agricultural implements. In 1856 Mr. Brown removed to Tokomairiro, and set Mr. Peter McGill's first flour mill going. He also sold half an acre of land to the late Mr. W. H. Mansford, who erected a store, which was the beginning of Milton. Mr. Brown surveyed portions of Milton for Mr. McGill and others, and when it was incorporated in 1866, he was elected its first mayor, and was re-elected for page 377 the two following years. He did all the local surveying and engineering for a number of years, and had, as well, a considerable practice throughout the district. Of Elderlee, his original selection, upwards of fifty acres are now in use in connection with the railway and borough of Milton. Although he latterly lived in retirement, Mr. Brown took a full share of public duties, and had been a member of the Bench of Magistrates for the last thirty years of his life. He died on the 16th of January, 1901.