Brown was born, Orville Emerson Houghton on January 23, 1910, to Frank and Martha Houghton. He was born on the old home place near Brad. He said he was given the name “Brown” by his father who used to bounce him on his knee and sing this little tune. “Rufas Rastus Johnson Brown, What you gonna do when the rent comes ‘round. What you gonna do, What you gonna say, You won’t have a nickel for the judgement day.” His father also had nicknames for the other children; Florice was called Johnson, and Dick was called Rastus, but the name “Brown” stuck with him for life.

Brown said he remembers his father as his best friend. By the time he was six years old he would followed him everywhere he went. His father taught him to milk cows, and how to handle a cross cut saw and ax, how to drive a team of horses, and to plow and harvest. He taught him how to handle the animals, to do a honest days work, and how to play baseball. He recalls growing up the on farm, working and playing with his brothers and sisters, with much pleasure. 

During his high school years, Brown and cousin Orlen Anderson, pick up and moved to Arizona. There they worked farm labor for Jesse Williams, and after school started they worked for Pennington Dairy. Brown graduated from Tempe High School in 1931.  After graduation, Brown returned to Texas where he and brother Oscar went into a cedar post business.  That endeavor didn’t turn out so well, so Brown joined the Civilian Conservation Corps and they took him to Oregon to put in telephone lines. He was stationed in the Klamath area and later in Bend. By that spring, he was moved to the Reno area, and while attending a banquet at the CCC Camp, he met a girl who made him all twitter-patted. The relationship began, and as fate would have it, he and Ellen Elizabeth Ball were married January 19, 1938. He remained in the CCC’s for another year, then spent the next few years working in the Reno area.        

Next they moved to Oregon and then to Eureka, California for a year. There their first child was born, Janice Gail, on February 3, 1943.  They moved back up to Oregon where Brown went to work for the Rouge River Valley Creamery in Central Point, and work for 43 years. Their son, John Phillip was born there, January 13, 1948.  He retired retired from the dairy. He and Ellen lived in Central Point where they have lived since 1943 until his death..  Brown enjoyed fishing, reading and just working around the house.

Brown Remembers.... 

It is always fun to get some of the older members of the family to remember back to when they were young and tell some of the stories of the “good old days”. This last year, Orville Houghton, (better known as “Brown”) sent a letter with several stories from his childhood. We would like to share some of his letter with you. Brown is a son of Frank F. & Martha J. Houghton, born in 1909.        

“The town of Caddo was 6 miles from the old home place. We rented a farm three mile from Caddo and moved there for five years. That farm was called the Cowert farm. It was a much bigger farm and closer to school. I was eight years old and Florice and I walked to school. She is two years older than I.  The railroad didn’t run through Caddo and it was sixteen miles to Strawn and the railroad. We went by wagon and team there to buy most of the things we needed, because things were lots cheaper. On one trip over there we went to bring back a sewing machine that my mother ordered.        

While my father went into the depot to get the machine, he left me to hold the horses.  About that time a big steam switch engine came along. The engineer kept blowing the whistle. That scared the horses so bad I could hardly hold them down. They were rearing up and trying to run and I was doing my very best just to hold them down.  Finally the engineer drove the engine on down the track and the horses calmed down.

What a relief it was!  My father came out of the depot with the machine. I was only eleven, and far to young for a job like that.  I had been riding horses since I was seven.  I was driving a team of horses to a plow or planter when I was about nine. I was seven when I started milking the family cows.

There is always something to do an a farm, but I liked the planting and harvesting the best. We all  worked, but there were times we played and went fishing. Sometimes we went fishing with two or three other families.  We went in wagons and camped out.  There were three good creeks not far away, and there was the Brazos River.  In the summer there was ice cream suppers that several families got together and had ice cream and cake."