Jonathan Browning
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| Birth | October 22, 1805, Sumner County, Tennessee Sumner County, Tennessee Sumner County is a county located in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of 2000, the population was 130,449. Its county seat is Gallatin, but its largest town is Hendersonville... |
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| Death | June 21, 1879, Ogden, Utah Ogden, Utah Ogden is a city in Weber County, Utah, United States. Ogden serves as the county seat of Weber County. The population was 82,825 according to the 2010 Census. The city served as a major railway hub through much of its history, and still handles a great deal of freight rail traffic which makes it a... |
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| Aged | 73 | |
| Religion | Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints | |
| Relations | John M Browning (son) John Browning John Moses Browning , born in Ogden, Utah, was an American firearms designer who developed many varieties of military and civilian firearms, cartridges, and gun mechanisms, many of which are still in use around the world... Val A Browning (grandson) Val A. Browning Val Allen Browning was a noted Utah industrialist, philanthropist, and third generation gun innovator. His grandfather, Jonathan Browning, opened a gun shop in Ogden, Utah in 1852 and his father, John Browning, is considered by many to be the most important gun inventor in history.-Life:Born in... |
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| Notable Gun | ||
| Rifles | Harmonica Gun Harmonica gun A harmonica gun or slide gun is a form of percussion firearm which was breech loaded with a steel slide, containing a number of chambers bored in it. Each chamber contained a separate primer, powder charge, and projectile... |
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Jonathan Browning (October 22, 1805 – June 21, 1879) was an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
inventor and gunmaker. Born in Sumner County, Tennessee
Sumner County, Tennessee
Sumner County is a county located in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of 2000, the population was 130,449. Its county seat is Gallatin, but its largest town is Hendersonville...
, he started earning a living as a blacksmith and later switched to become a lock and gunsmith. He invented a 'sliding breech' repeating rifle also called a Harmonica gun
Harmonica gun
A harmonica gun or slide gun is a form of percussion firearm which was breech loaded with a steel slide, containing a number of chambers bored in it. Each chamber contained a separate primer, powder charge, and projectile...
between 1834 and 1842 while living in Quincy, Illinois
Quincy, Illinois
Quincy, known as Illinois' "Gem City," is a river city along the Mississippi River and the county seat of Adams County. As of the 2010 census the city held a population of 40,633. The city anchors its own micropolitan area and is the economic and regional hub of West-central Illinois, catering a...
. He achieved success with the Harmonica gun
Harmonica gun
A harmonica gun or slide gun is a form of percussion firearm which was breech loaded with a steel slide, containing a number of chambers bored in it. Each chamber contained a separate primer, powder charge, and projectile...
and he received many orders. It is estimated that each Harmonica gun
Harmonica gun
A harmonica gun or slide gun is a form of percussion firearm which was breech loaded with a steel slide, containing a number of chambers bored in it. Each chamber contained a separate primer, powder charge, and projectile...
took 2 weeks to make, and Browning sold the guns for twenty-four dollars.
With his local prominence in Quincy
Quincy, Illinois
Quincy, known as Illinois' "Gem City," is a river city along the Mississippi River and the county seat of Adams County. As of the 2010 census the city held a population of 40,633. The city anchors its own micropolitan area and is the economic and regional hub of West-central Illinois, catering a...
, Browning was elected the justice of the peace. He came to know a young lawyer by the name of Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
who was an overnight guest in his home on at least two occasions.
In October 1838, Governor Lilburn Boggs
Lilburn Boggs
Lilburn Williams Boggs was the sixth Governor of Missouri from 1836 to 1840. He is now most widely remembered for his interactions with Joseph Smith and Porter Rockwell, and Missouri Executive Order 44, known by Mormons as the "Extermination Order", issued in response to the ongoing conflict...
issued the Extermination Order
Extermination Order (Mormonism)
Missouri Executive Order 44, also known as the "Mormon Extermination Order" in Latter Day Saint history, was an executive order issued on October 27, 1838 by the governor of Missouri, Lilburn Boggs...
that caused the Mormon
Mormon
The term Mormon most commonly denotes an adherent, practitioner, follower, or constituent of Mormonism, which is the largest branch of the Latter Day Saint movement in restorationist Christianity...
followers of Joseph Smith to flee Missouri
Missouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...
. In his capacity as a judge, Browning came into contact with many of the Mormon
Mormon
The term Mormon most commonly denotes an adherent, practitioner, follower, or constituent of Mormonism, which is the largest branch of the Latter Day Saint movement in restorationist Christianity...
exiles. Curious about the new settlement of Mormon
Mormon
The term Mormon most commonly denotes an adherent, practitioner, follower, or constituent of Mormonism, which is the largest branch of the Latter Day Saint movement in restorationist Christianity...
s in the swampy lands of Nauvoo, Illinois
Nauvoo, Illinois
Nauvoo is a small city in Hancock County, Illinois, United States. Although the population was just 1,063 at the 2000 census, and despite being difficult to reach due to its location in a remote corner of Illinois, Nauvoo attracts large numbers of visitors for its historic importance and its...
, Browning paid a visit to Nauvoo
Nauvoo, Illinois
Nauvoo is a small city in Hancock County, Illinois, United States. Although the population was just 1,063 at the 2000 census, and despite being difficult to reach due to its location in a remote corner of Illinois, Nauvoo attracts large numbers of visitors for its historic importance and its...
. His meeting with Mormon
Mormon
The term Mormon most commonly denotes an adherent, practitioner, follower, or constituent of Mormonism, which is the largest branch of the Latter Day Saint movement in restorationist Christianity...
Prophet Joseph Smith caused Browning to convert to the Mormon faith. His conversion led to him being ostracized by the community in Quincy
Quincy, Illinois
Quincy, known as Illinois' "Gem City," is a river city along the Mississippi River and the county seat of Adams County. As of the 2010 census the city held a population of 40,633. The city anchors its own micropolitan area and is the economic and regional hub of West-central Illinois, catering a...
. Browning sold his gun shop and land in Quincy
Quincy, Illinois
Quincy, known as Illinois' "Gem City," is a river city along the Mississippi River and the county seat of Adams County. As of the 2010 census the city held a population of 40,633. The city anchors its own micropolitan area and is the economic and regional hub of West-central Illinois, catering a...
.
He moved to Nauvoo, Illinois
Nauvoo, Illinois
Nauvoo is a small city in Hancock County, Illinois, United States. Although the population was just 1,063 at the 2000 census, and despite being difficult to reach due to its location in a remote corner of Illinois, Nauvoo attracts large numbers of visitors for its historic importance and its...
and joined the Mormon
Mormon
The term Mormon most commonly denotes an adherent, practitioner, follower, or constituent of Mormonism, which is the largest branch of the Latter Day Saint movement in restorationist Christianity...
community in 1842, where he established a gun shop. Guns that Browning produced during these times were labeled "Holiness to the Lord - Our Preservation." The Browning Gun Shop has been restored as a museum, and is open to the public at no charge.
Browning fled Illinois with Brigham Young
Brigham Young
Brigham Young was an American leader in the Latter Day Saint movement and a settler of the Western United States. He was the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1847 until his death in 1877, he founded Salt Lake City, and he served as the first governor of the Utah...
in late 1846 to escape religious persecution. He settled in the temporary Mormon
Mormon
The term Mormon most commonly denotes an adherent, practitioner, follower, or constituent of Mormonism, which is the largest branch of the Latter Day Saint movement in restorationist Christianity...
community of Council Bluffs, Iowa
Council Bluffs, Iowa
Council Bluffs, known until 1852 as Kanesville, Iowathe historic starting point of the Mormon Trail and eventual northernmost anchor town of the other emigrant trailsis a city in and the county seat of Pottawattamie County, Iowa, United States and is on the east bank of the Missouri River across...
(then called Kanesville in honor of Thomas L. Kane
Thomas L. Kane
Thomas Leiper Kane was an American attorney, abolitionist, and military officer who was influential in the western migration of the Latter-day Saint movement and served as a Union Army colonel and general of volunteers in the American Civil War...
) and repaired guns for the Mormon
Mormon
The term Mormon most commonly denotes an adherent, practitioner, follower, or constituent of Mormonism, which is the largest branch of the Latter Day Saint movement in restorationist Christianity...
settlers who were migrating to Utah
Utah
Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...
. He was awaiting Brigham Young
Brigham Young
Brigham Young was an American leader in the Latter Day Saint movement and a settler of the Western United States. He was the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1847 until his death in 1877, he founded Salt Lake City, and he served as the first governor of the Utah...
to invite him to join the main body of settlers in Utah
Utah
Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...
. When the Mormon Battalion
Mormon Battalion
The Mormon Battalion was the only religiously based unit in United States military history, and it served from July 1846 to July 1847 during the Mexican-American War. The battalion was a volunteer unit of between 534 and 559 Latter-day Saints men led by Mormon company officers, commanded by regular...
was formed during the War with Mexico, Browning wanted to join them, but was told by Young
Brigham Young
Brigham Young was an American leader in the Latter Day Saint movement and a settler of the Western United States. He was the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1847 until his death in 1877, he founded Salt Lake City, and he served as the first governor of the Utah...
that his skills would not be needed by the soldiers as much as they would by the main body of pioneers in Kanesville.
As was common in the Mormon community at that time, Jonathan Browning was a polygamist
Polygamy
Polygamy is a marriage which includes more than two partners...
, having taken three wives. He fathered 19 children; prominent among them was the gun designer, John Moses Browning
John Browning
John Moses Browning , born in Ogden, Utah, was an American firearms designer who developed many varieties of military and civilian firearms, cartridges, and gun mechanisms, many of which are still in use around the world...
, one of the most important figures in the development of modern automatic and semi-automatic firearms.
Browning received the word to join the main party of Mormon
Mormon
The term Mormon most commonly denotes an adherent, practitioner, follower, or constituent of Mormonism, which is the largest branch of the Latter Day Saint movement in restorationist Christianity...
settlers in 1852. He left his gunshop in Iowa and migrated across the Rocky Mountains
Rocky Mountains
The Rocky Mountains are a major mountain range in western North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch more than from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in western Canada, to New Mexico, in the southwestern United States...
as the captain of a group of pioneers. He arrived with six wagons and six hundred dollars in the Salt Lake Valley
Salt Lake Valley
Salt Lake Valley is a valley in Salt Lake County in the north-central portion of the U.S. state of Utah. It contains Salt Lake City and many of its suburbs, notably West Valley City, Murray, Sandy, and West Jordan; its total population is 1,029,655 as of 2010...
. Browning moved to Ogden, Utah
Ogden, Utah
Ogden is a city in Weber County, Utah, United States. Ogden serves as the county seat of Weber County. The population was 82,825 according to the 2010 Census. The city served as a major railway hub through much of its history, and still handles a great deal of freight rail traffic which makes it a...
and established a gun shop there. His activities were limited to repairs in the Ogden
Ogden, Utah
Ogden is a city in Weber County, Utah, United States. Ogden serves as the county seat of Weber County. The population was 82,825 according to the 2010 Census. The city served as a major railway hub through much of its history, and still handles a great deal of freight rail traffic which makes it a...
shop, however. His son John Moses
John Browning
John Moses Browning , born in Ogden, Utah, was an American firearms designer who developed many varieties of military and civilian firearms, cartridges, and gun mechanisms, many of which are still in use around the world...
recalled, "We ridiculed some of the guns we fixed, and I damned some of them when Pappy wasn't near, but it never occurred to us to make better ones. He was too old, and I was too young."