Grove Library to Present Program

Two Grove sisters were surprised last summer when they learned that a book about their family had been published. The library had received a press release on the book and recognized that Linda McClure and Juanita Holmes were descendants of the family in the book.

The book is "Alice & J.F.B: The 100-Year Saga of Two Seminole Chiefs." The author is Vance H. Trimble, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, author of a dozen other biographies including the best-seller on Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton.

Dr. John Frippo Brown set the saga in motion by abandoning his aristocratic life in Charleston, S.C., in 1836 to become a contract surgeon for the U.S. Army. He was first sent to New Orleans, and then to Florida where the Army was trying to evict or kill the Seminole Indians. Dr. Brown attended wounded soldiers and then went with the troops on the Seminole Trail of Tears to Indian Territory.

Near Fort Gibson Dr. Brown treated an Indian girl whose eyeballs were frozen in a blizzard. He fell in love with his patient's sister, Ku'na Hvt'ke (White Skunk). Theirs was a happy marriage with four sons and three daughters.

The oldest son, John F. Brown, grew to manhood during the Civil War, faced a firing squad in the tribe's split between North and South. He later became a wealthy merchant and rancher in Wewoka and Sasakwa, and was pastor of the Indian Baptist Church. A powerful voice in tribal councils, he became principal chief in 1885 at age 42 and, except for two years, served till his death in 1919.

As always, Third Thursday is a brown-bag lunch. Drinks and dessert will be provided. Everyone is invited. The program is sponsored by the Friends of the Grove Public Library and the library.