In his book, The Rare Silver Dollars Dated 1804, Q. David Bowers mentions H. G. Brown.

I took that as a challenge. This is a story that has not been told before in the numismatic media.

H. G. Brown was born in Kentucky in February of 1852, the son of Andrew J. and Susan Brown.He graduated from the State College of Iowa and trained as a druggist. Later he was known as"Doc" Brown.

By 1870 he had established a reputation as a billiard player. He went to New York to work in agambling house. He went to Panama to work as a clerk. He was a gambler who made a fortune,lost his fortune and gave much of his fortune away.

He married Ella in Iowa in 1884. At the time he was 32 and she was 13. There is probably astory there that I don't know.

In about 1887, he opened the Old Arlington gambling house on the northwest corner of Main andHoward in Spokane. The building was destroyed by fire and he reopened business in a tent. Thiswas rebuilt as the Frankfort. In 1890, the Frankfort was raided and Brown charged with operatinga gambling house. He claimed that he was approved to conduct gambling in a private room onthe second floor. Brown was fined $50.

The business was later called The Owl. His partners were James Dewey, Charles Pratt and EdDuffy. Local ordinance shut down gambling in Washington in 1904. The Owl resort had beenone of the largest gambling establishments in the west. Its closing was a great financial loss.

In 1902, there was a display ad for The Owl that ran 150 times. It offered the "Finest collectionof coins." I don't know if this was an exhibit or sales inventory.

Brown was well known and well liked in Spokane. He was known to give free meals to gamblerswho were down on their luck. He donated food for community dinners and gave Christmas giftsto inmates in prison. He would never turn down a request for a small loan.

Brown donated money to support youth baseball in Spokane. He invested heavily in the Spokaneteam in the northwestern league. In 1902 he was elected president of the Spokane ProfessionalBaseball club.

Brown acquired the "Dexter" 1804 Dollar from the estate of James V, Dexter via Roland G.Parvin of Denver on January 1, 1904. The deal had been made on November 5, 1903.

On Saturday, January 16, 1904, The New Owl opened at Fifth and Alder Streets in Portland. Theproprietor was Doc H. G. Brown. It was described in glowing terms.

His coin collection was put on exhibit there. It included 6000 coins acquired over eight years.Coins were displayed in cases with plate glass covers with small brass screens around two sidesof the main room.

This was described in a newspaper. "The Brown collection is thought to be the most valuable andmost complete west of the Mississippi, and among the best private exhibits in the world." Thenewspaper description goes on for more than 200 lines.

The Brown coin collection was dispersed through four auctions conducted by Lyman W. Low. Atthe first sale on October 11, 1904, his 1804 dollar. lot 431, realized $1100. Lot 258 was a 1792half disme that realized $9.00. With only the obverse plated, I am unable to match it to any otherknown example.

The second sale, dated November 16, 1904, featured foreign gold coins. The third sale ofJanuary 19, 1905, featured coins and medals including other consignments. The fourth sale datedApril 18, 1905, had several additional consignments,

On June 15, 1904, Brown told Jeff B. Nye that he would pay $1000 commission if Nye couldfind a buyer for the Owl Saloon willing to pay $12,000. Nye claimed that he introduced Brownto a prospective buyer on August 30 who was offering to pay $12,600. Brown would not pay thecommission and Nye sued to collect.

Brown's numismatic claim to fame was his brief ownership of the Dexter 1804 dollar. Duringten months in 1904 he acquired the coin, opened his luxurious casino resort, exhibited hiscollection, sold his casino and sold the 1804 dollar. His life was pretty much downhill fromthere.

On September 28, 1905, the Owl Saloon property was acquired to be demolished by a landdeveloper who proposed building a skyscraper on the spot. The quarter block location waspurchased by J(ohn) B(aptiste) Yeon for a fifteen-story building designed by his son, architectJohn Yeon. When the building was completed in 1911, it was the tallest building in Oregon.

Brown took his business to Tonopah and Goldfield, Nevada, with some small success. By 1909he was broke and back in Spokane. He took his wife to California in January of 1910.

On April 17, 1911, broke and in failing health, Brown scaled a small fence around City Hall Parkin Oakland, California. At 12:15 in the morning, he ended his life with a shot to the head from a,38 caliber revolver. He left two letters to his wife saying he did it so she could get the insurancemoney. With no money for a funeral, the local Elks club arranged to have him buried at Oakland."We were married 25 years ago in Iowa," said Mrs. Brown. "I was a girl of but 13 years of age atthe time, and we fell desperately in love with each other. Our married life has always been ahappy one and he cared for me and made my life happy."

Tributes poured in with friends testifying to his honesty and generosity. His business partnersinvested in real estate and became rich. He gave it all away and died broke.

By the way, for QDB and anyone else who cares, his first name was Henry. I read about twentyarticles published after his death and only one mentioned his first name.

The newspapers.com site has 1424 articles mentioning Henry G. Brown during 1852-1911.However, when these were checked against the state where he resided, only the one article wasfound.

For H. G. Brown, there were 19,707 articles for the period. These included 181 artciles in theSpokane Chronicle during 1877 to 1911. He was as well known in Spokane as he was littleknown in numismatics.