John Brownfield
SOURCE: "History of Champaign County, Illinois with Illustrations," 1878
SURNAMES: BROWNFIELD, CLEMENTS
JOHN BROWNFIELD. Among the best known of the Probate Judges were John Brownfield and Archa Campbell. The Brownfield family had moved from Kentucky in October, 1832, and settled near the old Fort Clark road in the Big Grove section. John Brownfield, the head of the family, was then a many about forty-seven years of age, and a blacksmith. He at once built a horse grist mill near his home, which became a most popular institution with the neighborhood settlers. A few years afterward he erected a saw and a grist mill, operated by the creek about three miles below Urbana. Mr. Brownfield was very useful and popular, both by virtue of his sound abilities and his personal relations. He had married a sister of James CLEMENTS, another leading settler, and he himself raised thirteen children, some of whom married into leading families of the county.