Scottish stonemason, Robert Brownlee (1813-1897) constructed this Georgian vernacular brick cottage for his brother, James (1810-1880), a Little Rock blacksmith between 1846-1848.  Although Robert would retain ownership of the property, James would live there, rent free, with wife Isabella and their two slaves, one of whom we know by name, Tabby.

Briefly, in 1848, Robert would stay with his brother, James, while recuperating from an almost fatal mining explosion.  James and Isabel, who had arrived in Little Rock from Scotland in 1842, would occupy their residence until at least 1852, when it was sold to Roderick L. Dodge.  They would both return to Scotland.

Robert Brownlee might easily have been cast as one of the many colorful characters from the epic western, How the West Was Won.  However, his was not a life of fiction. Thanks to the recent discovery and publication of his reminiscences, we can now tell his tale of adventure and daring across early nineteenth-century America.  Brownlee weaves a story which takes us from the fire-ravaged landscape of New York City in 1806, to the "rough and ready" frontier of Arkansas, and finally across the great American desert to the California gold fields as one of the famed "forty-niners."

Source for Above: Information provided on the walls inside the Arkansas Territorial Restoration Museum in Little Rock

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