George H. Brown

George Hubbard Brown Jr. (May 3, 1850 – March 16, 1926) was a justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court from 1905 to 1920. In 1927, Judge Robert Watson Winston said, "Justice Brown must be called our Dissenting Judge—he was unwilling to bend the law to meet difficult situations or to win popular favor." His parents were Elizabeth Bonner and Sylvester T. Brown, a farmer. He was sometimes referred to as George Hubbard Brown Jr. because he shared the name with the uncle, a merchant and founder and president of the Bank of Washington. His maternal grandfather was Richard Bonner, a Washington merchant and the wealthiest man in Beaufort County when he died.

Both of his parents died when he was a young man.

His plans to enroll in the sophomore class at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill were foiled when the university closed in 1870 during reconstruction. In 1890, he was elected as the first district judge to the North Carolina Superior Court without opposition, serving on the superior court for fifteen years. The Washington Gazette described Judge Brown, saying "His honor is possessed of a magnificent physique, as well as a strong and vigorous intelligence; his bearing both in and out of the courtroom is that of a high toned Christian gentleman, and great Judge."

Governor Thomas Michael Holt moved Brown to the Guilford court for December 1891 and the New Hanover court for January 1892. In 1898, there was a problem with Brown's reelection to the superior court; in some counties, he was listed on the ballot as George H. Brown instead of George H. Brown Jr. Some 15,000 votes went to George H. Brown in Caswell, Chatham, Clay, Dare, Duplin, Edgecombe, Forsyth, Franklin, Guilford, Harnett, and Hyde counties, but the North Carolina Secretary of State, Republican Cyrus Thompson, said he did not have the authority to credit those votes to George H. Brown Jr.

In 1902, Brown ran for the Democratic nomination for associate justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court against Henry G. Connor. When Brown lost in a tight vote at the 1902 Democratic State Convention, Daniels promised him a unanimous nomination in two years.

Brown was elected to an eight-year term on the North Carolina Supreme Court. in 1904. He successfully ran for reelection 1912. Brown was succeeded by Walter P. Stacy. The North Carolina Supreme Court adjourned in his honor on March 17, 1926. The George H. & Laura E. Brown Library opened in Washington in 1954. Duke University Libraries house a collection of Brown's correspondences.

Personal life Brown married Laura E. Ellison Lewis on December 17, 1874, in Washington.

On March 16, 1926, Brown died of pneumonia at his home in Washington. Brown had made successful investments, leaving an estate of around $300,000 ($ in today's money).