Sam Brown

Samuel Jerome Brown (March 7, 1845 – August 29, 1925), better known as Sam Brown, was an American frontiersman and settler in Minnesota and Dakota Territory. He earned regional fame as the "Paul Revere of the Prairie" or the "Prairie Paul Revere" for riding on the night of April 19–20, 1866, first to warn others of an expected Native American attack and then, when the threat proved false, back through a spring blizzard to intercept his own request for reinforcements from the U.S. Army. The ordeal left him dependent on a wheelchair for the rest of his life. Brown went on to serve as an educator, civic leader, advocate for Native Americans, and historian.

Early life Sam Brown was born on March 7, 1845, in the Iowa Territory near Lake Traverse, a location which is now in South Dakota. His father was Joseph R. Brown, who would go on to be a notable Indian agent and politician, and his mother was Susan Freniere Brown, a mixed ancestry descendant of Dakota chief Tatankamani. Sam Brown was thus one-eighth Dakota and an accepted member of the Sisseton Band. Two years later, in 1867, he became the first notary public in Traverse County.