Frame and Marie Brown

Pictured here are Frame and Marie Brown, owners of the Brown Fruit Farm from 1912 to 1936. Frame’s father, William C. Brown, purchased the farm from its original owner, Frank Bower, in 1911, and then turned it over to Frame in 1912. Frame had just graduated from Yale and he and Marie, newly married, moved into a farmhouse on the farm. Their daughter Molly was born in 1913, and after Frame and Marie passed away in 1936, she carried on operations of the farm for another 20 years.

Marie Brown was a great-great-granddaughter of Worthington founder James Kilbourne.

The Brown Fruit Farm operated north of Worthington for nearly fifty years, from around 1912 to 1958. The farm grew and sold apples and apple products such as juice, candy and apple butter, as well as cherries, plums and honey. As of 1925, the farm encompassed 100 acres planted with 4000 fruit trees and was the largest fruit farm in central Ohio. It was renowned not only for the quality of its produce, but also for its innovative roadside marketing, including signs telling motorists how many miles they were from the farm.