BROWNTON, incorporated February 20, 1886, was named by Capt. Alonzo L. Brown, whose farm included this townsite, in honor of his brother, Charles, who died in 1862 in the Civil War, both men serving with Company B of the Fourth Minnesota Regiment. Alonzo Brown was born in Auburn, N.Y., November 8, 1838, and died at his home in Brownton, October 11, 1904. He came to Minnesota in 1857, settling here; served in the Civil War and became captain ; was author of the History of the Fourth Regiment, Minnesota (1892, 594 pp.). The first settlers came about 1856, and the community was shown on territorial maps as Grimshaw's Settlement for Robert E. Grimshaw, one of the 1856 settlers; the post office began in 1878 with Alonzo L. Brown, postmaster; it had a station of the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad.