Leander C. Brown, of Arkansas City, is, in point of service, one of the oldest attorneys in Cowley county, Kansas, and also one of the most successful that has ever practiced there. He is the descendant of Kentucky and Virginia ancestors, and on the paternal side is of Irish lineage, his grandfather, John Brown, having immigrated to America from Ireland in 1818. This honored grandsire settled first in Virginia and removed from there to Kentucky, where he became a large planter and an extensive slaveholder. Both he and his wife continued to reside on the old Kentucky homestead until their respective deaths, the latter having passed away at the remarkable age of one hundred and six years. Their son, William W., the father of Leander C., was born in Kentucky, and was an agriculturist, but later became a builder and contractor. During the Civil war his sympathies were with the Union, which cause he served during the last three months of the war, under General Garfield. After the war the Southern sympathizers made it so unpleasant for Mr. Brown that in 1868 he and his family removed to Kansas, locating first in Johnson county, but removing in 1872 to Cowley county, where he preëmpted land and transformed the virgin soil into an improved farm. Later he removed to Oklahoma and died there. The mother of Leander C. Brown was a Miss Edith Whitley prior to her marriage. She was born in Kentucky, to which state her father had removed from Virginia.

Leander C. Brown acquired his literary education in the Winfield High School and at Southwestern College at Winfield, and was graduated from the latter school in 1886. The following ten years were given to the teaching profession, but in the meantime he was assiduously studying law and in 1893 was admitted to the bar. He began the practice of his profession with C. T. Atkinson, at Arkansas City, with whom he continued as a partner three years, since which time he has practiced alone. Mr. Brown has been admitted to practice in all the courts, circuit, supreme and Federal, and is also admitted to practice in Oklahoma. He began as a lawyer without vantage or prestige, but being possessed of an analytic mind, one which enables him to master the most intricate problems connected with the law, and being endowed with that tenacity of purpose which does not permit defeat or discouragements to daunt him, he has steadily advanced to a foremost place among his professional colleagues in Cowley county and in southern Kansas, and also has enjoyed a very remunerative reward for his efforts. He is attorney for the Traders' State Bank at Arkansas City.

On. Dec. 14, 1883, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Brown and Miss Mary E. Cronk, the daughter of Augustus C. Cronk. Mr. Cronk came to Kansas from New York state in 1877 and settled on a farm in Cowley county, where he resided until his death, in 1901. Mr. and Mrs. Brown have one daughter, Geneva, who married Walter W. Penrose, with the Oldsmobile Company, of Kansas City, Mo. In politics Mr. Brown is a Democrat, but is not actively interested in party work. He was at one time, however, a candidate for county attorney of Cowley county, but being a Democrat in an overwhelmingly Republican county he was defeated. Fraternally he is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.