Ward Fulton Brown was born in Bells Mills, Pennsylvania, on October 21, 1869. Brown was a prominent lumberman from Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, who served as president and manager of Brown Brothers Lumber Company. He purchased a 12,000 acre tract of land, known formerly as the Murchison Tract, that encompassed a large portion of Mount Mitchell in 1911. He died in Philadelphia on May 11, 1922.