Ripples from La Prairie Voyageur Canoes: CHAPTER 9: THE TRAILS OF BIG SKY & THE CRESTON HOMESTEAD (1880s

SECTION I: LUCY PASSINO & JOHN GALLOWAY BROWN

Back in Jefferson County, New York, Lucy Passino (1836–1917)—daughter of Gabriel (Gilbert) Passino and Marie Emélie Meunier dit Lagacé—married John Galloway Brown (1833–1915), son of War of 1812 U.S. Dragoon Samuel R. Brown and Maria Weeks.

THE PINSONNEAU / BROWN MONTANA LINEAGE

Gabriel (Gilbert) Passino (1803–1877)

m. Marie Emélie Meunier dit Lagacé

│

Lucy Passino (1836–1917)

m. John Galloway Brown (1833–1915)

│

Abraham Lincoln Brown (1864–1948)

m. Geneva "Neva" Plympton

[Creston, Montana Homesteaders]

John Galloway Brown and Lucy raised seven children in New York, including their son Abraham Lincoln Brown, born on November 25, 1864, during the height of the Civil War.

SECTION II: ABRAHAM LINCOLN BROWN & GENEVA PLYMPTON IN MONTANA

As the post-Civil War West opened to homesteading, Abraham Lincoln Brown (1864–1948) carried the family line into the American West.

Abraham married Geneva "Neva" Plympton (daughter of a Union Civil War veteran). In the 1890s, Abraham and Geneva moved their young family to northwestern Montana, taking up a permanent homestead at Creston, Montana in the Flathead Valley.

In Creston, Abraham Lincoln Brown established a successful farm beneath the Mission Range, uniting the eastern voyageur heritage of the Pinsonneaus, Bourassas, and Lebers with the Big Sky country of Montana.

Here in the Flathead Valley—where his distant cousin François Rivet had helped David Thompson build Salish House nearly a century earlier—the Pinsonneau-Passino line took firm root in Montana soil.

NEXT: EPILOGUE- THE UNBROKEN RIVER

MASTER INDEX OF ANCESTORS, DATES, & LOCATIONS

BIBLIOGRAPHY & HISTORICAL SOURCES

https://laprairie-voyageur-canoes.blogspot.com/2026/10/epilogue-unbroken-river.html

EMPIRES OF THE WILDERNESS- THE VOYAGEUR BLOODLINE OF LA PRAIRIE (1585–1917)

CHAPTER 1- THE VIKING TRAIL, CHAMPLAIN’S TRUCHEMENTS, & THE NORMANDY LINE (890–1678)

https://laprairie-voyageur-canoes.blogspot.com/2026/10/empires-of-wilderness-voyageur.html

CHAPTER 2- THE STAGING GROUND AT LA PRAIRIE & THE LACHINE MONOPOLY (1626–1723)

https://laprairie-voyageur-canoes.blogspot.com/2026/10/chapter-2-staging-ground-at-la-prairie.html

CHAPTER 3- THE FATHERS OF THE FUR TRADE & THE BOURASSA DYNASTY (1659–1756)

https://laprairie-voyageur-canoes.blogspot.com/2026/10/chapter-3-fathers-of-fur-trade-bourassa.html

CHAPTER 4- OUTLAWS, OUTPOSTS, & WILDERNESS SURVIVAL- RENÉ BOURASSA DIT LARONDE (1722–1778)