Ogden in Weber County, Utah — The American Mountains (Southwest)
David & Charilla Browning
Photographed by Jeremy Snow, June 21, 2025
1. David & Charilla Browning Marker
Inscription.
David Elias Browning (1829-1901), son of Jonathan Browning and Elizabeth Stalcup,
was a native of Tennessee. He was an early Mormon pioneer and farmer in Ogden, Utah. In
January of 1853, he married Charilla Abbott. David affectionately called her "Rily." They were the parents of eight children. Around 1874, David built this cedar clad farmhouse with handmade nails and local brick on his large farm at Old Post Road near Burch Creek in South Ogden. David was a half-brother to John Moses Browning, the famous gun inventor. David was a Sealer of weights and measures, a Sergeant-major in the first Utah territorial militia, an accomplished violinist, and a detailed journal writer. His journal includes an entry dated January 10, 1870, describing the first railroad ride for him and his wife at the opening of the Utah Central Railroad. The narrative notes, "We had quite a celebration---". David and Charilla also had a brick home on 29th Street in Ogden. David Elias was dubbed "Browning's Papoose" by the Shoshone Chieftain "Little Soldier" because of his kindness to the tribe.
Charilla Abbott Browning (1829-1914), daughter of
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Stephen Abbott and Abigail Smith, was a native of New York. She was an early Mormon pioneer and arrived in Utah in 1849. For some time, she lived in Brown's Fort, now known as Fort Buenaventura. Charilla was the first school teacher in Weber County. Of this experience Charilla wrote, "It fell to my lot to teach the first school in my section. It was in a small log house plastered with mud, having two small windows, and literally a ground floor. The benches were of slabs."
We had few books, and pens were made of chicken quills. I gathered the alphabet from scraps of paper and pasted the letters on paddles for the A,B,C class. In winter paths
were made for the pupils by taking oxen and dragging logs through the snow."
This farmhouse was an early post office in the area for a period of time. To preserve the home and its history the house was moved to this site in 2007.
Location. 41° 12.908′ N, 111° 59.279′ W. Marker is in Ogden, Utah, in Weber County. It can be reached
Photographed by Jeremy Snow, June 21, 2025
2. David & Charilla Browning Marker
from A Avenue. Located at the south-east corner of the parking lot. Touch for map. Marker is at or near this postal address: 2450 A Avenue, Ogden UT 84401, United States of America. Touch for directions.
Regionally, this marker is in the Wasatch Front and in Greater Salt Lake. It is also in the American Mountain West and on the Colorado Plateau. Globally, it is in North America, the Rocky Mountains, the Western Hemisphere, the Western World, and the Anglosphere. Historically, it finds itself in what was once New Spain and also Mexicos Alta California.
Credits. This page was last revised on July 6, 2025. It was originally submitted on July 6, 2025, by Jeremy Snow of Cedar City, Utah. This page has been viewed 143 times since then and 46 times this year. Photos:1, 2. submitted on July 6, 2025, by Jeremy Snow of Cedar City, Utah. • Andrew Ruppenstein was the editor who published this page.
