A young businessman of Portsmouth after a strenuous youth who now has his feet planted on the rungs of the ladder of success is Henry Critcher Brown.  He was born at Colonial Beach, Va., March 23, 1889.  He is a son of Mary Washington Critcher and Henry Brown.  His father was a farmer, as was his paternal grandfather, John Ross Brown.  His maternal grandfather was John Critcher, of Scotch parentage, who was a prominent lawyer in Westmoreland County and who served as Judge of the Circuit Court.

Brown attended the Union Industrial Academy at Port Conway and later the Capital City Commercial College, Des Moines, Iowa.  He not only had to work his way through the schools, but also at the same time assist his parents.  The difficulties he encountered on the journey had much to do with the strengthening of his moral fibre and determination, and therefore in the shaping of his life.

He was graduated from Commercial College in 1915 as a Bachelor of Accounts, went into business at Des Moines, Iowa, and promptly failed.  Then he accepted a position with St. Paul's Industrial School, at Lawrenceville, Va., as stenographer.  He resigned from that position and became stenographer at the Norfolk Navy Yard.  The war coming on he volunteered for army service and was commissioned Second Lieutenant of Infantry.

Brown is a Republican in politics and an Episcopalian in religion.  He is Post Commander of the American Legion Club of Portsmouth, Va.  He is a lover of reading, more especially of works bearing upon the past of the colored people such as "Up From Slavery," "The Leopard Spots," and others, having for him a strong appeal.  He has acquired standing in the community and is well on the road to success.

On Dec. 24, 1918, Mr. Brown was married to Miss Marion Ursula Bulkley, a daughter of Louis and Sarah Bulkley.  They have one child, a little daughter whose name is Ursula Otis Bulkley Brown.  Mr. Brown pins his faith for a better future for his people to "trained business men and women.”  There is much force in this as to an outsider it would seem that colored men and women are crowding into professions to the exclusion of business life.