Brown was also a well-known philanthropist who gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to a wide range of religious and educational institutions.

[1][2][3][4] In 1882, Brown and his two younger brothers bought 1,000 sheep in the Willamette Valley and moved them to northeastern Lake County, Oregon.

The brothers filed homestead claims on the east side of Wagontire Mountain, where they built a small rustic cabin, with a dirt floor and no windows.

In the years after they arrived in the Wagontire area, the brothers began to buy up local properties with water sources.

His holdings were spread across at least 30 parcels which included much of the surface water in the very dry high desert environment between the towns of Prineville and Burns.

[7][9][10][14] Because he controlled most of the water sources in the area, his herds could graze freely across a wide expanse of high desert including large tracts of public lands.

[2][6][7][15] Brown's eastern neighbor was the cattle baron Bill Hanley, who owned two large ranches south and east of Burns.

The Gap Ranch was located 35 miles (56 km) west of Burns, along the area's main east–west wagon road (today it is U.S. Route 20).

[6][7][11][16] Prior to 1910, the Buck Creek Ranch was a collection of ramshackle buildings; woolsheds, storehouses, stables, rustic living quarters, and a company store.

The new house had a modern water system, indoor bathrooms, seven or eight bedrooms, a large living room, and an office.

Brown furnished it with fine furniture including a dining room table that seated twelve, a piano, and an organ.

[2][17][18] In addition to the two main ranches, Brown had at least twenty sheep camps that supported eight herds that were constantly moving between his properties and adjacent public lands.

[16] With his operation spread across such a large area, Brown often found the need to order supplies or pay off an employee when he did not have a checkbook at hand.

He gave large financial gifts to a wide range of religious and educational institutions, especially the Methodist Episcopal Church and Willamette University.

[18][19][20] In 1907, Brown paid for a new music building at Willamette University and later gave the school 640 acres (2.6 km2) in Harney County.

Even though Brown owned thousands of horses, he regularly walked the 20 miles (32 km) between his two ranches, a practice that contributed to his reputation as an eccentric character.

During this same period, the British Army also sent buyers to central Oregon to purchase horses for service in the Boer War.

He held regular auctions at his Buck Creek Ranch and several other locations, often selling five hundred horses in a single day.

Buyers would then hire trail hands to move their newly acquired horses to the railheads at Bend, Crane, or Lakeview for shipment to California, Kansas, and east coast ports.

[26] In 1935, Brown sold his last property holding and remaining livestock for a small amount of money to the Wool Grower Credit Corporation of Portland in lieu of foreclosure.