Corydon Partlow Brown

Brown was born in Southampton, New Brunswick in 1848, training as a civil engineer before moving west and homesteading 320 acres (two quarter-sections) in the area of what is now Gladstone, Manitoba.

When Norquay became premier of a coalition government in 1878, Brown was offered a cabinet position as Provincial Secretary; two years later, he was named Minister of Public Works.

One of Brown's most important tasks during his time at Public Works was to convince the serving Prime Minister of Canada, Sir John A. Macdonald, that the future of Manitoba depended on the issuing of railway charters (disallowed by Ottawa).

His duties were hampered by attacks by Liberal partisans and the Winnipeg Free Press, both of which called him a "boodle politician", and by lack of support on the part of Norquay and his other allies.

Brown was eventually demoted back to Provincial Secretary before retiring from the cabinet.