“Scott Brown Cartoonist” by Christopher Kuntz

By Alan Wigton

Christopher Kuntz is returning to Mansfield this August 16th to talk about his grandfather, Scott Brown. In hand will be the book he’s written and published, illustrating the artist’s life and times.

Scott Brown was a Mansfield native son who came of age in the Great Depression. He flavored the lives of generations of Mansfielders with cartoons and humor from behind the soda fountain of the family’s drugstore on Helen Avenue.  His work appeared in national magazines. But he also freely shared his humor about his neighbors and the interesting people around him, Mansfield people, with whomever walked through the shop door.

Hugh Faulkner was a handyman at Oak Hill Cottage with an eye for Leile Jones before she rejected him and married Frank Barrett

Brown had a love of history, the humorous side of history. His grandson Christopher Kuntz has brought it all together in this book with a huge sampling of Brown’s illustrated humor alongside the history of his Ohio family.

When Scott Brown’s widow, Ann, prepared to move out of her home on Rae Avenue in Mansfield in 2002, she donated the cartoonist’s lifetime accumulation of artwork and related material to several local museums. This made it possible now, 20 years later, for Kuntz to deliver about the most entertaining family history one could imagine.

Kuntz took aim at understanding his Ohio ancestors in terms of the events and conditions that surrounded them. He conveys this from the time they came to the region after the War of 1812 up until his last memory of his grandfather in 1982. This parallels the lives of many of our pioneer families, told by someone who clearly sought and found his piece of Richland County history.

Meet the author and hear about his grandfather at the Oak Hill Cottage Carriage House, 346 Oak Hill Place, on Wednesday, August 16th at 7:30pm. The event is free and copies of the book will be on sale. Read more about the book at scottbrowncartoonist.com .  The event is sponsored by the Richland County Historical Society members who welcome you to Oak Hill, the historic landmark home.