Jerry Ramsey said Friday he’ll do whatever it takes to get John A. Brown’s name attached to the canyon where the pioneer homesteader once lived in Jefferson County.

“It’s too bad we have to delay,” he said. “It’s waited 120 years.”

Ramsey said Brown was one of the first homesteaders in that area and probably the first African-American to settle in Central Oregon. He farmed a tract along Campbell Creek close to its junction with the Deschutes River.

The canyon, through which U.S. Highway 26 passes north of Madras, has ever since Brown’s time been known by his name, with a racist slur preceding it. Ramsey aimed to change that by applying to the Oregon Geographic Names Board for a new name.

But the board on June 22 delayed action on the name change to address a paperwork issue. Board President Sharon Nesbit said the application is a shoo-in, nonetheless. The board will take it up again in November, she said.

Ramsey, president of the county historical society, cited “oral local usage” as a source for the canyon name. He could find it on no maps, according to the application he and local historian Beth Crow of Madras submitted to the board.

Turns out, the place was officially designated “Negro Brown Canyon” in May 1986, according to the U.S. Geographic Names Systems online. So technically, Ramsey and Crow need to apply for a revised name, Nesbit said, not a new one.

“That was more my screw-up than his,” said Nesbit Friday. She forgot to check U.S. Geographic Names Systems, a routine step, to verify the feature lacked an official name. “I should have realized that.”

But Ramsey, who was not present June 22 to give his assent to a change, need not re-submit the application, Nesbit said. All the Oregon board requires is he agree to the board altering it to comply with protocol.

“It’s more a matter of i dotting and t crossing,” she said.

And one more thing. The Oregon board would like to include John Brown’s middle initial “A” to distinguish this John Brown from the abolitionist John Brown whose 1859 raid on the U.S. armory at Harper’s Ferry foreshadowed the Civil War.

The Oregon board only recommends name changes; the U.S. Board on Geographic Names actually approves or denies them. The U.S. board does not normally allow middle initials, or apostrophes, for that matter, in official place names, Nesbit said. A call to the board in Washington, D.C., was not returned Friday.

“The (state) board members really thought that because this was a common name, John A. Brown did more to define Mr. Brown,” Nesbit said. The middle “A” isn’t a dealbreaker, though. If the U.S. board declines, Oregon will settle for plain John Brown, she said.

John A. Brown arrived from Polk County in 1881, built a two-story home, laid claim and seven years later, took title to his property. A mountain and creek in Deschutes County are named for him, as well, according to the Crook County Historical and Genealogical Society. Brown, who died in 1903, is buried in Prineville.

Becky and Dean Roberts live on the property that Brown homesteaded and that he sold to the Campbell family. The creek that runs through the canyon will remain Campbell Creek.

Becky Roberts said little remains of the Brown homestead, save some poplar trunks and a rose bush.

“There’s a rose bush down there that blooms every year that, I’m sure, was by the home,” she said.

She’s heard the canyon referred to by the racial slur, but never frequently and not lately. The name has fallen into disuse over the years; the canyon simply has no name, for practical purposes, she said. The Robertses wrote the state board a letter endorsing the name change.

“I think it was probably always a little offensive, the way it was referred to,” she said. “And anything to clean that up is a good idea.”