Robert Miles Brand was born and spent his early years in the "Goose Hollow" section of Brookville Township, Ogle County, Illinois. In 1874, he moved with his parents to a farm one mile north of Polo, where the family lived until they moved to Polo in 1886. As a youth, he attended grade school at Burr Oak. Later, he attended Polo High School and Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. Before attending Northwestern, he read law in the offices of James Allaben, a Polo attorney.

He graduated with a degree in law in the NU Class of 1893. (A Northwestern classmate was Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis of Chicago, who later became a U.S. district judge and the first commissioner of professional baseball.) After graduation, Brand became associated and practiced law with a Chicago attorney, John Richberg.

At the request of Mr. Allaben, whose health was declining, he returned to Polo and took over the Allaben practice several months before Mr. Allaben died. He thereafter practiced law in Allaben's office in a hotel in Polo, then in an office in the Polo National Bank building. He was an active and respected member and leader of the Polo community.

A member of the Mystic Tie Lodge, AF&AM, the Polo IOOF, the Eastern Star and the Presbyterian Church of Polo. Buried in Fairmount Cemetery.

Submitted by Michael Brand, michael007@ameritech.net

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