He was a captain in the Winchester Militia, 4th Regiment.
Following the revolutionary war, Captain Benajah Brown bought 600 acres of land on the Genesee River , New York at a plance known as "BIG TREE OR PAINTED POST", afterwards known as Geneseo, a place where Indians gathered to hold their councils, war dances, and pow-wows.
At one time the Indians became very ugly and savage, so much so, that the whole settlement of white people moved to one place to protect themselves. After he had been on his land for several years, old General Wadsworth claimed that it was his land. He put the matter into Court and gained the suit, and Benajah Brown was was dispossessed of his land and nearly financially ruined. He considered that he had been robbed of his land because General Wadsworth was a rich and prominent man and seemed to have influence with the Court. He became disgusted and declared that, if the country that he had fought for would not protect him in his honest rights, he would not stay in it, so in the fall of 1797 he took his family and moved into Canada crossing the Niagra River at Fort Erie.
There was at that time a number of British soldiers stationed at Fort Erie. He stopped there about one year working about the fort, and his wife Violetta knit socks for the soldiers. He then moved up to the Grand River, at the time called the "Big Bend", now Bow Park farm. He worked for three years for the noted Indian Chief Brant, teaching the Indians to farm and to break oxen for work.
His wife Violetta became dissatisfied with raising her family entirely amongst the Indians, so in 1801 they moved up to West Oxford, and drew about two miles west of where Ingersoll now stands. He lived there about four years and did his settling duties.
In the winter of 1805 he and his neighbor by the name of Major Tousley went to Little York (now Toronto) with a pair of horses and sleigh to get the deeds of their land and other things that they needed such as leather, groceries etc.. They got their deeds and what things they wanted and started for home. On January 25, 1805, they undertook a short cut across Burlington Bay at Hamilton, on the ice. They only went a short distance before the horses and sleigh, with them in it, broke through the ice. They were seen by parties on shore who came to their assistance. When they came up, Benajah said "Help the Major out first - he has been down once; I can keep up." Then they threw the Major the rope and pulled him out alright. Then they threw Benajah the rope, but they pulled so hard and quick that the rope broke and he went down and never came up. His body was found later with grappling irons. He was a large man and had on a heavy bear skin coat. He was grappled out, taken home, and buried in the old Ingersoll cemetery on King Street, east of town.