Owen Brown
BornFebruary 16, 1771
Torrington, Connecticut, British America
DiedMay 8, 1856 (aged 85)
Hudson, Ohio, U.S.
Resting placeOld Hudson Township Burying Ground
41°14′43″N 81°26′21″W / 41.24530°N 81.43920°W / 41.24530; -81.43920
Other namesSquire Brown
Spouses
Ruth Mills
​
(m. 1793⁠–⁠1808)​
    Sally Root
    ​
    (m. 1809⁠–⁠1840)​
      Lucy Hinsdale
      ​
      (m. 1841⁠–⁠1856)​
      Children8, including John Brown
      RelativesOwen Brown, John Brown Junior, Watson Brown (grandsons)

      Owen Brown (February 16, 1771 – May 8, 1856), father of abolitionist John Brown, was a wealthy cattle breeder and land speculator who operated a successful tannery in Hudson, Ohio. He was also a fervent abolitionist and civil servant, shout and outspoken.[1] Brown was a founder of multiple institutions including the Western Reserve Anti-Slavery Society, Western Reserve College, and the Free Congressional Church. Brown gave speeches advocating the immediate abolition of slavery and facilitated the Underground Railroad.

      His brother Frederick was the father of Rev. Edward Brown who married Laura Ingalls and Almanzo Wilder and adopted Laura's good friend Ida Brown (birth name Wright).

      In 1793 he married Ruth Mills, a minister's daughter.[2]: 21 

      Someone whose father was an intimate friend of Owen remembered him as "a very kind, genial, whole-souled sort of person. He stuttered badly."[3]

      Owen wrote two brief autobiographic statements that have survived to the present.[4]: 4–11 

      "No one mistook Owen's speech impediment for weakness, or his lack of schooling for ignorance."[2]: 100 

      Early life and education

      One of 10 children, Owen Brown was born on February 16, 1771, to Revolutionary War Capt. John Brown (1728–1776) and Hanna Owen Brown, in Torrington, Connecticut. A lifetime admirer of the Founding Fathers, Owen's first memory was of the departure of his father's militia company to engage the British in New York during the summer of 1776.[5]: 22 

      Career

      A wealthy tanner, cattle breeder, and land speculator, Brown was a dedicated civil servant and was integral to the early growth of Hudson, Ohio. Famed for his resourcefulness and energy, he was known locally as Squire Brown.[5]: 23  He was the third wealthiest man in Hudson in the 1830s.[2]: 25, 101  Brown served in a multitude of positions in the community including County Commissioner and Justice of the Peace.[5]: 23  Brown was deeply rooted in the abolitionist movement. He was personal friends with leaders such as Frederick Douglass, who often stayed with the Brown family when he was lecturing in the area.[5]: 145  Owen, in collaboration with David Hudson, was integral in establishing one of the earliest way stations along the Underground Railroad, and personally arranged passage into Canada for many escaped slaves.[5]: 30, 145 

      Colleges

      Owen was a never a trustee of Western Reserve College, but he was involved in it since its founding.[2]: 100  He is credited for securing its location in Hudson as well as overseeing the construction of its first building,[5]: 23, 73 [6]: 13 [7] a venture on which he made money.[2]: 100  During Brown's tenure (1825-1835), Western Reserve College became known as a hotbed of abolitionist ideals.[5]: 73  After the death of the institution's first president, Charles Backus Storrs, in 1833 the university elected a more conservative president, George E. Pierce, in an attempt to distance itself from the politics of slavery.[5]: 73 [6]: 26 

      In 1835 Brown resigned his position and along with several faculty, staff, and students of Western Reserve College, and a trustee, a professor, and a large number of students from Lane Theological Seminary in Cincinnati, moved to Oberlin Collegiate Institute (since 1850, Oberlin College) in Oberlin, Ohio. Owen served as trustee there from 1835 to 1844. Brown and others were successful in making Oberlin the first institution of higher learning to admit women and one of the first to admit black students. Owen's daughter, Florella Brown, studied at Oberlin from 1835 to 1839, where she met her husband, Samuel Lyle Adair.[8]

      Death and burial

      Brown died in Hudson, Ohio, on May 8, 1856, and was buried at Old Hudson Township Burying Ground.[9] His death in Hudson was a "public event": "there was never so large a funeral procession."[10]

      See also

      References

      1. ↑ DeCaro Jr., Louis (2015). Freedom's Dawn. the Last Days of John Brown in Virginia. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield. p. 4. ISBN 9781442236721.
      2. 1 2 3 4 5 DeCaro Jr., Louis A. (2002). 'Fire from the Midst of You'[.] A Religious Life of John Brown. New York: New York University Press. ISBN 081471921X.
      3. ↑ Snow, S. P. (April 13, 1889). "Reminiscence of the Father of Old John Brown". Pacific Rural Press (San Francisco, California). p. 355. Archived from the original on August 26, 2021. Retrieved August 26, 2021 – via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
      4. ↑ Sanborn, Franklin B; Brown, John (1885). The Life and Letters of John Brown, Liberator of Kansas, and Martyr of Virginia. Boston: Roberts Brothers.
      5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Carton, Evan (August 29, 2006). Patriotic Treason. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 0-7432-7136-X.
      6. 1 2 Cutler, Carroll (1876). A History of Western Reserve College During its First Half Century 1826-1876. Cleveland, Ohio: Crocker's Publishing House.
      7. ↑ Du Bois, William Edward Burghardt (1974). John Brown. International Pub. p. 66. ISBN 0-7178-0375-9.
      8. ↑ Clayton, John Edward (April 26, 1990). "An Antislavery Mission: Oberlin College Evangelicals in 'Bleeding Kansas'". Oberlin College. Retrieved February 17, 2019.
      9. ↑ "Biographical Details, Owen Brown". Family of Owen Brown. Hudson, OH: Hudson Library and Historical Society. Retrieved June 20, 2018.
      10. ↑ McGlone, Robert E. (2009). John Brown's War Against Slavery. Cambridge University Press. p. 94. ISBN 9780521514439.
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