Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 01.djvu/477

BROWN, Samuel, physician, was born in Rockbridge county, Va., Jan. 30, 1769. He was graduated at Dickinson college in 1789; studied medicine in Scotland and practised in Kentucky, Louisiana and Mississippi. He became professor of medicine in Transylvania university in 1819; established a medical school in Lexington, Ky., of which he was president until 1835, and organized the first medical society in Lexington, Ky. He introduced the method of preparing ginseng for medicine, and contributed to medical journals. He labored for the abolition of slavery. He died Jan. 12, 1830.

BROWN, Samuel Gilman, educator, was born at North Yarmouth, Me., Jan. 4, 1813; son of Francis Brown, president of Dartmouth college. He was graduated from Dartmouth in 1831. For the next few years he taught school, including two years’ service as principal of Abbott academy. He then took a course in theology at the Andover seminary, graduating in 1837. Immediately after his graduation he travelled in Europe, and studied there until 1839, when he accepted the chair of oratory and belles lettres at Dartmouth college. In 1863 he became professor of intellectual philosophy and political economy in that institution. In 1867 he accepted the presidency of Hamilton college at Clinton, N.Y., which he resigned in 1881. He is the author of “The Life of Rufus Choate” (1870), and various lectures and essays. The last few years of his life were passed in Utica, N.Y., where he died Nov. 4, 1885.

BROWN, Samuel Robbins, missionary, was born in Connecticut in 1810. He was graduated from Yale college in 1832, and a few years after became a missionary to China. He established the Morrison Chinese school for boys at Canton in 1838, and conducted it for nearly ten years. From 1847 till 1859 he was in the United States, and in the latter year went to Yokohama. He translated the Bible into Japanese, and is the author of “Prendergast’s Mastery System applied to English and Japanese,” “Colloquial Japanese,” and many translations and short articles. The University of the city of New York conferred on him the degree of D.D. in 1867. He died in Monson, Mass., in 1880.

BROWN, Solyman, author, was born at Litchfield, Conn., Nov. 17, 1790. After being graduated at Yale in 1812, he studied theology, was ordained as a Congregational minister in Connecticut in 1814, and preached, teaching school during the week as a further means of support. In 1832 he became a disciple of Swedenborg, and removed to New York, where he engaged in preaching that system of belief. He practised dentistry in connection with his ministerial duties. His published works included an “Essay on American Poetry” (1814); “Dentologia,” a poem on the diseases of the teeth (1833), and “Dental Hygeia,” a poem concerning the general laws of health (1838). He was a contributor to the New York Mirror, and an associate editor of the Journal of Dental Science. Yale conferred on him the degree of A.M. in 1817. He died in New York in 1876.

BROWN, Thomas, journalist, was born in Cleveland, Ohio, about 1819. He was graduated at Franklin college, and entered upon the practice of law at Cleveland. In 1850, in partnership with John C. Vaughan, he established the True Democrat, which became the Free Soil organ of northern Ohio, and in 1854 its name was changed to the Cleveland Leader. In 1853 he commenced the publication of the Ohio Farmer. In 1862 Secretary Chase appointed him special agent of the treasury department in San Francisco. There he discovered and corrected some serious abuses in the management of the mint, custom house and marine hospital. Subsequently he was stationed at New York, where he remained as supervisor and special agent of the United States treasury department until his death, which occurred in Brooklyn, June 13, 1867.

BROWN, Thompson S., civil engineer, was born at Brownville, N.Y., in 1807; son of Major Samuel Brown and a nephew of Jacob Brown, major-general commanding the United States army. He was graduated at West Point in 1825, and after serving for a time as professor of mathematics at the military academy, and as assistant engineer in the construction of Fort Adams, R.I., he was appointed aide-de-camp on the staff of his uncle. He resigned the service in 1836 to become engineer-in-chief of the Buffalo and Erie railroad, and was thus occupied from 1836 to 1838, being at the same time employed by the United States government to superintend the harbor improvements on Lake Erie. From 1838 to 1842 he was chief engineer of the western division of the New York and Erie railway, and of the entire road from 1842 to 1849. He was in the service of the Czar of Russia as consulting engineer of railroads from 1849 to 1854, and died at Naples, Italy, June 30, 1855.

BROWN, William J., statesman, was born in Kentucky, Nov. 22, 1805. He removed to Indiana in 1821, where he took an active part in politics and was elected to the state legislature and afterwards secretary of state. He was elected a national representative in 1843, and sat in the 28th Congress, and in 1845 he was appointed by President Polk assistant postmaster-general. In 1848 he was elected to the 31st Congress, and in 1851 returned to Indiana and became successful editor of the Indiana Sentinel, librarian of the state library, and special agent of the postoffice department for Indiana and Illinois. He died at Indianapolis, Ind., March 18, 1857.