Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 1).djvu/427

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BROWN
BROWN
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ing, and provoked great indignation throughout the state. The legislature passed an act amending the charter of the college, changing it to a university, and increasing the number of trustees. By the new board, Dr. Wheelock was reinstated; but Dr. Brown and the former trustees began a suit for the recovery of the property. This was decided against them by the state courts, but was carried up to the U. S. supreme court, where judgment was reversed, and the principle of the inviolability of chartered property was affirmed, Chief-Justice Marshall presiding. Dr. Brown rendered valuable assistance to the counsel for the college, of whom Daniel Webster was one. This decision was reached in 1819, and Dr. Brown was reinstated in the presidency, but died of consumption shortly afterward. Several of his sermons were published, two of which, bearing date of 1812 and 1814, are on the evils of war, and had for their motive the then existing war with England.—His son, Samuel Gillman, educator, b. in North Yarmouth, Me., 4 Jan., 1813; d. in Utica, N. Y., 4 Nov., 1885. He was graduated at Dartmouth in 1831, was for a while principal of the high school in Ellington, Conn., and then entered Andover theological seminary, where he was graduated in 1837. He was two years principal of Abbot academy at Andover (1835-'7), after which he spent two years in travel abroad. On his return he was appointed professor of oratory and belles-lettres in Dartmouth, which chair he held till 1863, when he was appointed to that of intellectual philosophy and political economy. On 6 Oct., 1852, he was ordained a Congregational minister at Woodstock, Vt. He left Dartmouth in 1867 to become president of Hamilton college, Clinton, N. Y. His health becoming impaired, he resigned in 1881, after which he only gave occasional instruction at Dartmouth and Bowdoin, residing chiefly at Utica, N. Y. He published "Life of Rufus Choate" (Boston, 1870), and lectured on "The Earlier English Literature" and "British Orators." On 21 Jiily, 1869, he delivered before the alumni of Dartmouth college the historical discourse commemorating the one hundredth anniversary of the institution.


BROWN, George, naval officer, b. in Indiana, 19 June, 1835. He was appointed midshipman from his native state, 5 Feb., 1849, was attached to the frigate "Cumberland," and in 1851 to the "St. Lawrence," cruising in both vessels. He was promoted to passed midshipman, and afterward to master, in 1856. On 2 June, 1856, he became lieutenant, and served in the Brazilian and African squadrons until 1860, when he was ordered to special service on the steam sloop "Powhatan," and in 1861 transferred to the "Oetorora" gun-boat, which was attached, as flag-ship, to Com. Porter's mortar-boat flotilla. He participated in the hazardous ascent of the Mississippi river under Farragut, and in the first attack on Vicksburg in June, 1863, and for his conduct on this occasion was commended in the official report. The fleet dropped down the river to avoid the season of low water, and the "Oetorora" was ordered to blockading duty off Wilmington, N. C. Lieut. Brown was promoted lieutenant-commander 16 July, 1862, and shortly afterward placed in charge of the "Indianola" iron-clad, of the Mississippi squadron. The batteries at Vicksburg and Warrenton were successfully passed 14 Feb., 1863. An engagement took place near upper Palmyra island, on 24 Feb., 1863, between the "Indianola" and four confederate gun-boats, manned by more than a thousand men. The fight lasted an hour and twenty-seven minutes, and Lieut.-Commander Brown, severely wounded, surrendered, with his ship in a sinking condition. The officers and crew were exchanged a few months afterward, and Lieut. Brown was as- signed to the steam gun-boat '• Itasca," of the western gulf blockading squadron, which he commanded in the action of 5 Aug., 1864, in Mobile bay, and in the naval operations against Spanish Port and the defences of Mobile, in March and April, 1865. He was promoted commander, 25 July, 1866, and stationed at the Washington navy-yard until 1867, when he was granted leave of absence to serve as agent for the Japanese government in command of an iron-clad man-of-war purchased from the United States. He was promoted captain 25 April, 1877, commodore 4 Sept., 1887, and rear-admiral 27 Sept., 1893. He will be retired in 1898.


BROWN, George Loring, painter, b. in Boston, Mass.. 2 Feb.. 1814 ; d. in Maiden, Mass., 25 June, 1889. He began to draw when but eight years old. He went to the Franklin school, won there the silver medal, and at twelve years of age was apprenticed to a wood-engraver. Experimenting with colors, his efforts attracted the attention of an artist, and he was introduced to Mr. Cushman, a wealthy merchant. Young Brown modestly asked for $100, with which to go to Europe, which sum Mr. Cushman advanced, and he set sail. On reaching Antwerp he had but $25 left, but borrowed $15 more from the captain of the brig, and worked his way to London, where he was befriended by Mr. Cheeney, the American engraver, until after ten months he had a remittance from home. He spent two years in close study, and then returned to Boston, where he opened a studio, and studied under Washington Allston. He went abroad again in 1840, and studied in Paris under Eugene Isabey. He spent twenty years in Antwerp, Rome, Florence, Paris, and London, and returned to the United States in 1860, with a high reputation as a landscape painter at home and abroad. Among his more important pictures are "The Bay of New York" (1860), presented to the prince of Wales, as a memento of his visit to this country, by a number of New York gentlemen; "The Crown of New England " (1861), purchased from the artist by the prince of Wales; "Venice"; "Sunset. Genoa"; "Niagara by Moonlight " (1876); "Capri" (1878); "Doge's Palace at Sunset" (1881); "Sunrise, Venice "(1882); and "Doge's Palace at Sunrise " (1885).


BROWN, Goold, grammarian, b. in Providence, R. I., 7 March, 1791; d. in Lynn, Mass., 31 March, 1857. He was descended from some of the earliest Quaker settlers of New England, and was educated in the schools and academies of his native state. At nineteen he began to teach a district school in Rhode Island, then a Friends' boarding-school in Dutchess co., N. Y., in 1811. He removed to New York city in 1813, where for over twenty years he conducted an academy. He soon realized that the grammars in use at that time were inadequate, and set about providing better ones. The superiority of his methods was apparent as soon as his books were brought into use, and they commanded a very large sale. He published "Institutes of English Grammar" (New York, 1823); "First Lines of English Grammar" (1823); and "A Grammar of English Grammars" (1851). He had, at the time of his death, just revised the last-named work.


BROWN, Harvey, soldier, b. in Rahway, N. J., in 1795; d. in Clifton, N. Y., 31 March, 1874. After graduation, at the U. S. military academy, in 1818, he joined the light artillery, and served on garrison and staff duty until, on the reorganization of the army in 1821, he was assigned to the