Owen Brown (abolitionist, born 1771)

Common card · No. 444203

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 civil servant and a fervent, outspoken abolitionist. 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 organized the Underground Railroad (and served as Stationmaster) in the town of Hudson, Ohio. His brother Frederick was the father of Rev. Edward Brown who conducted the wedding of Laura Ingalls and Almanzo Wilder in or about 1885 and whose good friend, Ida Brown (birth name Wright), was his adopted daughter. In 1793, he, Owen Brown, married Ruth Mills, a minister's daughter. Someone whose father was an intimate friend of Owen remembered him as "a very kind, genial, whole-souled sort of person. He stuttered badly." Owen...

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