BROWN Francis Fisher

Notes:

William Goldsmith Brown was born on March 3, 1812 in Whitingham, Vermont. William Goldsmith was the second son of Nathan Brown sr. and Betsey Goldsmith Brown. William’s brother Nathan jr., as mentioned earlier, was 5 years older. There were also, 2 daughters, Sophia and Nancy, of which I find only brief mention.

William Goldsmith and his older brother Nathan, shared a passion for education, both attending William College. Nathan graduated Valedictorian in 1827 at the age of 20. In 1833 William Goldsmith entered Williams College but was forced to leave at the end of his junior year because of poor health. William had received a serious hip injury from a fall from a horse drawn wagon when in his teens, an injury from which he never fully recovered. All of his life he walked with a limp and often used a cane. His name was later placed on the alumni roll at Williams College.

Nathan married Eliza Ballard, sister of a classmate at Williams College. William Goldsmith married Eunice Fisher of Halifax, Vermont, a nearby town. William and Eunice had 5 children; Anna Judson, Addison, Mary E. Fred C. and Francis Fisher. Eunice Fisher Brown died in Wisconsin sometime before 1868.

William Goldsmith received his early schooling in New Hampton, NH and at the Bennington, Vt. seminary where his brother Nathan was a teacher. In spite of his injury, William became a teacher and at various times taught school in Bennington, Whitingham, Holyoke and Shelburne Falls.

William Goldsmith took up the challenge of a newspaper editor and publisher in 1840 as editor of the Vermont Telegraph, then later, The Voice of Freedom, both papers were published in Brandon, Vt. and still later, the Chicopee Journal, in Chicopee, MA. When William Goldsmith left Brandon, Vermont, he turned the publishing of the Voice of Freedom paper over to his brother, Nathan.

While in college Nathan had written a poem that he attempted to have published, he was just nineteen years old. The poem entitled “The Missionary’s Call” was offered to a number of publishers without success. No one was interested in publishing his work at that time, but he was heard to say, that if ever his poem was published, it would be his sign from God for him to enter the mission field. When Nathan took over the job as publisher of the Brandon newspaper from his brother, he published his own poem! His message from God heeded, he began to prepare for the mission field.

In 1832 Nathan resigned his position with the Telegraph and enrolled in Newton Seminary (presently Andover Newton) to study for the ministry. In December of that same year Nathan and his wife embarked for Burma as a missionary for the Baptist church. For two years he was stationed at Maulmain, Burma. Nathan learned the Burmese language and then was transferred to a station 800 miles from Calcutta into the country of Assam. He then had the challenge of learning yet another language. In 1855, after twenty-two years of toil and suffering in Assam, India the Browns returned to America. Two of their children died while in India. Much of his story is told in the book, The Whole World Kin, edited and compiled by Nathan’s wife, Mrs.E.W.Brown.

Seventeen years later, after recovering his health and after working as editor of a publication for the Baptist church, in America, he completed his life’s work in Japan.

In 1873 he left his home in Claremont, New Hampshire for Yokohama, Japan. Learning yet another language. He died in Yokohama in 1886 at the age of 79. One of the projects he is remembered for is the translation of the Bible into Vernacular Japanese. A copy of that Bible is in the archives at Harvard Theological College library.

There is enough material on record to write a whole book just on the life of Nathan Brown. I do not thing I will attempt it. I will say this though; Nathan left a long list of accomplishments in America, India and Japan. He was known as a linguist and found languages easy to comprehend and translate.

In 1856 William Goldsmith moved his family to Springfield, Mass. where he lived while editor and publisher of the Chicopee Journal. His son Francis Fisher attended high school there in Chicopee. Shortly before the Civil war William Goldsmith went west, eventually locating in Farmington, Wisconsin. His daughter, Anna Judson joined him there in 1865 when she was twenty-five years of age.
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In the U.S. Census of 1870, William Goldsmith Brown, Eunice Brown, Anna J. Preston and Frank Preston all lived in Farmington.
Later moving to a farm in Linwood, Wisconsin, which was near his shingle mill on Mill Creek.

William Goldsmith Brown had a talent for writing, especially poetry. Over the years he acquired a name for himself as an author and editor and eventually was honored by being declared Poet Laureate of Portage County, Wisconsin.

A selection of Brown’s poetry follows this chapter.

Their son Francis Fisher Brown, carried on the tradition of writer and author. During his lifetime he made a name for himself with the Dial Magazine in Chicago. One of Francis fisher’s best known works, “The Everyday life of Abraham Lincoln” has been reprinted and declared to be one of the best accounts of the life of Abraham Lincoln ever written.

Francis Fisher Brown was is business in Chicago and one year before the famous Chicago fire, he lost his printing business to fire. His friend Frank Lloyd Wright, designed his new reading room and publishing house there in Chicago.

*Just a note: Francis Fisher Brown was of frail health from a sickness suffered during the Civil War of which he never fully recovered his physical strength. He operated his publishing business in Chicago and raised his family in Pasadena, California. A close friend and fellow writer in California was John Muir the naturalist.

William Goldsmith’s brother Nathan had a heart for God. In his boyhood he established his role as a missionary.

The following is a quote from the book the Whole World Kin as compiled by Nathan’s wife, many years later.

“One day some seventy-five years ago a little lad came out of the doorway of a low, unpainted farm-house in Vermont, with a sorrowful, yet determined expression on his face. He trudged along the country road for a considerable distance; his countenance growing more troubled as he proceeded, till at length overcome, apparently by fear or distress, he turned and ran home, the tears coursing down his cheeks. After being comforted and encouraged by his mother, he started out again, but was overcome and turned back as before. He had evidently undertaken some difficult or unpleasant business, but it was not given up; again he set out, furnished now with a trifling commission from his mother, to open the way for his own more serious errand. On he marched with more heart to the house of a rather remote neighbor. It was Mr.---, an isolated, rough-mannered man, of whom the country people reported strange things; that he believed in no life apart from this green earth; that he had been heard to say that he should come back as one of the birds, squirrels or cattle when done with this body; and worse than all, that the Bible was not true, and that there was no God! Filled with concern by these reports, the little boy had for some days been thinking the matter over; had become oppressed I with a sense of responsibility, and determined to visit the atheist. His mother had noticed his seriousness, discovered his plan and fearing that he might encounter harshness and profanity, had tried to dissuade him from going, till, finding that the idea was a fixed conscientious purpose, she had at length consented, and the child has set out on his errand. At last the two mile walk along the hilly road was accomplished; the house was reached, and the mother’s message delivered. The real object of the visit was then discovered by the question. “Mr.---do you believe the Bible?” “No; no more than I believe in the dog’s barking.” Not daunted by this blunt negative, the little missionary commenced trying to convince the unbeliever that there is a God. “Who the h*$#&*---sent you here to tell me that?” was the angry retort.

“Nobody sent me,” returned the boy, “but I came to tell you THERE IS A GOD.” He said it as he would have told a blind man there is a sun; and then turned homeward, his mission accomplished, his mind at rest.

Transcript of a letter from Alice Mable Preston Eggelston believed to be written in 1965. As a child of 12, Alice talked to her grandfather, William Goldsmith Brown, hearing many stories, words of wisdom and more. She was able to capture the following bits of family history.

“The Ancestors of this Brown family came to America from England to join his brother Peter Brown of the Mayflower colony in 1600 **see note. Joshua Brown was born in the 1700’s and he and his brothers served in the Revolutionary War. A record of all these facts is written in the book the Whole World Kin.


Written by William Goldsmith Preston

William married FISHER Eunice. Eunice was born in Halifax, VT. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Nathan and his wife moved to Whitingham, Vt shortly after the birth of their son, Nathan in 1807.

Nathan married Goldsmith Betsey on 03 Jun 1806. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

First to break the home ties and leaving Concord was Captain Josiah Brown who, in 1765, traveled forty miles to settle in the emerging town of New Ipswich, New Hampshire, settling on Flat Mountain, one half mile east of where his brother, John, later settled.

Josiah and his family moved along with five of his brothers to Whitingham, VT around 1800, immediately after his marriage, and settled upon Flat Mountain, half a mile eastward from his brother, and soon became a prominent man in military and in religious matters. his name is borne upon the Concord roll as that of a sergeant, he was first lieutenant in Capt. Towne's company at bunker Hill, and claimed to have fired the last gun before the retreat; and he afterward was captain in command of a company largely composed of his fellow townsmen which responded with great promptness to the calls for immediate aid. He was one of the foremost in the organization of the Baptist church, in which he was made the first deacon. Like many men of intense vision and prompt action, he may have lacked something in breadth of view, but work in the evolution of a new society can hardly be overvalued.( p. 269, History of New Ipswich, NH)


Combining civic purpose with matrimony, Josiah and his bride, Sarah Wright, the daughter of Joseph and Rebecca (Heywood) Wright, also of Concord, cast their lots with other Concord citizens in the effort to reinforce by their physical presence the claim of the Massahusetts Bay colony to title to this disputed area. While New Hampshire eventually prevailed over Massachusetts in the contest for this land, Joseiah and Sarah met with success in establishing themselves in the frontier environment.

At the time of Josiah's migration there was but one church in the new community, the Congregational meeting house, in which he purchased a corner pew for 43 pounds on 25 November 1768. In the latter part of the century he became prominent in the organization of the Baptist church and waas its first deacon. In addition to church activities and farming, Josiah found time for civic duties, serving three terms as a member of the Committee of Correspondence and Inspection, in 1775, 1776 and 1778. He led two marches to Ticonderoga during the Revolutionary War and also fought at Bunker Hill, progressing from the rank of sergeant, when he was on the roster of a company of Concord, Massachusetts minutemen at the time of the Concord fight, to that of captain. Of his thirteen children, all but one grew to maturity. Five eventually moved to Whitingham, Vermont, but Josiah and his wife lived out their days in New Ipswich. He has been described as "one of those men whose work in the evolution of a new society can hardly be overvalued."

Fourteen years after Josiah had moved to the wilderness, he was joined by an elder brother, John and his wife, Elizabeth Bateman.

While most of their children moved from place to place, the fourth daugher, Hannah, and her husband, Aaron Brown, remained in New Ipswich throughout their lives. A linchpin in the family structure, their home became a confluence throught which the family news from points as distant as Canada, northern Vermont and western New York occasionally ebbed and flowed.

Hannah preserved thirteen letters as well as her "own" family Bible and passed them on to succeeding generations. After her death, two additional letters were place in the collection, written by her grandson, Addison Prescott Brown.

Josiah married Wright Sarah on 31 Oct 1765 in Ipswich, Essex County, MA. Sarah was born on 27 Nov 1744 in Concord, Middlesex Co., MA; died on 08 Aug 1821 in New Ipswich, Hillsborough County, NH. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]