Brown, Jr. Nathan Goldsmith

Notes:

Reverend Nathan Brown joined the Baptist mission in Burma, India in 1832. Although he was born in New Ipswich in 1807, he spent his childhood in Whitinham, VT, where his parents had moved shortly after his birth.

After graduation from Williams College, he was ordained in Rutland, VT four months before his departure for the Far East. He was a missionary in Burma for 20 years, and he translated the Bible into Burmese and Assamese. Later he became the first American baptist missionary to Japan, where he translated the New Testament into Japanese. In the period between his foreign missionary assignments, he took an active part in the antislavery movement as editor of The American Baptist, a journal devoted to abolition, from 1856 to 1871.

He was also devoted to the study of languages, organizing the American Philological Association.

He died in 1888, and his grave in Yokohoma,Japan,probably marks the outer limits of the migration started by his uncle, Josiah.

His prolific correspondence constitutes the basis for his biography, E. W. Brown's "The Whole World Kin" (Philadelphia, 1890) Also see the American Philological Association, Proceedings, 1 (1869):7ff.



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.

Written by William Goldsmith Preston

Family/Spouse: BALLARD Eliza. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]