Copyright USGenNet Inc., 2013, All Rights Reserved U.S. Data Repository Please read U.S. Data Repository Copyright Statement on this page: Transcribed and used with permission of Fred Smoot ========================================================================= U.S. Data Repository NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization. Non-commercial organizations desiring to use this material must obtain the consent of the transcriber prior to use. Individuals desiring to use this material in their own research may do so. ========================================================================= Formatted by U.S. Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott All of the above information must remain when copied or downloaded. ========================================================================== The Goodspeed Publishing Company, History of Tennessee, 1887 Rev. ABEL J. BROWN, D. D., a minister of the Lutheran Church, was born near Lincolnton, N. C., March 27, 1817. He is the son of ABSALOM and ELIZABETH (KILLIAN) BROWN, and the first son and second child of a family of ten children. His paternal grand- father was an Englishman, who came to this country when a boy, and was a soldier in the Revolu- tionary war. His maternal grandfather was of German extraction, a na- tive of Pennsylvania, but in early life came to North Carolina, where he lived the balance of his days and died. Dr. BROWN’S parents and ancestors generally, so far as is known, belonged to the laboring classes, and were distinguished for their industry, their frugality and thrift, their moral integrity and religious worth. His mother was a woman of strong mind, of deep religious conviction, and eminently pious, and his father was a man of superior native intellect, and of great firmness and decision of character. He was a farmer and mechanic, and carefully trained up his children to manual labor, as well as in “the nurture and admonition of the Lord.” He was man of considerable prominence in the community in which he lived. For long years he filled the office of magistrate, and was often solicited to run for higher offices, but always persistently declined. Dr. BROWN’S primary educa- tion was received in a good country school; his academic studies, pre- paratory to entering college, were prosecuted principally in the Male Academy at Lincolnton, N. C., and his collegiate course was taken in Emory and Henry College, Va., from which he was graduated with the degree of A. B., and which afterward conferred upon him the degree of A. M., not merely “in course,” but because of his higher attainments in literature. After graduation, the subject of this sketch engaged for a time in the business of teaching. He first took charge of Jeffer- son Male Academy, Blountville, Tenn., which he held for five or six years, when he accepted a professorship in Greeneville College. At the end of two years he resigned his position in this institution, and took charge of the academic department of Jefferson Male Academy, which in the meantime had been rebuilt and enlarged, and had the sphere of its operations and usefulness greatly enlarged and otherwise im- proved. He held this position till the outbreak of our late civil war, since which he has devoted but little attention to the business of teaching. During the time of which we have spoken, he was offered a professorship in one college and the presidency of another, both of which he declined. He is regarded as an accomplished scholar, and one of the best and most successful educators in the country. Quite a number of young men, who in after life made their mark in the learned professions and in other departments of activity and usefulness, were educated by him. In 1836 Dr. BROWN was ordained to the work of the ministry in the Lutheran Church, and devoted his time and studies for six years exclusively to this work. His work during this time was principally in North Carolina, though he did a good deal of preaching in other States, and particularly in South Carolina. While engaged in teaching, be preached regularly in the places of his location, and in other places contiguous thereto. His services were, however, for the most part, rendered gratuitously. In 1858 he took regular charge of Immanuel and Buehler’s Churches, in Sullivan County, Tenn., which he has ever since retained. As a writer, Mr. BROWN has quite a reputation, not confined to his own immediate section of the church and country, but extending throughout the whole extent of the church in the United States. He has contributed largely to the religious periodicals of the church and literary magazines, and in addition to this, he has pub- lished quite a number of sermons in separate form. In consideration of his literary and theological attainments, Roanoke College, in 1873, conferred upon him the degree of D. D. Dr. BROWN has been twice married; first to Miss JULIA N., the daughter of JACOB and SOPHIA (SPEECE) TEETER, of Virginia, who lived but little over one year after her marriage, and died without issue; and afterward, in 1848, he mar- ried Miss EMILY L., a sister of his deceased wife. Both these ladies were the nieces of Dr. C. SPEECE, a distinguished Presbyterian minister in the Valley of Virginia. Their grandmothers on both sides were TURNEYS, and of the same family of which Judge TURNEY, of the supreme court of Tennessee, is a distinguished representative. Dr. BROWN’S family consists of four children, two sons and two daughters, all thoroughly educated. One of his sons, CHARLES AUGUSTUS, is a lawyer; the other, JOSEPH ADDISON, is a physician. ===========================================================================