Brown, Henry

Brown, Henry a Presbyterian minister, was born in Rockbridge County, Virginia, November 28, 1804. He received his early education at home, and graduated at Washington College, Virginia, in 1827. After leaving college he taught for a few months, and entered Princeton Theological Seminary, but in consequence of severe illness was obliged to leave. He next entered Union Seminary, but did not remain long, for the same cause. He was licensed by Lexington Presbytery, and ordained by the same an evangelist in 1831. He commenced his labors at Tygart's Valley, extending his missionary labors to Kanawha County, preaching at Beverly, Huttonville, Mingo Flats, and Woodstock. His next field of labor was Augusta County, and subsequently he was a supply at Briery Church, Prince Edward County. He then removed to Wilmington, N.C., where, and in neighboring churches, he labored with great success. In 1840 he returned to the valley of Virginia, supplied Black River and Rock Fish churches, and afterwards the Church of Harrisonburg. His first pastoral charge was Goshen Church at Crab Bottom, where he was installed, which relation was dissolved in 1857, and at the same time he was also pastor of Pisgah Church. Compelled to seek a milder climate, he removed to Alligator (now Lake City), Florida, where he was duly installed. He next labored as a missionary in the Cherokee Presbytery, residing at Lafayette, Georgia. A sunstroke compelled him to lay aside work for a time. Returning to Virginia, he taught school for six months, and was afterwards missionary to the sick and wounded soldiers in the hospitals at Richmond, and for a while post- chaplain of the Confederate army. At the close of the war he made a pedestrian journey of two hundred miles in south-western Virginia, preaching nearly every day. For one year he supplied Lafayette an'd Harmony churches, Alabama. They were twelve miles apart, and he visited them on foot, calling on every family on his way. He then went to Tennessee, and labored five years as an evangelist in Knoxville Presbytery. Another sunstroke led him. again to Florida, where he preached at Pilatka, Enterprise, and Cedar Keys. He finally went to Marlin, Texas, where he died, January 14, 1881. See Princeton Necrolog. Report, 1881, page 25. (W.P.S.)