Brown, John, Dd (2)

Brown, John, D.D., a minister of the German Reformed Church, was born near Bremen, July 21st, 1771. He was early pious, and from boyhood had a strong desire to go to America, and emigrated in 1797. He studied theology with Rev. Philip Stoeck, in Chamlersburg, Penn., was licensed by the Synod of the German Reformed Church in 1800, and ordained in 1803. He took charge of long-neglected and scattered congregations in the Valley of Virginia. His labors extended over a wide field, including six counties, and in the earlier part of his ministry he travelled to his appointments on foot, staff in hand. Though often tempted by calls from abroad, he labored in the same field-having been relieved of parts of it from time for time by other ministers coming to his assistance up to the time of his death, Jan. 26th, 1850, almost half a century. In 1818 he published, in the German language, a volume of 400 pages, being a kind of Pastoral Address to the Germans of Virginia, which exerted a happy influence on the minds and hearts of those for whose good it was intended. Dr. Brown was possessed of fine talents, earnestly pious, mild, affectionate, and patriarchal in his spirit, widely useful and greatly beloved wherever he was known. He preached only in the German language.