SAMUEL RIGHT (WRIGHT) BROWN BIOGRAPHY, SARATOGA, NEW YORK Copyright (c) 2000 by Sonja Abate (sonavan@aol.com). ************************************************************************ USGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. The submittor has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. ************************************************************************ SAMUEL RIGHT (WRIGHT) BROWN, 1775-1817 Samuel was a noted author and publisher in the upper New York area from 1807, when he was in Balston Spa, 1809 in Saratoga Springs, 1812 in Albany, 1813-17 in Auburn, NY. It is not known if his family lived in Dresden, Yates County or Auburn, Cayuga County at the time of his death. It is apparent from all the traveling Samuel did, he had a wandering spirit. He had a curious mind and wonderful sense of humor that becomes obvious when one reads his articles and excerpts from his books. From the Autobiography of Thurlow Weed: "When I arrived at Utica, I learned that Samuel R. Brown, Editor of a paper at Auburn, NY was about to publish a "History of the War" and wanted a Journeyman. I lost no time in making my way to Auburn, and became immediately an inmate of Mr. Brown's printing office and dwelling. Out of my seven weeks residence there, Mr. Dickens would have found characters and incidents for a novel as rich and as original as that of "David Copperfield" or "Nicholas Nickleby." Mr. Brown was an eventempered, easy-going, good natured man, who took no thought of what he should eat or what he should drink or where wither he should be clothed. He wrote his editorials and his "History of the War" upon his knee, with two or three children about him, playing or crying as the humor took them. I shall never forget the upper story of the Wagon Maker's shop where the "Cayuga Patriot" was first printed, for there we worked and laughed and played away most of the winter of 1814. Samuel Right Brown, who published the "Patriot" was an honest, amiable, easy going man whose patient, good natured wife was the same type. Both were imperturbable. Mr. Brown and Mrs. Brown were originals. Neither of them as far as I remember, ever lost temper or even fretted. The office was always full of loungers communicating or receiving news. We worked at intervals during the day and while making a pretense of working in the evening. Those hours were generally devoted to "Blind Man's Bluff" with two or three neighboring girls or to Juvenile concerts by Richard Oliphant, our typesetter, and vocalist. Auburn, NY was then a small village without a sidewalk or a pavement, and, with the exception of "Sacketts Harbor", the muddiest place I ever saw." ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the book, "History of Auburn" pp. 117-119 reads of Hon. Thurlow Weed; These are the circumstances in his own words: (Some what different than above. "Nor shall we ever forget the upper story of a wagon-maker's shop, where the "Cayuga Patriot" was first printed; for there we worked, and larghed, and played away most of the winter of 1814. Samuel R. Brown, who published the "Patriot", was an honest, amiable, easy, slip-shod sort of man, whose patient, good-natured wife was 'cut from the same piece.' Mr. Brown, the year before, had been established at Albany, with a paper called the "Republican, " under the auspices of Governor Tompkins, Chief-Justice Spencer, and other distinguished Republicans, with whom Mr.Southwick, of the "Register", and then State printer, had quarreled. The enterprise, like everything in our old friend Brown's hands, failed. and he next found himself at Auburn, then a small village, without a sidewalk or a pavement, and, save for Sackett's Harbor, the muddiest place we ever saw. Mr. and Mrs. Brown were originals. Neither of them, so far as we remember,ever lost their temper or ever fretted. the work in the office was always behind-hand, and the house always in confusion. The paper was never out in season, and neither breakfast nor dinner were ever ready. But it was all the same. Subscibers waited for the paper till it was printed, and we waited for our meals till they were cooked. The office was always full of loungers communicating or receiving news; and but for an amateur type-setter, Richard Oliphant, late editor of the "Oswego County Whig" and brother of the editor of the "Auburn Journal", to whom we became much attached, and who, though a mere boy, used to do a full share of the work, the business would have fallen still further behind-hand." ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- A letter from the American Antiquarian Society of Boston, MA gives the following information: "We have several issues of the "Cayuga Patriot" printed by Samuel R. Brown at Auburn, NY running from 1814 to 1819. (Others published it because he died in 1817.) Occasional other issues are to be found in various libraries, chiefly in upper New York state. He also published the "Albany Republican", "The Rural Visitor" at Ballston Spa, NY in 1812. "The Saratoga Advertiser" at Ballston Spa, NY until 1813. "The Geographical and Military Museum" at Albany in 1814. "The Cayuga Patriot was established in Auburn in 1814. It was the first competitor of the "Western Federalist." Representing the views of the Democratic Party, which was fast rising into importance in the State, and contained in it's ranks some of the finest men of the country and district, it was well received and supported. It was a dusky-looking little quarto of eight pages and was printed in a shop on Lumber Lane- an old street following an Indian trail, situated between what is now Mechanic Street and the creek. In this office the Honorable Thurlow Weed set type for several months. (Thurlow Weed later became a famous politician.) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- OBITUARY FOR SAMUEL R. BROWN, given to Ruby Wilson Mortensen in 1940 by Maude Dodd, descendant of Samuel Right Brown, Jr. This was published in the Auburn newspaper. 'Departed this life, on Monday evening past, in the 42nd year of his age. After a short but very painful illness, Mr Samuel R. Brown. For sometime Mr. Brown had been a resident of this village. Business called him to New York for a few days, where he contracted a fever which terminated in his sudden death. He, however, had returned from the city, as far as Messrs Gurdon and Mason Fitch, near the village of Cherry Valley, before relinquishing the hope of once more beholding his wife and little ones. Here his desease grew more alarming, his natural strength of body was subdued by suffering..his hopes of home vanished..every worldly prospect fled and he yielded up his spirit to his God, and left his body in the hands of strangers. "the Clouds and Sunbeams o'er his eye, that once their shades and glory threw, Have left on yonder silent sky, no vestage where they flew" Mr. Brown was an ardent and sincere friend; possessed of a noble and ingenous disposition, and endowed with a liberal and discriminating mind..and although he had not the advantage of an early classical education, he had, however, by dint of industry and application to the study of men and things, acquire a large fund of practical knowledge and useful information. He spent much time in traveling, particularly in exploring our Western Territories; and as the fruit of his statistical researches in that section of our Country, he wrote the "Western Gazetteer" or "Emigrants Directory" recently published by H. C. Southwick. He was also the author of the "Views of the Campaigns of the Northwestern Army'" and a "History of the Late War" in two volumes. His "Gazetteer" has undergone the criticisms of scientific men and travelers of eminince, and from them received the commendation of a valuable work, especially valuable to those emigrants desirous of settling in our Western Hemisphere. Mr. Brown was a rational lover of our free, Republican Institutions; warmly attached to the best interests of his country, and ever vigilant and prompt to promote it's prosperity, and defend and enhance it's glory. On the tented field he was a patriotic soldier. In the heat of battle, he stood a hero, undismayed by the crash of arms, unappalled by the sight of blood, and, proud and fearless in the front of danger, he did breast himself against... "....his country's foe" "......to roll.....onward" In the late War, Mr. Brown evinced the spirit of a freeman, under the immediate command of Col. Johnson of Kentucky. Not until Proctor was vanquished and Tucumseh slain upon the battlefield did the unfortunate Brown quit the frontiers of his country and return to the bosom of his family, his kindred and his friends. In the death of this man, society must deplore the loss of a valuable citizen, but none can so well appreciate his worth and so tenderly feel the bereavement, as his amiable wife and six fatherless and almost helpless children; for from the dutiful husband and affectionate father, they have inherited neither riches or renown, nothing but the remembrance of the paternal sympathies and honorable and patriotic virtues of their friend and sire. "O Let his babes and wife be cherished and protected in the country which their father loved and defended. Let the hand of Christian charity be opened to succour the needy.....the soul of sympathy awake to welcome. "Weary pilgrims! Welcome here" "Welcome family of grief, welcome to my warmest cheer" The family and friends of the deceased, return their warmest gratitude to the Messrs Fitches, and to Doctors White, Little and Pringle, for their kind and diligent attention to Mr. Brown during his illness.' Auburn Bank..Advocate of the people, by H. C. Southwick