Bios: ROBERT AUDLEY BROWNE, D.D.: Lawrence County, Pennsylvania

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  Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Lawrence Co transcribers.
  Coordinated by Ed McClelland

  Copyright 2004.  All rights reserved.
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  Biographical Sketches of Leading Citizens
  Lawrence County Pennsylvania
  Biographical Publishing Company, Buffalo, N.Y., 1897
  
  An html version with search engine may be found at 
  
  http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/lawrence/1897/
  
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    ROBERT AUDLEY BROWNE, D.D.
    
    [p. 17] Audley Brown A sketch of Mr. Browne's life might appropriately
  commence with the narration of the event that took place on Sept. 3, 1896.
  The community of New Castle and vicinity had taken occasion of "The Golden
  Wedding" anniversary of Mr. and Mrs. Browne, and their first coming to New
  Castle and becoming citizens of the then borough, to give them a public
  reception (the parties most concerned being sent away before- hand on a
  vacation). The result was truly surprising. Many hundreds honored the
  occasion with their presence during the afternoon and evening; many more
  could not gain admission, because of the crush, to the church: while others
  sent their hearty congratulations by mail, manifesting by their expressions
  of regret their disappointment at not being able to be present. Old and
  young, contemporaries of former years and new comers, residents of the town
  and country, church people and others, men and women, all classes and
  conditions, and all without invitation except what was received through the
  columns of the newspapers of the city, were present, including "the grand old
  boys" of the war. Speeches were delivered and testimonials were made; such an
  ovation as Mr. and Mrs. Browne received could not have been foreseen Sept. 3,
  1846, when they were married in Oakland, now a ward of the city of Pittsburg.
    
    The anniversary occasion also stood in some sense connected with important
  events both in the life of this honored couple and in the history of the
  community during the intervening years. These events perhaps few living
  to-day were permitted to view face to face, but had it not been for them, the
  present enjoyable and instructive event could never have been enacted. Fifty
  years ago, New Castle was a village of about 1,600 inhabitants with four or
  five general country stores, doing much business with the farming people and
  mostly on the credit and barter system; a grist-mill; an oil-mill; a rolling-
  mill and nail factory; and another soon to begin work. The village had canal
  communications with Lake Erie on the one hand and the Ohio River on the
  other. It was a part of the County of Mercer on its north, while its outlying
  citizens on the south were in Beaver County. The county of Lawrence was not
  yet organized, the date of its separation being 1849. The borough only grew
  into a city in 1869, when the city charter was secured by Mr. Browne, as
  State Senator at that period for the district. Now, after the close of a
  half-century, there are many miles of streets paved with asphalt and
  vitrified brick, instead of the mud and dust of the earlier period. Gas
  lights and electric lights have made encroachments on the realm of darkness,
  that formerly prevailed during the night hours. Trolley cars traverse the
  streets. The sound of the boatman's horn is heard no more. In its stead,
  however, are the whistles of the locomotives on four great railroad lines,
  that afford rapid and comfortable communication with all parts of our wide
  domains. The fires of numerous furnaces help to illumine the night, while the
  smoke of many mills veils the sky by day. Four little one-story school houses
  and an intermittent academy have given place to seven graded schools with
  over 3,000 pupils and seventy-seven teachers, including a high school
  department. During these fifty years, no matter what changes have taken place
  from time to time, Mr. Browne has been continuously engaged in the work of the
  ministry of the gospel. He had been licensed three and one-half years earlier,
  and ordained one year and nine months before he took up his Master's work in
  New Castle. His education from childhood had pointed to the work of the
  ministry, and whatever else besides ministerial duties came to him, the
  ministry was the burden and theme of his life.
    
    But his convictions of political responsibility, as an American citizen led
  him to oppose American slavery, and so affected his subsequent history. These
  convictions came to him early. He experienced them when the term
  "Abolitionist" was often invested with odium and false meanings; when fealty
  to slavery was made the test of loyalty to the union; and to train with
  professed Union-savers in politics was the path of peace. This was the period
  when Mr. Browne became a pastor in New Castle, his two preaching places,
  Shenango and East Brook, being some miles out of town. The voters of his
  flock and the citizens generally were all voting the Whig and Democratic
  tickets, except a small, but growing number, who were branded as
  "Abolitionists," and laughed at for "throwing their votes away," or abused as
  being responsible for the defeat of some favorite candidate if the contest
  became too close. The new pastor under these circumstances secured a hearing
  as he desired it; accorded every man his rights, and exercised his own;
  prayed for the slaves; spoke against slavery on fitting occasions; and voted
  against it always on election day. There was a growing ferment all the time
  among the political elements, with the result that by 1856 one of the old
  parties was retired from the stage of national politics, and in 1860 the
  other was broken into two irreconcilable sections. Meanwhile the bloody
  pro-slavery invasion of Kansas and John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry had
  startled the nation. A new party had been called to the front, which, under
  its leader, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, was strong
  enough to administer for peace and war, and to crush the greatest rebellion
  of modern times.
    
    The war at last had burst. Loyal men all over the land were responding to
  the call to arms. Lawrence County promptly sent 167 men to the front. Three
  months later, a regiment for a three years' enlistment followed, a large
  portion of which was made up of Lawrence County men. This was the famous
  "Roundhead Regiment"the 100th P.V.I. Dr. Leasure was its commander, and Mr.
  Browne was the chaplain. These were the two men who had called the first
  meeting in New Castle some years before in aid of the Free State settlers in
  Kansas, much of this aid taking the form of Sharp's rifles for defence
  against border ruffians. The enlistment of the new regiment dated from August
  29. The chaplain was given leave of absence by his congregation for one year,
  by which time it was then thought the rebellion would be suppressed. How the
  loyal expectations of the North were disappointed! When the year was
  completed, the outlook was indeed disheartening, for the Union Army had just
  suffered one of its greatest defeats in the Second Battle of Bull Run. The
  chaplain's leave, in consequence of that defeat, was lengthened from twelve
  to twenty-eight months. The term of service of those twenty-eight months was
  truly a remarkable one.
    
    The regiment had a wonderful experience of wide and varied service,
  transportation by railroad and by ocean and river navigation for long
  distances, to Newport News, South Carolina, to James Island in the first
  siege of Charleston, to Newport News again, to Acquia Creek, to
  Fredericksburg, to the Rapidan, to Bull Run, to South Mountain, to Antietam,
  back again to Fredericksburg, to Baltimore, thence to Lexington, Ky., and
  Camp Dick Robinson, to Vicksburg and Jackson, Miss., back to Kentucky, and
  thence across inland mountain ridges and rivers through Cumberland Gap to
  Knoxville, Tenn., where, after repulsing Longstreet's forces and helping to
  secure Grant's great victory at Chattanooga, the regiment re-enlisted in the
  dead of winter, and having received their veteran furloughs marched North
  again over that rugged country and in that fearful winter to the railroad
  connections at Nicholasville, Ky. It was a great feature of Chaplain Browne's
  history to have shared in most of these hardships and dangers, by field and
  flood, facing disease and battle, being a member of the column on the march,
  and of the host in bivouac or camp, through summer's heat and winter's cold.
  In Beaufort, South Carolina, he was seized with spotted fever, from which he
  recovered with a hardened liver. The chaplain's presence was a marked feature
  of the regimental life. The nightly Psalm of Praise at his services often was
  carried on the night breezes to listeners in the enemy's lines.
    
    Mr. Browne applied for and received his discharge in Eastern Tennessee. It
  came to him after the siege of Knoxville and the repulse of Longstreet. He
  reached his home from Blaine's Cross Roads, the point of starting, by the
  circuitous route of Chattenooga and Stevenson, Alabama. It was during the
  wild winter storm of that season, that had inflicted itself on all the
  country from Alabama to the pole, and through which his recent comrades were
  on the march across the mountains and rivers of Eastern Tennessee and
  Kentucky. After a journey of nearly a thousand miles, he arrived at his home
  in the middle of January, 1864, and immediately resumed his pastoral duties.
  He found himself soon after his return beset and crowded from many points
  with invitations and appointments, and was expected to do a thousand and one
  incompatible and impossible things. Under such a strain, and because of
  exposure past and now undergone in his pastoral duties in the winter when
  rest was needed, his health broke down. It was clearly beyond his reach to
  accomplish all that was at once expected of him publicly and privately,
  socially and professionally. At the time of his discharge he had engaged to
  write a history of the regiment till that date. It has not yet been
  accomplished.
    
    Other events, however, should be mentioned as included in the 15 years
  which preceded Mr. Browne's army life. These were events of his personal
  ministerial and pastoral work on which he entered upon his first arrival in
  New Castle in 1846. Although he resided in the town, his people were mostly
  in the country, with two out-of-town places of preaching. The parish was
  twelve miles long and twelve miles wide. It included the two congregations of
  East Brook and Shenango. The labor involved was great. It required travel and
  included visiting the families pastorally and socially, with ministrations to
  the sick, catechizing, preaching in school houses at odd times, and in general
  and special the usual ministerial duties of a country pastor. The country,
  too, by this time was requiring new organizations at new points, adjusted to
  the growth of the population. New Castle and New Wilmington were two of
  these, and "The Harbor" was a third. All these demanded for a time the
  pastor's fostering care and extra service of preaching on his part to prepare
  the way for new laborers yet to be called. And all this was in the first
  instance while he yet was in connection with the other two congregations
  which were his special charge.
    
    The New Castle congregation was organized Dec. 2 , 1849. The church edifice
  was built by Joseph Kissick, Robert Cochran, George Henderson, Capt. James
  Leslie, Samuel F. Cooke, and a few others. The corner-stone was laid on a
  bleak day in May, 1849. It is the building in which the golden anniversary
  was held. At the outset Mr. Browne had twelve church members in the town. The
  congregation was organized as a church with thirty-two members. The pastor was
  relieved of the pastoral charge of his East Brook congregation which had
  claimed a half of his time to devote that half to New Castle. He resuscitated
  and for one year took charge of the New Castle Academy.
    
    In 1850 he organized the New Wilmington Church. In 1852 he organized "The
  Harbor" Church, and ministered to it for one year. He was still ministering
  to the Shenango flock. Only half of his time was as yet taken up by New
  Castle. It was a day of small things. Mr. Browne's congregation now (1897)
  numbers almost three hundred souls. Eight years ago, a second congregation
  was organized with ninety-three dismissals from the parent body, and this
  offshoot, planted in the eastern part of the city, has now grown to be a
  prosperous church of four hundred members. The population of the city is
  about 22,000.
    
    The second year after Mr. Browne's return from the army he was invited to
  accept a nomination for the State Senate. The invitation was made unanimous
  by his fellow Republicans of the county. The nomination was confirmed by the
  conferees, and the result was his election, and his discharging the duties of
  Senator for the sessions of 1866, 1867 and 1868, sitting for the district
  comprising Lawrence, Butler and Armstrong counties. The honor thus conferred
  was to him a grateful recognition of his advanced convictions of years
  before, which had now become the policy of the State and Nation. His action,
  votes and speeches on record were in accordance with the just expectations of
  his constituents.
    
    Before his third session in the Senate commenced, he was induced to accept
  the presidency of Westminster College, New Wilmington. This required his
  resignation of his congregation and removal to the latter place. After three
  years in this connection he resigned it, and filled temporary appointments in
  Cleveland, Leavenworth, and Titusville, residing one year in the latter place,
  which was the only year in fifty in which he had not continued to be a citizen
  of the county of Lawrence. Rev. J. W. Bain had succeeded him as pastor of his
  New Castle congregation, but he having resigned, Mr. Browne was recalled by
  the congregation, and in October, 1873, entered upon his second pastoral
  term. This continues till this time.
    
    In 1875, upon the repeal of the Local Option Law of the State, he was made
  the standard- bearer of the Prohibition Party as gubernatorial candidate. He
  received a vacation of two months from his congregation, during which period
  he made a very notable canvass of the State.
    
    His action in this candidacy was in harmony with his life-long convictions.
  These have logically allied him to every cause of reform, the maintenance of
  government, law and order and the preservation of the Christianity of the
  institutions of State and Nation against all assailants, whether born on the
  soil or importations from foreign lands.
    
    Mr. Browne's parents, David Lyons Browne and Sarah (Miller) Browne, each
  born in County Tyrone, Ireland, embarked for America in 1812, being with
  their parental families emigrants to America. They were respectively eighteen
  and seventeen years of age. At their marriage in 1817 they became
  Pittsburgers. Their children were mostly born in Pittsburg; but Robert Audley
  their third son, was born in Steubenville, Dec. 3, 1821, during a two years
  sojourn of the family in that place. From his infancy he was reared in
  Pittsburg under the ministry of Dr. Joseph Kerr and his eloquent son and
  successor, Joseph Reynolds Kerr. His education was in its schools, including
  his college course in the Western University under the presidency of Rev.
  Robert Bruce, D.D., a very learned graduate of the University of Edinburgh.
  Here also he had for instructors Hon. Thomas Mellon and Rev. Alexander Young,
  D.D., LL.D., men who acquired distinction and did honor to Western University,
  also their Alma Mater, and here he received his degree of A. B. in 1840. In
  the Allegheny Theological Seminary he had for instructors the eminent Dr.
  John T. Pressley and the refined and learned Dr. Jas. L. Dinwiddie. In the
  seminary he was of the class of 1844, but was licensed to preach the gospel
  March 29, 1843. At the time of the great fire of Pittsburg, April 10, 1845,
  he was engaged in his second year as stated supply in the Second Associate
  Reformed congregation. The church was totally destroyed by the fire. Mr.
  Browne obtaincd the first collections from abroad to secure their second
  place of worship, after which he was free to release himself from his late
  informal pastoral relations. A year later he began his settled pastorate at
  New Castle.
    
    Mr. Browne was born, baptized, reared licensed and ordained in the
  Associate Reformed Presbyterian, now the United Presbyterian Church. He is
  descended by blood and church connection from the Covenanters of the West of
  Scotland. Tradition points to a noble ancestor in the person of that Capt.
  John Browne mentioned by the Ettrick Shepherd in his tale, "The Brownie of
  Bodsbeck," who was wounded by a sabre stroke at the Battle of Bothwell
  Bridge, June 22, 1679. The Millers, his mother's family, were of kindred
  Scottish Presbyterian stock. Of this same stock also were Mrs. Browne's
  ancestors, on the one side, namely, that of her mother, Rebecca Johnston,
  while her father, William Eichbaum, was Prussian, as his name indicates; he
  for seventy years from his boyhood in Pittsburg stood abreast of the foremost
  citizens of that great growing comniunity.
    
    Mr. Browne is a member of the Regimental Association of the 100th P. V. I.,
  an honorary member of Post 100 of the G. A. R., and a companion of the
  Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United Statesthe latter honor
  conferred for "having been specially distinguished for faithful services in
  maintaining and defending the honor, integrity and supremacy of the United
  States of America." In 1865 his Alma Mater conferred on him the degree of
  D.D. He was Moderator of the General Assembly of the United Presbyterian
  Church in the year 1869.
    
    There are few citizens of Lawrence County so prominent, so well known, and
  so universally respected as is Dr. Browne. Three distinct life-phases have
  been included in his career, namely, that of pastor, army chaplain, and
  politician and legislator. In all his diversified relations he has borne
  himself fittingly and with the dignity requisite to the station. His friends
  are legion, and are to be found in all the walks of life. Few portraits in
  this volume will meet an equal amount of interest as his, which we have
  placed on a preceding page.