History of Oakland, (Alameda County) California United States of America

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John Ross Browne, author, was born in Ireland in 1817. His parents emigrated to the United States and settled in Kentucky, where he received a common school education. His passion for travel and adventure led him to leave home in 1835, and make the trip down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers from Louisville to New Orleans. He returned by way of Washington, D.C., where he was a shorthand reporter in the senate. He then shipped on a whaler bound on a cruise through southern seas. During his voyage of eighteen months he visited the principal ports of the world, and upon his return published Etchings of a Whaling Cruise, with notes of a Sojourn on the Island of Zanzibar (1846). On returning to the national capital he secured the position of private secretary to Robert J. Walker, secretary of the treasury, and in 1849 followed the gold hunters to California. He went to Europe in 1851 as a reporter and spent two years in travel. On his return to the United States he published Yusef, or the Journey of the Fragi; a Crusade in the East (1853). He made several tours through Europe and America. One series of his magazine articles was published in a separate volume, under the title Adventures in the Apache Country (1869). In 1866 and again in 1868 he was employed by the United States government in preparing reports on the mineral resources of the states and territories west of the Rockies, which were published by order of Congress, and the results of his investigations and observations were embodied in Resources of the Pacific Slope, a volume published in 1869. In 1868 President Johnson appointed him as United States minister to China, and after his recall in July, 1869, he settled in Oakland, Cal., and devoted himself to promoting the development of the country, and caring for the needy. In addition to the works already noted, he published: Crusoe's Island, with Sketches of Adventures in California and Washoe (1864); The Land of Thor (1866), and the Adventures of an American Family in Germany (1869). He died in Oakland, Cal., Dec. 9, 1875.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

History of Oakland, (Alameda County) California

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