History of Washington County Ohio United States of America

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Archibald Green Brown, Lawyer, is a native of Ohio, and has lived in that State since his birth. He was born, on the 16th of April, 1798, near Waterford, Washington county, Ohio. When he was a year old his parents removed to Athens county, and at Athens he has continued to live ever since that time. He comes of New England stock, his father, Captain Benjamin Brown, having been born in Leicester, Worcester county, Massachusetts, on the 17th of October, 1745, and served through five campaigns in the Revolutionary army. He removed to Ohio in the early days, and died in Athens in the year 1821. The son, Archibald, attended the common school during his boyhood, but his early educational course was not confined to his school studies. On his father's farm, where his youth was passed, he worked hard and many hours each day, but in spite of hard work the studious boy found leisure for reading and study. He had early formed the purpose of acquiring a liberal education, and this purpose was his constant inspiration. He had in view all the time, and, in the resting spells of farm work and in the days of attendance at the district school, he worked assiduously for the fulfilment of this object. All this hard work had its result, and by the time he had reached the proper age to enter college he was prepared to do so with credit and honor. He became, in due time, a student in the Ohio University at Athens, and, after prosecuting the regular course of study there, graduated with honors in the year 1822. Two years later, after teaching an academy in Columbus one year, in 1824, he was made Preceptor in the academical department of the university, a position which he filled for one year. In the year 1825 he left the teacher's chair in the university to undertake teaching on a larger scale from the editorial tripod. In that year he commenced the publication of the Athens Mirror, the first paper published in the county. For the next five years he continued his connection with that paper as editor and publisher, a good indication that the new journalistic venture was at least a fair success. In the year 1827 the young editor was elected to the office of Recorder of the county, an office which he held until 1833. Three years before the expiration of his term of office he had ceased from his journalistic labors, and his leisure time was devoted to the reading of law, to which profession he had decided to devote himself. In the year 1836 he was again elected to the position of County Recorder, and held the office until 1841. At the expiration of his second term he began the practice of law in Athens. In the same year he was elected a member of the Board of Trustees of the University of Ohio, a position he has continued to hold to the present time. In 1850 he was a delegate to the convention which framed the present Constitution of Ohio, and for a term of two years, from 1850 to 1852, was President-Judge of the Athens District. For many years he has engaged in the practice of his profession in Athens, and in the meantime has been identified with many of the interests and enterprises in his section of the State. He was one of the stockholders in the Marietta & Cincinnati Railroad Company until the failure of the company; he held stock in the first telegraph line through the county; and he was a stockholder in the Athens branch of the State Bank of Ohio, and afterwards in the National Bank of Athens. Judge Brown has been twice married. He was first married to Priscilla K. Crippen, on the 8th of January, 1824. She died on the 3d of June, 1858, and he married again, on the 22d of March, 1866, Harriet B. Stewart.

From: The Biographical Encyclopedia of Ohio of the Nineteenth Century. Columbus, OH, USA: Galaxy Publishing Co., 1876.

History of Washington County Ohio

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