| Notes |
- SAMUEL RIGHT (WRIGHT) BROWN, 1775-1817
Samuel was a noted journalist, author and publisher in the upper New York area from 1807 to his death in 1817. His first newspaper, the New York Guardian in Albany, was published in Johnstown in 1807-1808. He was in Ballston Spa, 1809, Milton in 1810, in Saratoga Springs, 1812, in Albany, 1813 and 1814 started the Cayuga Patriot in Auburn, NY. He and his family lived in Auburn, Cayuga County, NY at the time of his death in 1817.
On Feb 5, 1814, he established the Geographical and Military Museum paper. It was a quarto size with eight pages to an issue. He listed twenty three distributors for the Museum, including publishers in New York City, Pennsylvania and Ohio. The paper gave detailed accounts of geographical areas, reported on the War of 1812 and other military events such as the war in France.
In 1804, David C. Miller began at Court-house Hill the publication of the Saratoga Advertiser, size of page, thirteen by eighteen, or one-fourth that of the present Ballston Journal; terms of subscription not stated; politics anti-Federal. In the issue of Sept. 23, 1806, appeared the following advertisement:
"FOR SALE. -A healthy middle-aged negro wench and child. For particulars, inquire of the printer."
In that year a man named Riggs was taken into partnership. He was bought out in 1807 by Samuel R. Brown, and the name was coolly changed to The Aurora Borealis and Saratoga Advertiser. In 1808, Mr. Brown retired from the establishment, and Mr. Miller restored the original name. It was discontinued in 1811, and the office merged into that of of The Independent American. Mr. Brown went to Saratoga Springs in 1809, and in that year began the publication of the Saratoga Patriot. He moved his establishment to Albany in April, 1812, and gave his paper the name of the Albany Republican. He sold out in the latter part of the year 1813, and went to Auburn, Cayuga Co., where in 1814 he started the Cayuga Patriot, which he conducted for several years until his death in 1817.
It is apparent from the books he authored, Samuel had a wandering spirit. He also had a curious mind and a wonderful sense of humor that becomes obvious when one reads his newspaper articles and his books.
In the autobiography of Thurlow Weed, who later became a famous politician and journalist, he writes that he came to work for Samuel in the fall of 1814 in the upstairs printing office on Lumber Lane, an old street following an Indian trail situated between what was later known as Mechanic Street and the creek, in the small village of Auburn.
"When I arrived at Utica, I learned that Samuel R. Brown, editor of a paper at Auburn 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, himself was an even-tempered, easy-going, good natured man, who took no thought of what he should eat or what he should drink or wherewithal 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. Mrs. Brown was placid, emotionless and slipshod. Both were inperturbable. Nothing disturbed either. There was no regular hour for breakfast or dinner, but meals were always under or over-done. In short, like a household described by an early English author, "everything upon the table was sour, except the vinegar." The printing sympathized with the housekeeping. We worked at intervals during the day; and while making a pretense of working in the evening, those hours were generally devoted to blindman's bluff with two or three neighboring girls, or to juvenile concerts by Richard Oliphant, an amateur vocalist and type-setter, to whom I became much attached."
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. It was muddy, rought-hewn, and straggling."
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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."
The same article appeared in "The History of Cayuga County 1789-1879" by Elliot Storke, p. 55 but added:
We will close the Chapter on the History of the Press, with brief, characteristic sketches of a few of the "men of the Press", who, by long and conspicuous connection with it, have won a place in its annals.
The "Cayuga Patriot" was the first paper published in the County that became thoroughly established and continued for a long series of years, under the management, for the most part, of the same persons. The first publisher of that paper, of whom recollections are preserved, was Samuel R. Brown, with whom in 1814, that veteran journalist, Thurlow Weed worked, and of whom he writes: (The same as above.)
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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.
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History of Saratoga County, NY by Nathaniel Bartlett Sylvester, 1878, Chapter XXII, History of the Press:
In that year a man named Riggs was taken into partnership. He was bought out in 1807 by Samuel R. Brown, and the name was coolly changed to The Aurora Borealis and Saratoga Advertiser. In 1808, Mr. Brown retired from the establishment, and Mr. Miller restored the original name. It was discontinued in 1811, and the office merged into that of The Independent American. Mr. Miller moved to Batavia, Genesee Co., and there, in connection with Benjamin Blodgett, started the Republican Advocate, which is still published. Mr. Miller continued to issue the Advocate until near the end of the year 1828. He printed the Morgan pamphlet, which professed to disclose the secrets of the first three degrees of Freemasonry; and a weekly paper, called The Morgan Investigator, was issued from his office in 1827, continuing about a year. At that day he was a conspicuous and famous man. Mr. Brown went to Saratoga Springs in 1809, and in that year began the publication of the Saratoga Patriot. He moved his establishment to Albany in April, 1812, and gave his paper the name of the Albany Republican. He sold out in the latter part of the year 1813, and went to Auburn, Cayuga Co., where in 1814 he started the Cayuga Patriot, which he conducted for several years.
"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 journalist and famous politician.)
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OBITUARY FOR SAMUEL R. (WRIGHT) BROWN, given to Ruby Wilson Mortensen in 1940 by Maude Dodd, descendant of Samuel Right Brown, Jr. This was published in the Auburn, NY 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 ingenious 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,(1812) 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.
Samuel's death notice was published in many newspapers including The New York Evening Post
Monday, Sept. 29, 1817 issue:
Died: At Cherry Valley, on the 15th inst.in the 42d yeaar of his age, Mr. Samuel Barown. He was on his return from New-York to Auburn his place of residence. He was the author of the "Western Gazetteer or Emigrant's Directory"--"Views of the campaigns of the Northwestern Army," and a "History of the late war in 2 volumes.
His body is buried in Cherry Valley, Ostego County, NY, perhaps in an unmarked grave. Just outside of Cherry Valley, there is a family cemetery belonging to a Brown family where he may be buried with relatives who came to Cherry Valley area earlier.
In the 1880 Federal Census for St. Anne, Kankakee County, IL, his son, Erasmus Darwin Brown states both Samuel and Eunice were born in CT.
In the 1810 Census for Milton, Saratoga Co., NY, Samuel is listed as having 4 sons under the age of 10, and one son age 10 thru 15. Since none of his shown sons were old enough to be 10 and over in 1810, was he married previously to someone else and had a son by another woman? His first son by Eunice was born in 1804. They were married in 1803. It could possibly have been a younger half-brother staying with them as well.
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1775 - 1817 (41 years)
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