Mitchell Matthews Brown was born 20 Sept 1820 in Preble County, Ohio. He is a great-grandson of the Nathan Brown who emigrated from Ireland, through his Son James (born in Ireland) and then Nathan Brown born in South Carolina (sometimes called Jr. to distinguish him from his uncle: Nathan’s son Nathan).
His grandfather Gavin Mitchell, who was living in the same community, died less than 2 weeks later, in October 1820, and he probably received Mitchell as his first name in honor of his grandfather. His mother Elizabeth Mitchell gave him her mother Sarah’s maiden name, Matthews, as his middle name. He was the third child, but the first son, born to Elizabeth and Nathan (Jr. to distinguish him from his uncle Nathan, an elder in the church and grandfather Nathan, buried in South Carolina).
He is one of three of the sons of Nathan (Jr.) who became Presbyterian Ministers. Both of the Nathan’s referred to above were ordained elders in the Presbyterian churches they were members of. The original Nathan from Ireland may well have been an ordained elder also, as he is one of the leading signatories of the letter written back to Ireland on the safe arrival of the ship in Charleston SC after her voyage from Larne Ireland in 1772. If so, there might also be evidence of that in the earliest records of the Kings Creek Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church in South Carolina, but it has not yet been located. The immigrant Nathan is buried in the cemetery of that congregation and can be found in the woods next to the national forest outside of Newberry, South Carolina. The tombstone which Mitchell partly misquotes in his handwritten history can be found there and has been photographed by several people.
Having attended Morning Sun Academy, Mitchell went on to college a few miles away at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. He graduated with an A.B. degree in 1840 and appears in several subsequent Alumni directories of that institution. Many records drop the ‘s’ from his middle name, and he himself liked to sign his name simply as M.M.Brown, a custom which his son later also adopted. Many of the written records list him as M.M. Brown.
His home church, Hopewell Presbyterian, was one of the anti-slavery churches in the early 1800’s. His uncle, grandfather and father were each elders in that congregation, under the leadership of Rev. Alexander Porter. His father Nathan was active in the Underground Railroad, a loose connection of farms and homes that sheltered escaped slaves heading north across the Ohio River to freedom. He and his brothers acted at various times as ‘conductors’ taking slaves to the next station of shelter. They may also have had connection to the Quaker groups around nearby Richmond Indiana who were part of this network. There are letters to and from Professor Siebert of The Ohio State University in which M.M. gives information about these activities.
Oxford Ohio also had a Presbyterian Theological seminary, located in the ground level of the building that also housed the 2nd Presbyterian Church. This was an institution of the Associate Reformed (Presbyterian) denomination, and later was moved briefly to Monmouth, Illinois, but then merged into Xenia Theological Seminary, which itself moved from Xenia Ohio to St. Louis Missouri and then was later merged into Pittsburgh-Xenia Theological Seminary in Pittsburgh PA. Mitchell Matthews graduated from Oxford Seminary, being licensed to preach by the First Presbytery of Ohio (Associate Reformed Presbyterian) in May 1844 and then was also granted an A.M. degree by Miami University in 1845.
On July 2, 1846 he married, in Butler County Ohio, Agnes Rebecca Lang daughter of Charles Lang and Margaret Agnes Gordon of Kenton, Hardin County Ohio. He may have been supply preaching and teaching in Rush County, Indiana during this time, but was not yet called and ordained as a full-time pastor. Agnes would return to her parents home for the birth of their only child, Anna Margaret Brown, on November 16, 1848, in Kenton, Ohio.
Mitchell was called to pastor the Presbyterian Church at Clayton, Illinois in the fall of 1846 and was ordained by the First Presbytery of Illinois Oct. 16, 1846. Clayton is in Adams County, part of Northern Illinois, which includes Quincy on the Mississippi River and Golden, Illinois, the residence to which he retired. The Miami University catalog gives his residence through these years until 1856 as Chester, Illinois, which is south of St. Louis and is the county seat of Randolph County on the Mississippi River. He was pastor at Clayton until April 1849, at which time he was called as Pastor of the Springfield Presbyterian Church in Preston, Randolph County, Illinois. He, his wife Agnes and daughter Ann were enumerated there in September 1850 during the US Census. Agnes died 12 August 1852 and is buried in the cemetery near the site of the Preston church. Although used as a farm building for a period of time, the church was dissolved in the 1900’s and the building may no longer standing. Only the cemetery remains. Rev. Brown was Pastor until 1854.
In 1856 the Miami University catalog lists his residence once again in the Northern Illinois area as Monmouth, Warren County, Illinois, which is where his parents, brother and probably other Brown relatives had moved. They were involved in a nursery business, drug and mercantile store, and with the academy, college and very short-termed theological school at Monmouth (the library from the Oxford (Ohio) Seminary moved to Monmouth and apparently later back to Xenia, Ohio). Mitchell’s younger brother James served as principal of the academy, Mitchell served on the college board and also wrote and edited for the ‘Western United Presbyterian’ when it was published out of Monmouth. There are probably records related to this in Monmouth that could be researched. Since daughter Anna was school age by this time, it made sense to be near family, and perhaps they were there with family by 1854.
He married his second wife, Martha Ellen Robeson (1830-1866) in Randolph County, Illinois on Feb 5, 1857 – but this marriage is also recorded in Butler County, Ohio on 16 Sept 1857 by Rev. Wm Davidson, Pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Hamilton, Ohio! This was the home congregation of her family and she and both her daughters are buried in the same cemetery plot as her parents. The stone at her grave clearly indicates “wife of Rev. M.M. Brown”. Mitchell served as principal of the Union Academy in Sparta Illinois from 1857-1862. Daughter Clara was born in August 1858, but died in April 1880 at age 21 less than a year after her marriage to W.F. Crane in Oct 1879. Daughter Harriet was born in 1860 and never married, passing away in March 1911. Clara and Harriet appear with their father and half-sister Anna and his third wife Sarah McMichael in the 1870 Census for New Windsor, Mercer County, Illinois, again, in Northern Illinois.
While in Sparta, M.M. also served as commissioner from his Presbytery to the General Assembly (actually the Synods that formed a General Assembly) of the denomination held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1858. One of his speeches at the meeting of that group is preserved in the Minutes, as discussions were proceeding leading to the merger of the Associate and Associate Reformed denominations to form the United Presbyterian Church of North America, which denomination existed for exactly 100 years from 1858 to 1958. M.M. may also have served as an assistant clerk of one of the Synods leading to the newly merged denomination.
The history of the Sparta United Presbyterian church devotes several pages to the Academy and two pages to Mitchell even though he was not a Pastor of that church. His three marriages are mentioned, but not the name of Martha, his second wife. His photo from many years later(c. 1896) is printed in that history and is the only extant photo, being from the four generation (but six generation collage) family photo taken in Creston Iowa at the O.C. Dunbar photo studio.
M.M. also later served on a committee or board whose purpose was to establish/extend education to freed slaves in Tennessee. Record of this committee was in the annual reports to the General Assembly of the United Presbyterian church.