Charlotte Emerson Brown was born on April 21, 1838 at Andover, Massachussets. Her father, Ralph Emerson, clergyman and professor of ecclesiastical history and pastoral theology in Andover Theological Seminary, came of a long ancestry of New England clergymen and educators and was a relative of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Her mother was Eliza Rockwell of Colebrook, Connecticut Charlotte was graduated from Abbot Academy at Andover.
Charlotte early showed an aptitude for languages and could read, write, and speak French before she was twelve. After her school days she mastered several other languages by private study and learned Greek from her brother Joseph Emerson, professor at Beloit College. Her education was continued by several years of travel and study of music and languages abroad.
Charlotte Brown spent a year in Montreal, teaching Latin, French, and mathematics, with Hannah Lyman, later first woman principal of Vassar College. The Emerson family, having left Andover and having lived for five years in Newburyport, Massachussets, removed to Rockford, Illinois.
Charlotte Emerson, eager for further knowledge, took a commercial course of six weeks in Chicago and then became private secretary to her brother Ralph, a Rockford manufacturer. At Rockford she began her work as a club organizer, founding a musical club, the Euterpe, and a French club, as well as the Rockford Conservatory of Music. She also taught modern languages in Rockford Seminary.
On their return from abroad they settled in East Orange, New Jersey, where she was very soon elected president of the Woman's Club. At about this time the club Sorosis took the lead in a movement for club federation, and Mrs. Brown was one of the committee of seven which formed the General Federation of Women's Clubs and in 1890 she became its first president.
Her efficiency never made her dictatorial, but her tact, consideration for the opinions of others, and cooperativeness caused her to be generally liked. Her death occurred at East Orange and delegations from women's clubs all over the East attended her funeral.
Charlotte Emerson Brown was elected president of the Woman's Club. Under her leadership the federation membership increased in two years from fifty to 120 clubs, representing twenty-nine states and numbering 20, 000 women. The organization of the Fortnightly Club of East Orange was also her work. She wrote much on different club activities for newspapers and magazines and at the time of her death had gathered material for a projected history of the woman's club movement.
After her marriage she became much interested in the foreign missions of the Congregational Church and traveled, spoke, wrote, and planned work for the Woman's Board of Missions.
Charlotte Brown was a member of the General Federation of Women's Clubs and of the Fortnightly Club of East Orange.
She was a person of unusual memory, unlimited enthusiasm, great energy and power of concentration--both as a student and as a business woman. In appearance she was large and impressive, with a full round face, large serious eyes, and an expression indicating poise and placidity.
Charlotte Emerson Brown married, July 27, 1880, the Rev. William B. Brown, pastor of the First Congregational Church of Newark, New Jersey. They went abroad for three years, where Mrs. Brown continued the studies which were her absorbing interest in life.
1787–1863
1797–187
1836–1913
1821–1900
1831–1914
1834–1891
1827–1908
1818–1893
