Background
George Brown was born on April 17, 1787 in Ballymena, County Antrim, Ireland, the second son of Grace (Davison) and Alexander Brown. He emigrated from Ulster to Baltimore, Maryland, at the age of 15 in 1802.
George Brown was born on April 17, 1787 in Ballymena, County Antrim, Ireland, the second son of Grace (Davison) and Alexander Brown. He emigrated from Ulster to Baltimore, Maryland, at the age of 15 in 1802.
With his brothers, James and John A. Brown, George Brown followed his father to Baltimore in 1802, and in time became a member of the firm of Alexander Brown & Sons.
On February 12, 1827, twenty-five leading citizens of Baltimore called together by George Brown met at his house in Baltimore to consider the best means of restoring to the city trade which had been diverted by the introduction of steam navigation and the opening up of the Erie and other canals in the West.
At this meeting the plan of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, the first passenger steam railroad in the United States, was conceived. Stock subscription books were opened on March 20, 1827, and 41, 781 shares of stock almost immediately subscribed.
George Brown was made treasurer of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company and, with his father, virtually supervised the construction of the road, which was begun on July 4, 1828.
In 1831-32 he stimulated Ross Winans to design and construct the first eight-wheel car, the forerunner of the modern railway car, to supersede the modified stage coaches then in use. George Brown held the position of treasurer, declining to accept any compensation, until 1834, when Alexander Brown died, and George, as the ranking member of the firm in this country, was required to undertake the heavy responsibility of directing the banking affairs of the Browns. To do this he had to give up all outside interests.
Of all the lessons George Brown had learned from his pioneer father, the one he had learned most thoroughly was the lesson of conservatism. Under his guidance, therefore, the Brown firms curtailed rather than expanded their activities. The intrepid pioneers of the profitable but hazardous field of international mercantile banking began to withdraw from the business of shipping and trading, and to devote themselves more exclusively to banking.
The independent fortunes of the Browns had been made by the elder Brown's shrewd piloting past the rocks of early nineteenth-century trade, and it was a big job merely to conserve those fortunes. This the sons, advised by George, elected to do to the exclusion of most other activities, and they did it successfully.
Brown Memorial Presbyterian Church erected by his widow was in his honor.
George Brown was a leader in every important civic movement in Baltimore in his time, and gave liberally of his money to worthy institutions.
He was a member of the Baltimore Association for the Improvements of the Conditions of the Poor.
In 1818 George Brown was married to Isabella (McLanahan) Brown.