Simon Brown was an American agricultural editor. Brown was noted for his professional efforts as a printer and publisher, including of the New England Farmer, working in Boston.
Background
Simon Brown was born on November 29, 1802 in Newburyport, Massachussets, the son of Nathaniel and Mary (Sleeper) Brown. In 1811 Nathaniel Brown's property was destroyed by fire and he was reduced from comparative wealth to poverty. He moved with his family to a farm near Chester, New Hampshire. It was necessary for the children to help their father on the farm.
Education
At the early age of nine Simon received his first training in practical agriculture, and soon developed a keen interest in the work. He attended the common schools for a few weeks each year and for the rest of the year devoted his entire time to farming. While residing on his father's farm he attended Pembroke Academy, at Pembroke, New Hampshire, for six months. This was the extent of his education.
Career
In 1818 Simon Brown entered a printing-office in Concord, New Hampshire, as an apprentice. He worked in this shop for several years and then spent a year traveling in the South studying southern agriculture and observing the relations existing between master and slaves.
When he returned in 1826 he settled in Hingham, Massachussets, and commenced the publication of a newspaper called the Hingham Gazette. In 1829 he sold his interest in the Hingham paper and returned to Chester where he opened a printing-office and published the New Hampshire Law Reports. In 1830 in company with his brother-in-law, B. B. French, he purchased a printing-office and a newspaper called the New Hampshire Spectator, in Newport. He remained in Newport for the next five years, then moved to Concord, Massachussets, and established himself as a book-and job-printer.
In 1838 he received an appointment in the office of the clerk of the House of Representatives at Washington. Within a short time he was appointed librarian to the House and he kept this position until 1848.
He had at last saved enough money to realize a lifelong dream, which was to live on a farm of his own. He purchased a small, almost worthless place near Concord, Massachussets, and went there to live for the rest of his days.
While working relentlessly to make the farm successful he found time to publish a paper in Concord called the Concord Freeman, for one year. In 1855 he was elected lieutenant-governor of Massachusetts.
In 1858 he became editor of the New England Farmer, an agricultural newspaper published in Boston.
At the time of his death, which occurred at his home, his farm was known to be very valuable, and many farms in the neighborhood had been materially improved through suggestions made by him.
Achievements
Politics
Brown was politically active as (in succession) a Democrat, a Know-Nothing, and a Free-Soile.
Views
He was a modest, affable man seeking success in the thing which interested him most, agriculture.
Membership
Brown was an active member of the Massachusetts State Board of Agriculture and of the Middlesex Agricultural Society; founding member of the Concord Farmer’s Club (Concord, Massachusetts). Member of School Committee and Library Committee in Concord (Massachusetts) and, from 1848-1873, of the Social Circle of Concord.
Connections
He was married in 1828 to Ann Caroline French of Chester, New Hampshire.