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Eli F. Brown Collection

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Held at: Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College [Contact Us]500 College Avenue, Swarthmore, Pennsylvania 19081

This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.

Overview and metadata sections

Call Number:
SC.277
Repository:
Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College
Extent:
.1 linear ft. (2 folders)
Language:
English
Preferred Citation:
[Indicate the cited item or series here], Eli F. Brown Collection, SC/277, Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College.
Date:
circa 1880-1905 (inclusive)
Creator:
Brown, Eli F., 1842-1908
Abstract:
The collection contains manuscript memoirs of Eli F. Brown (1842-1908) in which he describes the hardships of Quakers caught in Loudoun County, Virginia, during the Civil War and immediately thereafter. He was briefly imprisoned for refusing miliary service and describes the looting and guerilla warfare, and the burning of Loudoun County in late 1864 on Sheridan's orders. Also in the collection is Brown's sympathetic account of John Brown's revolt in nearby Harpers Ferry as well as 19 family photographs mostly of the family of his daughter's in-laws.

Eli F. Brown (1842-1908), son of David Brown (1798-1866) and Eliza Frame Brown (1804-1868), was a birthright member of Goose Creek Monthly Meeting, Loudoun County, Virginia. Loudoun County was a strategic location for both Union and Confederate armies, and its residents, particularly the pacifist Quaker families, suffered the immediate devastation of war. Faced with forced conscription into the Southern army, Eli Brown moved to Indiana. He married Lucretia M. Cook (1848-1901) in 1867 in Wayne Co., Indiana. Brown earned a medical degree from Indiana Medical College in 1879, but rather than practicing, he authored books on physiology and temperance and taught variously at Purdue, Indiana State Medical College, and in high schools. Lucretia and Eli Brown had three children, two sons and a daughter, Ethel (1878-1968). Ethel Brown married Lyman (Lynn) McMullen in 1899. He was the son of William Gilbert McMullen (1849-1912) and Mary Hines McMullen. Ethel and Lynn McMullen had a daughter, Lucretia McMullen.

The collection contains the manuscript memoirs of Eli F. Brown (1842-1908) which describe the impact on Quakers caught in Loudoun County, Virginia, during Civil War and immediately thereafter. Also in the collection is his sympathetic account of John Brown's revolt in nearby Harpers Ferry as well as 19 family photographs mostly of the family of his daughter's in-laws

Arranged in two folders: Folder 1: Writings; Folder 2: Photographs.

Purchase. Accession 2016.061.

People
Subject
Place

Publisher
Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College
Finding Aid Author
Susanna Morikawa
Finding Aid Date
2017

Collection Inventory

Writings, 1880s. 1 folders.
Scope and Contents

7 MSS. Topics: The Blockade and Conscription; Guerrillas; The Quaker Fort; The Robber Gang; The Great Fire; Reconstructing the old House; John Brown. Transcribed excerpts of the manuscripts are included.

Physical Description

1 folders

Photographs, circa 1890-1908. 1 folders.
Scope and Contents

The photographs that accompanied the Eli Brown reminiscences include one cabinet card of Eli F. Brown taken in Dayton, Ohio, in 1890; two photographs of his wife, Lucretia Cook Brown, and two photographs of the residence in Riverside, CA, where Eli Brown died. The remainder are largely McMullen family photographs, presumably owned by Ethel Brown McMullen inferred from the identifying inscriptions on the reverse sides.

Physical Description

1 folders

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