Jeremiah A. Brown
| Jeremiah A. Brown | |
|---|---|
Sketch of Brown from newspaper article in 1901.
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| Born |
November 14, 1841 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania |
| Died | March 28, 1913 (aged 71) Cleveland, Ohio |
| Occupation | politician, civil rights activist, carpenter and joiner |
| Political party | Republican |
Jeremiah A. Brown (November 14, 1841 – March 28, 1913) was a politician and civil rights activist in the American city of Cleveland, Ohio. Early in his life, Brown worked on steamboats with Mark Twain. He later moved to Cleveland, where he was elected to the Ohio House of Representatives in 1885 where together with Benjamin W. Arnett, he played an important role in fighting black laws, supporting education, and working for the civil rights of Ohio's African Americans. He also held numerous state and national political appointments.
Brown was the first African-American to receive a political appointment in Cuyahoga County, the first to serve as a deputy sheriff in Ohio, and the second to be elected to the Ohio state legislature.
Jeremiah A. Brown, known as "Jere", was born November 14, 1841 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He was the oldest child of six children of Thomas A. and Frances J. Brown. His sister, Hallie Quinn Brown, was a noted educator and civil rights activist. He attended school in Pittsburgh until age thirteen. His classmates included Rev. Benjamin Tucker Tanner, Thomas Morris Chester, and James T. Bradford. He then joined his father as a steamboatman along the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. As a steamboatman, Brown claimed friendship with Mark Twain, and was said to be a survivor of the famous 1858 explosion of the steamboat Pennsylvania.
About the age of seventeen he apprenticed himself to James H. McClelland to work as a carpenter and joiner. Many other employees of McClelland quit when Brown joined the shop, unwilling to work with a black person. He also attended Avery College in Allegheny, Pennsylvania for a short time. After his apprenticeship, Brown's parents moved the family to Chatham, Ontario, to be away from discrimination. When the US Civil War began, Brown moved to St. Louis, Missouri to work on steamboats. On January 17, 1864, he married Mary A. Wheeler, sister of Chicago lawyer Lloyd G. Wheeler and Harford minister Robert F. Wheeler. Brown's wife died in the late summer of 1904. Brown later remarried and he had two children.
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