BRINTON PAINE BROWN, M. D.
The subject of this sketch was the eldest son of the Rev. Brinton Paine
Brown, a lineal descendant of Col. Brinton Paine, a distinguished soldier in the war for American
Independence. He was born at Brownsville, Oxford County, Ontario, August 31, 1823. At that time Western Canada
was an almost unbroken wilderness, and young Brown was early inured to the privations and hardships of pioneer life;
a training which supplied his fine physical development, and enabled him to withstand the fatigue incident
to the arduous calling he subsequently embraced.
At the age of seventeen, by his own industry and application he had fitted himself for the University of Victoria College, Coburg. On graduating he chose as his calling the ministry of the Methodist Church, but his voice failing, he subsequently turned his attention to the study of medicine. He entered the medical school connected with his alma mater, Victoria College, then situated at Toronto, and after pursuing the prescribed course was graduated with honors. Shortly after his graduation the war between the States of the American Union broke out, and Dr. Brown sought and obtained an appointment as surgeon, and was attached to the Army of the Potomac. He served with distinction in this capacity until the close of the war, and then returned to Canada and established himself at Woodstock, where his fine social qualities and professional skill soon gained him a leading position among the practitioners of medicine. After five years' residence Dr. Brown left Woodstock and removed to Cleveland, Ohio, where he resided until a few years previous to his death.
He was a man possessed of an enquiring mind and liberal in views, not bound to medical creeds and ethics. He had witnessed in Canada some wonderful cures made by Homoeopathic physicians which, naturally, led him to make investigation in the new school of medicine. In the teachings of this school he found a more rational method of cure than he had anticipated. He, therefore, withdrew from the old school of medicine, and associated himself with D. H. Beckwith, M, D., of Cleveland. Conscious of his little knowledge of the Materia Medica, he devoted most of his time for one year in studying the principles of Homoeopathy, and becoming familiar with Symptomatology and Materia Medica. About this time the Trustees of the Cleveland Homoeopathic College tendered him the Chair of Anatomy, an honor that he declined, preferring to devote all of his leisure time to the study of Honucopathy. For several years he was on the surgical staff at Huron Street Hospital, and the record shows a prompt and faithful attendance.
Naurally a man of iron constitution and high vitality, he applied himself so closely to his large practice that body and mind were alike exhausted. In the hope of recruiting his wasted forces he sought at last the genial climate of Florida; but the change was made too late, his disease had made too much progress, and he entered into rest at Lake Wier, Marion County, Florida, December 8, 1885.
If we reckon Dr. Brown's life by years it was but a short one. He did not live long; he was but sixty-two when he died. But in those years 'he lived Much. Few men put so much of themselves into their work as he did. Upon all matters of a professional character Ire was above reproach.
But it was not alone as the physician that there was a demand upon his energies; he was the friend and counsellor of the suffering and the distressed. His patients brought him the most serious interests of their lives. They trusted him when they would not trust their legal adviser nor their clergyman. They were honored to have him come into their houses and sit at their table. His name was a household word in many Cleveland homes. His skill was a part of the family and personal achievements, for he was the family doctor. But all this meant for him, as it means for every one whose lot it is to minister to human needs, the consumption of vital force. Labor with the hand wastes the muscles. Labor with the mind wastes the tissues of the brain. In his case there was destruction alike of the wick and the oil. Yet, as we survey the record of his life-work we feel that there is no need to mark that poor thing above its dust, that he lived but sixty-two years, for those years were surcharged with active ministration to his fellow men, for he
"Most lives
Who feels most, thinks the noblest, acts the best."
Of Dr. Brown apart from his professional character and successes it is but necessary that I remind those who knew him of the character stamped upon his physical form. In the large frame and behind the face and figure he carried those qualities of mind and soul we know as manliness. In him the elements of our man nature strove toward unity and perfection. He was not cramped or narrow anywhere. He had a warm attachment for all the various interests of mankind. He was always true to the courtesies which weakness impose upon strength, and friendship upon affection. His sense of honor was high. No man ever lived who shrank more sensitively from every form of deceit and fraud. He had the usual experience of false friends among those he trusted ; these are incidents in the life of every man, but he did not allow these things to undermine his faith in human nature. His heart grew younger as his face became furrowed, and he carried out of the world much that he brought into it of the sunny nature of the child.
And so we close the chapter of his mortal life. It matters little to him what estimate we pass upon him
now. His body rests beneath the counterpane of grasses which nature weaves for our final sleep.
But the blessed memory of that life will linger with many who have had years of joy and good through
him, and it is one such who now, out of a grateful and loving heart, weaves this humble tribute, and
lays it on a grave whose epitaph should read
" He loved his fellow men."