BROWN, William Montgomery 1855-1937

PERSONAL:

Born September 4, 1855, in Orrville, OH; died October 31, 1937, in Galion, OH; married Ella Bradford, 1885 (died, 1935). Education: Attended Seabury Divinity School.

CAREER:

Ordained minister of Protestant Episcopal Church, 1883; pastor of a church in Galion, OH; became a missionary; appointed archdeacon, Diocese of Ohio, 1890; elected bishop coadjutor of Arkansas, 1898; bishop of Arkansas, 1899-1912; tried by his denomination for heresy, 1924; found guilty and released from ministry, 1925; became bishop, Old Catholic Church in America, c. 1925. Kenyon College, special lecturer at Bexley Hall, c. 1890. Bradford-Brown Educational Co. (publisher), Galion, OH, founder. Also worked in Nebraska as a young man.

WRITINGS:

The Church for Americans, 1894, 4th edition, Thomas Whittaker (New York, NY), 1896.

The Crucial Race Question, Arkansas Churchman's Publishing Co. (Little Rock, AR), 1907.

The Catholic Church and the Color Line, Thomas Whittaker (New York, NY), 1910.

Communism and Christianism, Analyzed and Contrasted from the Marxian and Darwinian Points of View, Bradford-Brown Educational Co. (Galion, OH), 1920.

The Bishop Brown Case, [Galion, OH], 1925.

My Heresy: The Autobiography of an Idea, John Day (New York, NY), 1926.

The Bankruptcy of Christian Supernaturalism, six volumes, 1929-32.

Communism: The New Faith for a New World, Bradford-Brown Educational Co. (Galion, OH), 1935.

Teachings of Marx for Girls and Boys, Bradford-Brown Educational Co. (Galion, OH), 1935.

Also author of The Level Plan for Church Union, 1910; "The Human Meaning of Christian Doctrines" (pamphlet), Community Church (New York, NY), 1928; "Heresy: 'Bad Bishop Brown's' Quarterly Lectures," Bradford-Brown Educational Co. (Galion, OH), 1930; and "Why I Am a Communist" (booklet), Bradford-Brown Educational Co. (Galion, OH), 1932. After his death, Brown's library was given to Kenyon College.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Pruter, Karl, and J. Gordon Melton, The Old Catholic Sourcebook, Garland Publishing (New York, NY), 1983.

PERIODICALS

Bulletin of Bexley Hall, December, 1961, William Clinton Seitz, "Bishop Brown of Galion," pp. 1-2.*