26 Facts About Addison Brown

Addison C Brown was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, a botanist, and a serious amateur astronomer.

Addison Brown was born on February 21,1830, in West Newbury, Massachusetts, the oldest of five children of Addison Brown Sr.

Addison Brown attended West Newbury's one-room school until he had exhausted its offerings at age 12.

In 1848 Brown entered Amherst College, intending from the start to transfer to Harvard University in his sophomore year.

Addison Brown befriended and roomed with his Harvard classmate Horatio Alger and counted Ephraim Whitman Gurney as his closest college friend.

Addison Brown received an Artium Baccalaureus degree in 1852 from Harvard University, ranked second in his class.

Joseph's brother, William Gardner Choate, who preceded Brown in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, was valedictorian; George B Adams, Brown's successor on the bench, was a member of the class of 1852.

Addison Brown entered Harvard Law School in 1853, receiving a Bachelor of Laws in late 1854.

Armed with introductions from a Harvard professor, in December 1854 Addison Brown arrived in New York City, New York and began work as a clerk for the firm of Addison Brown, Hall, and Vanderpoel.

Addison Brown struck out on his own and then joined Nelson Smith in 1856.

Addison Brown remained in that partnership until his judicial appointment in 1881.

Addison Brown's United States Senate confirmation took place on October 14,1881; he received his commission the same day.

Addison Brown had become a member of his local Republican club in the late 1850s and remained active in Republican politics while neither seeking nor obtaining a political position prior to his judgeship.

Addison Brown was credited as having written between 1,600 to over 2,000 decisions, many of them concerning admiralty, bankruptcy, and extradition.

In 1875, Addison Brown joined the Torrey Botanical Club of Columbia College in New York and was an active member for many years, serving as president from 1893 to 1905.

Addison Brown cited his role in the Botanical Garden's founding as his most significant public service, aside from his work in the judiciary.

Addison Brown wrote that organization's charter in 1891 and in that year donated the initial $25,000 toward the $250,000 in private seed money required pursuant to the New York legislature's authorization for municipal contributions.

Addison Brown traveled to collect botanical specimens, maintained an extensive botanical library, wrote many notes for Torrey Botanical Club publications and published the following works:.

At age 81, Addison Brown began work on a revised and expanded edition of Illustrated Flora, which contained over 2,000 pages and some 5,000 illustrations.

Addison Brown died four days after the first bound copies were shipped.

Addison Brown was a founding member of the New York Academy of Science's astronomy section.

Addison Brown met his first wife, Mary Chadwick Barrett, in 1846 at Bradford Academy, near West Newbury, as he studied to prepare for college.

In July 1893, Addison Brown married Helen Carpenter Gaskin, a botany teacher at the New York Normal College, which later became Hunter College.

Addison Brown was in his 60s; she was considerably younger.

Stricken with paralysis, Addison Brown died at his Manhattan home on April 9,1913, at age 83.

Addison Brown was interred in a sarcophagus at Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx.