William Kennedy Brown was born in Fayette County, Pennsylvania on August 3, 1834. He received his education in the common schools of Pennsylvania, and in 1856, became a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church. In 1857, he graduated from Allegheny College. He later received a Doctor of Divinity degree from Waynesburg College in 1869.
Brown held many ministerial appointments in western Pennsylvania and Ohio and was also, along with his wife, very active in the temperance movement and was a strong advocate of equal rights for women and women's suffrage. From 1882 to 1892 he was the president of the Cincinnati Wesleyan Women's College. When Wesleyan closed in 1892, Brown became active in the administration of his son's school in Germantown, Ohio, the Miami Military Institute.
For more information on this collection, please view the collection finding aid or visit Wright State University Special Collections and Archives.
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An Incident with its Sequel (2)
William Kennedy Brown
William Kennedy Brown describes an 1869 meeting with Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Stanton wanted to convince Martha McClellan Brown, who was in New York at the time, to join her in advocating for women’s suffrage. William Kennedy Brown argued that by aligning herself with Cady Stanton she would damage her reputation among evangelical women. He felt that his wife would more effectively advance the cause of suffrage by continuing her efforts to organize the Women’s Christian Temperance Union.
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Powers of Frances Willard
William Kennedy Brown
William Kennedy Brown discusses a review of the work of Frances Willard, an educator and member of the temperance and women’s suffrage movements, that appeared in the Philadelphia Press. Brown compares the leadership styles of three women in the suffrage movement to those of three contemporary men, saying that the followers of Willard and General George McClellan were inspired by loyalty, the followers of Mary Livermore and Ulysses Grant by an intellectual decision, and the followers of Susan B. Anthony and Abraham Lincoln by the heroic nature of their lives.
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The Temperance Movement and Women’s Suffrage
William Kennedy Brown
William Kennedy Brown describes Martha McClellan Brown’s initial attempts to organize the Women’s Christian Temperance Union and the subsequent founding and growth of that organization. He argues that the history of women’s suffrage is defined more by the Christian women of the temperance movement and their demand for the vote than by the work of religious skeptics such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
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An Incident with its Sequel (1)
William Kennedy Brown
In 1896, William Kennedy Brown reflects on an 1869 meeting with Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Stanton wanted to convince Martha McClellan Brown, who was in New York at the time, to join her in advocating for women’s suffrage. At the time, Brown had argued that affiliation with Stanton would damage his wife’s credibility with evangelical women and her ability to advance the cause of suffrage through her efforts to organize the Women’s Christian Temperance Union. Brown goes on to outline the subsequent development of that organization and its impact on the women’s suffrage movement.
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Ex-President Cleveland Profited by Woman’s Work
William Kennedy Brown
William Kennedy Brown argues that former president Grover Cleveland should respect the work of women in political reform movements because he benefited from that work in the 1884 presidential election. In that election, Cleveland won New York, in part because the temperance candidate split off a small part of the Republican vote, elevating him to the Presidency. Martha McClellan Brown was deeply involved in the New York temperance movement in the years leading up to 1884. The essay was written ca. 1884.
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The New Testament Status of Woman in Gospel Work
William Kennedy Brown
William Kennedy Brown examines Jesus’ teachings about and interactions with women as described in the New Testament.
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The Scriptural Status of Woman
William Kennedy Brown
A pamphlet in which Brown argues that scripture supports equal rights for women.
