Elbridge Gerry Brown
Elbridge Gerry Brown (April 15, 1849 - August 28, 1928) was an American Spiritualist and editor of the Spiritual Scientist of Boston, Mass.
Biographical data
Elbridge Gerry Walter Channing Brown was born on April 15 (or 19?), 1849, at the residence of his parents, Thomas W. and Sarah D., at 34 Hanover St.; Boston, MA. Later in life he dropped two of his names and was known as Elbridge Gerry Brown.
On July 21, 1875, he got married to 22 years old Hannah M. Fluker in the Town of South Abington. In 1874 he founded and edited a weekly Spiritualist newspaper titled, the Spiritual Scientist. In 1880 census he was living in Boston, listed as Gary E. Brown, with wife Hannah L., daughters Alice G. and Jennie C.
He died on August 28, 1928, and was buried at Colebrook Cemetery, Whitman Plymouth County, Mass.[1]
Theosophical involvement
From early letters from Egyptian Masters of Wisdom to Col. H. S. Olcott, it is evident that they had originally chosen three people to form the nucleus of what would become the Theosophical Society. Two of them were the Colonel and H. P. Blavatsky, the third one being young E. G. Brown, then editor of the Spiritual Scientist and interested in understanding the occult laws behind spiritualistic phenomena. Master S. wrote:
This cause—in your country—depends entirely on the closest unity between you three—our Lodge’s chosen Triad—you, verily so, you three so utterly dissimilar and yet so closely connected to be brought together and linked in one by the never-erring Wisdom of the Brotherhood.[2]
According to Col. Olcott’s account in his Old Diary Leaves (Vol. I, pp. 72-73), Mme. Blavatsky became seriously interested in Mr Brown’s journal during the first quarter of 1875. He was educated but very poor; for, to become a Spiritualist and editor of his paper, he had quarreled with his family.[3] At the beginning he worked with the Founders, who supported him and his paper financially. However, in 1876, as they started striving to wean the public mind away from Spiritualism, Brown decided to keep his belief in "Spirits" and go his own way, eventually turning against the Founders.[4] This was shortly after the birth of his first child, after accusing HPB of trying to psychically harm his wife and cause the death of his then unborn child.[5]
In her third scrapbook, HPB includes a bankruptcy notice for Brown summarized in this way by Mary K. Neff:
Creditors list includes Col Olcott ($590), Mme. Blav. ($150), to which HPB has red pencilled a note: "And several hundred more given without asking for a note. HPB." Also: "A constant shower of abuse and sneering in his paper against us, and in other papers too, and bankruptcy to end the whole without a single line of acknowledgment, excuse or regret. Such is Gerry Elbridge Brown, the Spiritualist." (Total debt of Brown: $3710)[6]
Some time later HPB wrote in a personal note the following remark:
Several hundred dollars out of our pockets were spent on behalf of the Editor, and he was made to pass through a minor "diksha" [initiation]. This proving of no avail — the Theosophical Society was established. . . . The man might have become a POWER, he preferred to remain an ASS. De gustibus non disputandum est.[7]
Other references to Brown exist in Blavatsky's letters to Hiram Corson and in Olcott's Old Diary Leaves.
Notes
- ↑ Elbridge Gerry Brown, Sr at Findagrave.com
- ↑ Curuppumullage Jinarājadāsa, Letters from the Masters of the Wisdom Second Series No. 6 (Adyar, Madras: The Theosophical Publishing House, 1988), 17.
- ↑ Josephine Ransom, A Short History of The Theosophical Society (Adyar, Madras: The Theosophical Publishing House, 1989), 68.
- ↑ George E. Linton and Virginia Hanson, eds., Readers Guide to The Mahatma Letters to A. P. Sinnett (Adyar, Chennai, India: Theosophical Publishing House, 1972), 221-222.
- ↑ See Elbridge Gerry Brown, Sr at Findagrave.com
- ↑ Mary K. Neff, "H.P.B.'s Scrapbooks," a summary of the scrapbooks written about 1934. Quoted from Boris de Zirkoff Papers, Records Series 22, Theosophical Society in America Archives.
- ↑ Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Collected Writings vol. I (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1988), 888.