Religious Leader. Reverend Brown was educated in his youth at the Wadsworth Academy and then for three years at the Western Reserve College in Hudson, Ohio. From 1840 through 1842, he was a professor at Miami Collegiate Institute in Peru, Indiana. He then taught in Logansport and at the Lagrange Collegiate Institute in Ontario, Indiana. He served as principal there from May 9, 1843, until May 1, 1844. While at Logansport, he studied law, and in 1844, he opened a practice in Lima, Indiana. He continued his legal practice at Otsego, Michigan, and then at Whitewater, Wisconsin, until 1852, when he left his legal profession for the ministry while at Wautoma, Wisconsin. He was ordained a Congregational Minister at Green Bay in 1853. He preached at several towns in Wisconsin and Minnesota, and from 1874 to 1876, he was acting pastor back home at Wadsworth, Ohio. In 1880, he moved to De Smet, South Dakota, and organized the First Congregational Church there, serving as pastor until his resignation on his 70th birthday. It was at De Smet that he became friends with the Ingalls family. Laura did not like Reverend Brown's "crude, loud style of preaching," Nonetheless, on August 25, 1885, at his home, referred to as Brown's Hill, he performed the wedding for the future author Laura Ingalls and Almanso Wilder. He would also become a character in two of Laura Ingalls Wilder's books, "Little Town on the Prairie" and "These Happy Golden Years." His adopted daughter, Ida Wright, was one of Laura's best friends when they were teenagers, and she also appears in her books. Later, he served two terms as Chaplin of the South Dakota Senate. On February 20, 1890, he presided over the first meeting of that state's first Historical Society. He retired to West Superior, Wisconsin, where he was honorary pastor of Hope Church. Rev. Brown received an honorary A.M. degree from the Western Reserve College and Beloit College. He published no less than seven books, including his 1875 "Wadsworth Memorial," in which he gives a firsthand account of the pioneer families of Wadsworth, Ohio. Edward was editor of "The LaGrange Whig" in 1848, "The Home Scientist" in 1875, and "The Thanksgiving" in 1886. He was a first cousin of the abolitionist John Brown of Harpers Ferry fame. Rev. Brown died at the home of his adopted daughter, Ida Belle McConnell, due to complications from a hernia and was buried next to his first wife. Both graves are unmarked. A cenotaph marker was placed next to his second wife's grave at the De Smet Cemetery in De Smet, South Dakota.

This is a cenotaph. View burial and family links here: Burial Location.