Catherine Swan Brown Spear

Catherine Swan Brown Spear (6 August 1813 – 29 June 1903) was an American reformer, educator, and abolitionist.

Early life Catherine Swan was born in Worcester County, Massachusetts She was described as having 'unaffected vocal powers'. After just 18 months of marriage, Catherine, pregnant at the time of his death, named her child Abel, Introducing the volume, compiled largely using Brown's correspondence and papers, she wrote:It seems due to the character of an individual, who has labored long and assiduously to promote the best interests of his fellow-beings, that his life should be portrayed, after he has ceased to act in his corporeal nature, and when his memory, or the influence of his life, alone remains, endeared to his friends, and spectre-like to his foes; for, "though dead, he yet speaketh." The couple became partners in their efforts to abolish the death penalty, humanise prisons, and establish a halfway house for ex-convicts.

Civil War work Although a member of the Universal Peace Society, Catherine viewed the American Civil War as necessary, and undertook hospital work during its course, her husband having been appointed a chaplain in Washington, D.C. Charles Spear died in 1863, but she remained in Washington until the war's end.

Later years Spear moved to Passaic, New Jersey, where she died on 29 June 1903.