John Henry Hobart Brown

John Henry Hobart Brown (called Hobart; December 1, 1831 – May 2, 1888) was the first bishop of the Diocese of Fond du Lac in the Episcopal Church.

Early life Brown was born on December 1, 1831, in New York City. After theological studies at the General Theological Seminary, New York, he was ordained to the diaconate in Trinity Church, New York on April 2, 1854, by Bishop Jonathan Mayhew Wainwright. The following year he was ordained to the priesthood at the Church of the Holy Communion, New York, on December 1, 1855, by Bishop Horatio Potter.

During his episcopate, Brown established St. Paul's in Fond du Lac as his see city, set the groundwork for the establishment of a diocesan girls school, found a religious order, the Order of St. Moinica, shifting those congregations who still had pew rents to be "free churches", and worked to reach out to some disaffected groups of the Roman Catholic Church, especially in trying to work with René Villette.

Personal life and death Brown married Anna Coombs Upjohn (1837-1917) on July 29, 1856 at Garrison-on-the-Hudson, New York. Upjohn was the youngest daughter of British-born architect Richard Upjohn, who the following year helped found and became the first president of the American Institute of Architects. They had two adopted daughters, Jane Campbell and Clementine Boem. Brown died of typhoid pneumonia in Fond du Lac on May 2, 1888, and is buried in the churchyard of St. Paul's Cathedral.