Matthew Brown

Matthew Brown was a prominent Presbyterian minister and president of Washington College and Jefferson College. Next to John McMillan, Brown was the most important figure to education in Western Pennsylvania.

Brown was born in January 1776 in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania (now part of Union County, Pennsylvania). His paternal grandfather, a native of Ireland even though he was of Scottish descent, emigrated to America in 1720 and settled in eastern Pennsylvania. His father, also named Matthew Brown, was born in 1732 and was an early settler of White Deer Valley and a soldier in the American Revolutionary War. Upon his father's death, young Matthew Brown and his brother were adopted by their father's brother, William Brown, a religious man who was a member of the Pennsylvania Legislature. In 1817, and agreement was made between the church and Washington College that no one should supervise both institutions. He turned down offers of the presidency of Centre College and his alma mater Dickinson College to remain as pastor in Washington.

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