Abel J. Brown

Abel J. Brown (1817–1894), was a Lutheran pastor of Immanuel's and Buehler's (or Beeler's) congregations in Sullivan County, Tennessee. He was a leader in the Evangelical Lutheran Tennessee Synod from 1836 to 1861. He was instrumental in the leading the East Tennessee congregations to form the Evangelical Lutheran Holston Synod, and was a leading member of that synod from 1861 until his death. He published several of his sermons and essays, and was the president of the Diet of Salisbury in 1884, which oversaw the creation of the United Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the South.

Brown was born near Lincolnton, North Carolina, on March 27, 1817. He was the son of Absalom and Elizabeth (Killian) Brown, and the first son and second child of a family of ten children. His paternal grandfather was an Englishman who came to America when a boy and was a soldier in the Revolutionary war. His maternal grandfather was of German extraction, a native of Pennsylvania but in early life came to North Carolina, where he lived for the rest of his life.

Brown's parents and ancestors generally, so far as is known, belonged to the laboring classes, and were distinguished for their industry, their frugality and thrift, and their moral integrity and religious worth. His mother was a woman of strong mind and of deep religious convictions, and eminently pious. His father was a man of superior native intellect, and of great firmness and decision and character. He was a farmer and mechanic and carefully trained up his children to manual labor, as well as "in the nurture and admonition of the Lord", He was a man of considerable prominence in the community in which he lived. For many years he held the office of magistrate, and was often solicited to run for higher offices, but always positively declined.

Brown's primary education was received in a good country school. His academic studies, preparatory to entering college, were prosecuted principally in the Male Academy at Lincolnton, North Carolina, and his collegiate course was taken in Emory and Henry College in Virginia, from which he was graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree. The college later conferred up on him the Master of Arts degree, not merely "in course", but because of his higher attainments in literature.

After graduation Brown engaged for a time in teaching. He first took charge of Jefferson Male Academy in Blountville, Tennessee, which he held for five or six years until he accepted a professorship in Greenville College in Tennessee. At the end of two years he resigned his position in this institution and took charge of the academic department of Jefferson Male Academy, which, in the meantime, had been rebuilt and enlarged, and had had the sphere of its operations and usefulness greatly enlarged and otherwise improved. He held this position until the outbreak of the American Civil War. During this time he was offered a professorship in one college and the presidency of another, both of which he declined. He is regarded as an accomplished scholar and one of the best educators in the country.

He first married Julian Teeter, daughter of Jacob and Sophie (Speece) Teeters. However, she only lived one year into the marriage. After her death, he married her sister Emily Teeter in 1842.^[1] Their son, Charles Augustus Brown, was a lawyer, and his grandson, Joseph K. Brown, was a prominent attorney in Bristol, Tennessee.

In 1836, at age 19, Brown was ordained to the work or the ministry as a deacon in the Evangelical Lutheran Tennessee Synod and devoted his time and studies for six years exclusively to this work. In 1837, he was ordained as a pastor in the same body. He was elected secretary of the synod six times as recorded in the synod's minutes, and president in 1854 and 1858. His work during this time was principally in North Carolina, although he did a good deal of preaching in other states, particularly in South Carolina. While engaged in teaching, he preached regularly in the places of his location. His services were, however, for the most part, rendered gratuitously. In 1858, he took charge of Immanuel and Buehler's congregations in Sullivan County, Tennessee, which he retained until his death in 1894. He owned property directly to the east of John B. Hamilton's Farm,^[2] (which had been owned by the Snapp family) just west of Blountville.

Brown was voted president and secretary of the Tennessee Synod often at its conventions.

In 1861, he was instrumental in the organization of the Evangelical Lutheran Holston Synod of Tennessee, which separated from the Tennessee Synod due to difficulties in travel to synod conventions. He said in his 1886 discourse on the Holston Synod's founding,

La retirada de los luteranos del este de Tennessee del Sínodo de Tennessee no fue una decisión precipitada ni impulsiva, sino fruto de una larga y deliberada reflexión y oración. Tampoco se tomó por insatisfacción con la postura doctrinal del Sínodo, ni por dificultades personales con alguno de sus miembros, ni para lograr fines egoístas o siniestros; sino únicamente porque se creía que el interés superior de la Iglesia Luterana en el este de Tennessee exigía imperativamente la formación de un Sínodo independiente dentro de sus límites. Entre las razones aducidas por los solicitantes para la medida que propusieron, se encontraban la inconveniencia y el elevado coste de asistir a las convenciones anuales del Sínodo cuando se reunía en otro estado, lo que ocurría aquí cada cuatro años; la pérdida para la comunidad de cualquier ventaja que pudiera resultar de la reunión anual del Sínodo en su territorio; y la lentitud del proceso para introducir cualquier medida en beneficio de la Iglesia, debido a que el Sínodo estaba disperso en un territorio tan extenso que resultaba difícil reunir a todos sus miembros en la medida necesaria para la adopción de nuevas normas. de ninguna medida importante; y porque todos los asuntos tratados por el Sínodo podrían ser tratados igualmente bien por el nuevo Sínodo contemplado, como podría hacerse en el Sínodo de Tennessee." ^{[ 3 ]}

Brown fue un líder destacado en el Sínodo de Holston, tanto como lo había sido en el Sínodo de Tennessee, o incluso más. La ratificación del Sínodo de Holston tuvo lugar en su congregación, Immanuel, en 1865. Brown impulsó la educación en el Sínodo de Holston; sin embargo, debido a dificultades económicas, el Colegio Sindical de Holston tuvo una corta duración. Brown ocupó los cargos de presidente y secretario del Sínodo durante varios mandatos.

En años anteriores, Brown tuvo un papel muy destacado y activo en las controversias que entonces agitaban a la Iglesia Luterana del Sur. Su obra "Vindicación del Sínodo Evangélico de Tennessee", publicada en 1838, fue una respuesta a un sermón del reverendo John Bachman . Siendo aún joven, escribió artículos para el Lutheran Observer sobre la Cena del Señor. Sus opiniones fueron criticadas por el editor, el Dr. Kurtz. ^{[ 4 ]}

Through his life he wrote much for the Lutheran Observer, the Lutheran Standard, Our Church Paper (from Henkel Press, a southern Lutheran publisher), and literary magazines, besides publishing sermons and essays in separate form. Twice he was elected president of North Carolina college, but declined. He also declined editorship of the Lutheran Standard in Ohio. In later years he was a regular contributor to the Lutheran, the Lutheran Home, and wrote one article for the Lutheran Quarterly. In consideration of his literary and theological attainments, Roanoke College, in 1873, conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Divinity. In 1876 and 1877 he served as the Holston Synod's representative at the meeting of the Lutheran General Council. Charles Porterfield Krauth of the General Council would later describe Brown as the leading proponent for historic Lutheranism in the South.

In 1884, Brown took a leading part in the formation of the United Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the South and was president of the Diet of Salisbury at which it was formed. He then served as president of the new synod. In this union he saw Southern Lutheranism as accepting the Lutheran identity he has fought for as a young man.

In 1886, the 50th anniversary of his ordination (as a deacon, not his pastoral ordination), eight years before his death, the synod presented him with a parchment containing the following:

"To Our Senior Pastor and President of the Evangelical Lutheran Holston Synod the Rev. Abel J. Brown, Doctor of Divinity At the Fiftieth Anniversary of his Ordination to the Holy Office of the Gospel Ministry, and the Twenty-Fifth Annual Convention of our Synod, which he helped to organize and of which he has ever been a faithful and zealous member, we his brethren and friends present this token of our affection and esteem, praying God and our Lord Jesus Christ for His richest blessing upon him. Given this fourteenth day of August, 1886, at Immanuel Church, Sullivan County, Tennessee. – The Synod."^[5]

Until his last days, he was still actively engaged in the ministry, and preached every Sunday with as much ease as ever. On July 17, 1894, he was preaching "Nightless Day in the Home of the Blest" for a funeral at Buehler's Church. He suddenly collapsed and died shortly afterwards. He is buried in Blountville, Tennessee.

• Sermón sinodal  : la perfección del plan de salvación humana de Dios (New Market [Virginia]  : Henkel, [1893])
• Retrato del luteranismo en sus principios fundamentales  y algunas de sus características doctrinales distintivas  : sermón predicado en la dedicación de la Iglesia Luterana de Santa María, Condado de Monroe, Tennessee, 26 de octubre de 1879 (Bristol, Tennessee  : Impreso en la oficina del "Daily Argus", 1880).
• Día sin noche en el hogar de los bienaventurados  : sermón, pronunciado en parte en la iglesia de Weaver, condado de Sullivan, Tennessee, el domingo por la mañana, 3 de junio de 1894 (New Market [Virginia]  : Henkel, 1894).
• La Iglesia Luterana construida sobre el único fundamento verdadero (Filadelfia : Librería  Luterana , [1870?])
• La importancia de la verdad divina en su integridad y pureza.
• La fórmula divina para la administración de la Cena del Señor  : sermón pronunciado en las iglesias de Immanuel y Buehler, condado de Sullivan, Tennessee, en abril de 1883 (Bristol [Tenn.]  : JL King, 1883).
• El conflicto y la corona  : junto con un homenaje de respeto al difunto reverendo Alfred J. Fox, MD, pronunciado en la iglesia Salem, condado de Cocke, Tennessee, el 7 de junio de 1885 (Filadelfia  : Lutheran Publication Society, 1885).
• El ministro cristiano delineó la influencia moral ejercida después de la muerte  : sermón con motivo de la muerte del reverendo Adam Miller, padre, pronunciado en las iglesias de Poor Valley y Zion, condado de Washington, Virginia, agosto de 1844 (Knoxville  : Brownlow & Haws, 1867).
• Una vindicación del Sínodo Evangélico Luterano de Tennessee, sobre la doctrina y la disciplina de la Iglesia Evangélica Luterana (Salem, [Tenn.?]: Blum & Son, 1838) en libros raros en la Universidad de Tennessee.
• Numerosas cartas al editor y artículos de opinión en Our Church Paper , una publicación semanal luterana de Henkel Press en New Market, VA , que se publicó desde 1873 hasta 1904, cuando se fusionó con The Lutheran Visitor para convertirse en Lutheran Church Visitor .

Varias de las frases anteriores se han extraído textualmente de estas obras.

• JC Jensson. Biografías luteranas estadounidenses (Milwaukee: A. Houtkamp & Son, 1890) págs  .
• Enciclopedia Luterana (St. Louis: Concordia Pub. House, 1975) bajo "Brown, Abel J."
• CW Cassell, WJ Finck y Elon O. Henkel, eds. Historia de la Iglesia Luterana en Virginia y el este de Tennessee (Strasburg, VA: Shenandoah Publishing House, 1930).
• Bosquejos biográficos de ministros luteranos: Sínodos de Carolina del Norte y Tennessee 1773-1965 , Sínodo de Carolina del Norte de la Iglesia Luterana en América, 1966, pág.  30
• Our Church Paper (New Market, condado de Shenandoah, Virginia: Henkel & Calvert, 1873–1904). Periódico semanal para luteranos del sureste, que contenía numerosos editoriales y sermones de Brown.
• Oliver Taylor. Historic Sullivan; A History of Sullivan County, Tennessee, with Brief Biographies of the Makers of History (Bristol, Tenn: King Print. Co, 1909) bajo "Abel J. Brown" en la sección de Biografías.
• Historia del condado de Sullivan según Goodspeed
• La Comisión Histórica del Condado de Sullivan y Asociados. Sitios Históricos del Condado de Sullivan. Compilado por la Sra. Muriel C. Spoon (Kingsport 1976), págs.  21, 116–17, 133, 142, 225.
• Actas del Consejo General Luterano, 1874–1886.

• Biografía de Abel J. Brown