Orvon Graff Brown

As printed in 1897

ORVON GRAFF BROWN, president of Twin Valley college and Miami Military institute, Germantown, Ohio, was, at the time of his election, the youngest college president in the country. He was born in Greensburg, Westmoreland county, Penn., July 1, 1863, within sound of the cannons at Gettysburg. His father, Rev. W. Kennedy Brown, D. D., of Fayette county, Penn., is a descendant of the Chester county (Penn.) George Brown (Gentleman), of colonial times. His grandmother Brown is a lineal descendant of Adam de Saltsburg, of Bavaria, who joined with William the Conqueror at the battle of Hastings. His mother, Martha Mc- Clellan Brown, LL. D., of Baltimore, Md., is a direct descendant of the Scotch Clan Mc- Clellan. She founded the National Woman’s

Christian Temperance union at Chautauqua, in August, 1874 — a movement of historic interest and moment. Orvon Graff Brown was well taught at an early age, although he was not placed in school until nine years old. At thirteen he began to evince a decided talent for scientific experiment, and to take great interest in collecting in his own room practical appliances in chemistry, physics and electricity. His parents encouraged his tastes, giving him, in succession, the advantages of Mount Union college; special school, Pittsburg; university of Cincinnati; and Denver university, as well as private instructions under specialists in the east. At the age of nineteen he was elected professor of science in the Cincinnati Wesleyan college, where he made a successful record as instructor, and as inventor of apparatus for class experiments. He had always taken great interest in the sciences of geology and conchology, and made at this time a very large and valuable collection of specimens. When about twenty-two years of age he projected the Twin Valley college (so named from its location in the Twin valley, an arm of the Miami valley), and on February 4, 1886, five months after his twenty-third birthday, he was elected its president, which position he still holds.

In January, 1894, Prof. Brown organized the Miami Military institute, as a preparatory school of Twin Valley college. This school practically demonstrates his theory that individual instruction is essential to the building of manhood. Class-work and group instructions are necessarily mechanical and inefficient. No two students’ powers are alike and like results should not be sought from diverse powers or gifts. He recognizes four sides to every many structure, the moral, physician, mental and social; and erecting these according to their original strength, he develops a scientific manhood. Like a scientific work, his method appeals to common sense. Hence his experiment, which has been so successful, is now being adopted by other teachers and schools. This method, however, cannot be applied in very large schools, as in them it is manifestly impossible to study each student separately and to cultivate him personally — and the ultimate personality is the measure of his individual manhood.

Prof. Brown married, April 5, 1887, Miss Lulu Reed, of Germantown, Ohio. She is a granddaughter of the late Samuel Reed, a pioneer of Montgomery county, and through her mother (Martha Zeller) she is a lineal descendant of Capt. John C. Negley, and also of Bishop Andrew Zeller (of the United Brethren church), both of whom have contributed to the history of Montgomery county. The children of Orvon Graff Brown and wife are Reed McClellan (born January 28, 1888), Samuel Kennedy (born December 2, 1890), and Mildred (born May 28, 1894).

Prof. Brown is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church and has served as an official member and lay delegate to the annual and the lay conferences of his denomination ever since he has resided in the community.

As printed in Centennial portrait and biographical record of the city of Dayton and of Montgomery County, Ohio, containing biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens, together with the biographi (1897). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.