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Brown, Courtland S.
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BIOGRAPHICAL BLANK FOR THE DETROIT CONFERENCE HISTORICP~
Trin1ty Meth odist Church
When filled in please return to .1 •
N&me in
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Birth:
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somlETY
13100 Woodward, Highland Park,
Mlchigen.
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Personal Appearance
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Family Background:
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Date of Birth
2. Mother's Maiden
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6. Note disttngni5hed services for which any brothers or s isters are known:
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PEROONAL H]STORY
1. Education:
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18. Biographical comments, experiences, episodes _ _
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19. Can you g ive on a separate paper one or t wo or three dramatia incidents
occurring during your ministry which might be published in a book und er such
a title a s "Highlights of Methodis t Ministers"?
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20 . If the subject of t his sketch is deceased , please give
Dat e of deat h
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Nemes of Off i ci&ting Ministers:_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __
C. S. BROWN . P AS TO R
31Iarri.sttillr. ilir~igan
Jan 25, 1944
J.A. Halmhuber
Trinity Methodist Church .
Highland Park, Mich.
Dear Brother Halmhuber:
I wish I had kept a diar,y of these twenty-eight seeminglY uneventfUl
years on this one little charge 11 Up in the Sticks", as our editor Peek
termed it. ( R~. Prescott died this fall. Was a regular contributer
to the Detroit Free Press.)
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When I started in on this charge the roads were most~ sanqy trails
through the plainsJwhich I wound around among1 in a second-hand 1915
model T Ford. No spare tires then and we had to get out and patch them
by band in the rain, snow, zero weather, mud or tropical sun. Poor car,
poor tires and tubes, poor roads and poor preacher. Those were the good
old days.(? 1Twenty-eight years have brought many changes, and we now travel
over good gravel or hard surfaced roads in a good dependable Dodge which
at present has over 112,000 miles registered on the speedometer and is
still going strong. Our out-appointments have always been 25 or 30 miles
distant, and in travelling to and from our work we have travelled enough
to have gone around the world many times and might have seen fresh scenes,
gathered thrilling experiences and some polish, but here we are.
For many years I have been the only Methodist preacher in the county, and
at present the only protestant minister in the town. The funerals ! have
conducted and the marriages solemnized would fill a good sized book. I
have recent~ started to marry the second generation of parents I married
at the beginning of my ministry. This I consider one of the greatest rewards of a long pastorate and has given me the grea test thrill. When I
have to lay away any of my folks, I am one of the chief mourners as I have
known them so long and know all their fami~ history.
One of the highlights to which I look back with joy and pride is a three
weeks series of meetings in which I preached every night and added 44
to t~--~hurch membership at Glennie. I am glad to say that there has
been -.-yearsthat som·e have not been added to the church. At present
we are suffering from the great influx to the cities fram our smalle~
town~ and it is leaving our leadership much depleted.
But I feel sure
tber~ · w111 be a swing back after the war.
There is something in this
north country that gets in your blood and if you have lived here long
enough, you always come back. There is an old saying that if you get
one drink out of the AuSable River you will always come back. I guess
that is what is the matter with me.
I wish to add this concerning Mrs. Brown, who through all tbe years
has been a real pal and a faithful servant, going with me to all mf
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C . 5 . B R OW N . PAST OR
JJlarrisuillr, !iiiir4igan
services and helping with the music a s well as the flat tires and
boiling radiators . She is a cultured, well trained musician and
has taught music continuously for over thirty years . Hundreds of
young people in this north country have received musical instruction
who never would have bad the opportunity had it not been for her
long residence here.
We have never received a large sa lary, but we have never lacked for
any comfort of life, and best of all, we feel that we have gotten
our pay out of our work/ rather than for it.
I expect to retire this spring; my health has been failing and I
would like
1 1 t freedom from the responsibility of the
work.
lff2
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Yours very
tru~,
• L•.
Preaches for ~f' cz..mily
..;HARRISVI~LE-The R
d CourUand Bro\i.-n,• pastor of tf~
V Methodist Eplsco1)al Church a6ct
f only mlnis tet· in the Detroit cCJnferen_ce who has :-et ••ed his first
' appomtment for 22 'Consecutive'
years, has preached th_,.¢ baccalaurea.te sermon for rthe~lasses in
whtch his two sons a.n,d his wife
· graduated from high school.
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Brown, a former sch~ol t eacher
~ame to Glennie ~0 fill, the pasto~
' tate in 1916 and nine~years a o
1 he moved here when HarrisviTie
was added to the Glennie circuit
He preached the baccalaureat~
sermon for his son Stanley .
1931, and another son Milto~ :~
1935. His ·wife, who 'was fot:ced
~0 ~ve up her education after
av g but one year in high
sc.hool, returned to her studies and
gzaduated from Harrisville H' h
School in 1937.
Then Mrs
tg
.
, . B rown
t oo k a b usme.ss
course in AI
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Courtland Bro wn
EV. COURTLAND BROWN died
J an: 1, 195:3, in General Hos pita l
Sag inaw, wher e h e was taken following
an automobile accident on Chris tmas
E ve. The accident occurred north of
Saginaw as he and Mrs. Brown were
driving from their home in Bay City t o
thei r son Stanley's home in Adrian to
spend the holidays.
Mrs. Brown suffered broken ribs and
face lacerations but is doing nicely at
the present writing.
Mr . Brown was born March 19, 1873,
in Millers burg, Ohio, one of four children, two brothers and a s ister. H e
moved to Glenni e, Michigan, about 1902
where he taught s chool for a few years
and then took over the pas torate of The
Methodist Church there which h e h eld
un til his retirement, making him · the
only minister in the Detroit Conference
holding one pastorate during his whoie
minis try.
In 1912 he married Erb~ 'fhom!\1! of
Glennie, whose father hllq been one of
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Mr Brown's Tll'Prlocesaor~ lll .'fhe Moth•
odfat Ohurdh tnoro,
In 1929 Harrisville was made a part
of the Glennie parish and the Browns
moved to the H a rrisville pars onage where
they lived until Mr. Brown's retirement
in 1944.
The fun eral services wer e held Monday, January 5 in the Harrisville Methodist Chur ch with Rev. Alfred P. Landon
dis trict superintendent officiating, assist ed ·by Rev. El'ftler Snyder and Rev.
George Burlew. Pallbear er s were the
foll owing minist ers : J ames Lees, Lloyd
Mcn·ill, T. Leonard Sanders, Joseph
Shaw, Cecil Scot t and Bertram McNally. Interment was at the Glennie cemet ery.
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Courtland Brown wa s loved and revered by all who knew him. A true
modern sa in t to whom all of life was
r eligious a nd all religion joyous.
Brown, Courtland S.