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Henry French Brown.
Private 2d New Hampshire Vols. (Infantry), September 5, 1862; died at Boston, March 3, 1863, of disease contracted in the service.Henry French Brown was born in Dedham, Massachusetts, in March, 1840. Nothing is known of his parentage or childhood, but on the 5th of January, 1850, at the age of ten years, he was admitted into the ‘Farm School for Indigent Boys,’ in Boston Harbor. He was then an orphan, and was admitted on application of an elder brother. He remained there for three years, during which time he sustained a good character, and was one of the best scholars in the school. When twelve years of age he wrote a school composition which attracted the attention of the well-known Boston philanthropist, Deacon Grant, who caused it to be printed for distribution among the pupils of the school. In 1860, a little pamphlet was published, entitled ‘A Brief Notice of the Five Browns, Graduates of the Boys' Asylum and Farm School; all bearing the Name of Brown and all from different Families.’ Five lines of this pamphlet are devoted to Henry French Brown, and he is described as ‘a good scholar, more fond of books than play.’ He was discharged from the Farm School on the 18th of May, 1853, and went to New York with his former teacher, Mr. John A. Lamprey, to be employed in an insurance office. This did not last long, for some reason, and he was then taken by another teacher, Mr. Eben Sperry French, who removed him to his own home at North Hampton, New Hampshire, and made him a member of Exeter Academy. He entered the Academy at the age of fourteen, August 23, 1854, and remained there until his admission to the Sophomore Class at Cambridge, in 1860. Of his standing in the Academy the following statement is given by the principal, Gideon L. Soule, Esq.:—
