Albert Gallatin Browne Sr.

Birth: December 8, 1805, Salem, MA

Death: October 9, 1885, Salem, MA

Parents:

• ‍Father: James Browne
• Mother: Lydia Vincent Browne

Burial Location: Jessamine Path, Lot 755, Grave 5

Albert Gallatin Browne followed in his ancestors’ footsteps, like them, he worked in the making of cordage and supplies for ships. By 1836, he had his own business “Albert G. Browne and Co.,” located at 110 Derby Street in Salem, “next door east of the Custom House”. Later he also started a business in Boston.

Early in his career, he made business trips and kept diaries to document them. He traveled to New Orleans in 1838. He then traveled north to Cincinnati. He saw slavery in practice and was shocked by that, as well as by the drinking and gambling he also saw. He saw the remains of several steamboats that had exploded and commented that it was safer to travel across the Atlantic Ocean, then to go from New Orleans to Cincinnati.

Another trip in 1842, took him to Washington DC., where he met Daniel Webster and President John Tyler. From there he went to Missouri, where he met with Native Americans, visited hemp growing farms, and saw wagon trains headed west.

Returning home, he joined the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanics Association, and was a member of the Governor’s Council, he also joined the Emancipation League, and was a founder of the Liberty Party. He was a member of the Barton Square Independent Congregational Church. Later he and his wife joined the Unitarian North Church. His children inherited his energy for abolition of slavery.

During the Civil War he left his business, having received an appointment as Supervising Special Agent of the US Treasury Department. His assignment took him to the coast of South Carolina, which was occupied by Union troops. He was ordered to take charge of captured and abandoned Confederate property (mainly cotton) and supervise its shipment north. During the three years he served in this position, he lived in Beaufort South Carolina and later in Savannah, Georgia.

Albert Gallatin Browne (also known as AGB), caught malaria and returned to Salem in October 1866 to recover. During this time, his son Albert Gallatin Junior took over his father’s duties. For the rest of his life the senior Browne suffered from the effects of malaria. He also suffered from the fact that the US government never sufficiently compensated him for his service.

General William Tecumseh Sherman wrote in his memoirs that “AGB” suggested to him that Sherman send President Lincoln “as a Christmas gift, the city of Savannah, with one hundred and fifty heavy guns, and plenty of ammunition, also about twenty-five thousand bales of cotton.

Sources Consulted:

• Findagrave.com: findagrave.com/memorial/217513070/albert-gallatin-browne
• Massachusetts Historical Society: Albert Gallatin Browne Papers Guide to the Collection: Biographical Sketch.
• Steve Chamberlin.com/family/public/albert-gallatin-browne-551

Photo Credit

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