ORLAND JONAS BROWN, M. D. – Since 1870, Dr. Orland Jonas Brown has been steadily practicing his profession in North Adams, and his activities in the service of community, commonwealth and nation have created a debt of gratitude that they have been repaying in the honored esteem in which he is held. He has served his community as a health officer, his State in its Legislature, and as a surgeon in its militia, from which, after twenty years service he was retired with the rank of lieutenant-colonel, and his long record is one of honor and brilliance in service.
Dr. Orland Jonas Brown was born February 2, 1848, at Whitingham, Vermont, son of Harvey Brown, Esq., and Lucina (Fuller) Brown. His father, who was a farmer, was a teacher in the public schools for eighteen consecutive winters, and also held many offices of trust in the farming community where he lived, at Whitingham, Windham County, Vermont, being selectman, overseer of the poor, etc., and representing his town in the Vermont Legislature for two terms. He was popularly known as Harvey Brown, Esq. Dr. Brown received his education in the public schools of his native town, and then spent two terms at Powers’ Institute, Bernardston, Massachusetts. He commenced teaching in the public schools at the age of sixteen years, making a success of the pursuit, and earning sufficient money to pay for his educational expenses. In 1866 he commenced the study of medicine with Dr. J. L. Harrington, at Halifax, Vermont, and then took the full courses of lectures at Bellevue Hospital Medical College, New York, and at the University of Vermont, where he was graduated in 1870, and followed this by taking another year’s study in New York before opening his offices for practice. He later took special courses at Rush Medical College, Chicago, Illinois, and a full post-graduate course at the New York Post Graduate Medical School, from which he was graduated in 1895. Dr. Brown has been very progressive, and has kept abreast of the times in the rapid strides that medicine and surgery have taken in the last half century. During all this period, since opening his offices, he has steadily worked and persevered at his practice, and he has won a splendid clientele, and a substantial success in his profession. He took two trips with the Raymond & Whitcomb Touring Company through old Mexico as their attending surgeon. He has been active in the civic life of his community, and is one of the corporators of the North Adams Savings Bank He is a Republican in his politics, and served as a member of the Massachusetts State Legislature for the year 1889. He has also given service on the committee on public health; was a commissioned medical officer in the Massachusetts State Militia for a period of twenty years, and wax retired with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. He has been one of the State medical examiners for Berkshire County for the past forty-two years (1924); and was a member of the North Adams Board of Health for many years. While in the 2d Regiment Massachusetts Infantry, Dr. Brown served first as assistant surgeon and then as surgeon, being retired as above stated with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. He is a member of the Masonic order, belonging to Lafayette Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons; he also belongs to the Knights of Honor. He has been a deacon in the Universalist Church at North Adams for the past forty years, and superintendent of the Sunday school for a period of twenty-six years. He is a member of the Massachusetts State Medical Society; the Massachusetts Medico-Legal Society; American Medical Association; Association of Military Surgeons of the United States; Medical Association of Northern Berkshire; ex-president of the Berkshire District Medical Society; and he was a member of the House of Delegates of the American Medical Association for several years. He is on the board of directors for the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, and for years served as a member of the North Adams Board of Trade, and belongs to the Berkshire Historical Society.
Dr. Orland Jonas Brown married (first), November 22, 1871, Eva Hodskins, daughter of Sheriff William and Amelia (Blakeslee) Hodskins, of North Adams. She died October 14, 1873, leaving a son, William Orland, who died at the age of eighteen years. Dr. Brown married (second), September 13, 1876, Ida M. Haskins, daughter of Homer and Martha (Phelps) Haskins. She died in 1881, leaving two daughters, Agnes O. and Ida M., the latter dying in infancy. Dr. Brown married (third), December 16, 1884, Alice T. Stowell, daughter of Edward and Celestia (Stevens) Stowell. Dr. and Mrs. Brown adopted, in his infancy, a son, Alfred Goodwin Brown, born December 11, 1897.