To: Neill Brown, Esq.

Robeson County, North Carolina

Maury County, West Tenn., April, 28, 1820

Dear Brother,

In a letter lately received from Brother William, I am charged with negligence for not writing. I plead guilty, and believe the charge will lie fully against you, nor do I know of any circumstance to alleviate or extenuate it. As I have passed through the world I have met with men who being asked if they were related to such a person of the same name, have answered they knew not. This has frequently made me resolve that I would never forget my relations nor be a stranger to them. But living at the distance we do from each other, our children will scarcely know each other's names, unless we frequently correspond and mention family circumstances.

God has been pleased to bless us with nine children: Mary Elizabeth, Martha Frierson, Anna Eikner, David Caldwell, William Tennent, Jane Catherine, Susanna Agnes, Robert Frierson, and a little son four weeks old not yet named. How important is the charge of a family! O for Grace to enable me not to provoke them, but to train them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord!

Dear Brother, in my meditations, I sometimes find myself at your house and Brother William's telling and hearing the kind Providences of God toward us. We go to Philadelphus and Center, preaching and hearing, administering and receiving ordinances. Jesus by the sweet and powerful influence of his Holy Spirit is present. Hundreds of my old acquaintances present, visiting with each other in love, gratitude and praise to King Jesus. O how pleasant the scene! For a whole week after such meditations, I am every day resolving that if my life is spared, I will pay you one visit more. But the Omnipotent God alone knows.

Should your Sacrament be at Philadelphus the first Sabbath in June, as usual, you will probably then receive this letter. Tell my dear Brethren in the ministry that though absent in body, I will think of them that day and try to pray for them. Tell them, and forget not yourself, to remember me and my dear congregations in West Tennessee. O Brother! When I remember that I am in my forty-ninth year, and you much older, how soon will we meet at the feet of Jesus, no more to part! Sweet thought! O glorious plan of Salvation! What songs! What shouts! What Hallelujahs to a Triune God forever!

Susanna and the children join in love to you and family and all our friends.

From your affectionate brother,

Duncan Brown

Original: Neill Brown Collection #702, Perkins Library, Duke University

Transcribed by Bradley M. Buie, January 2000