Anson Brown

Anson Brown (1800 – June 14, 1840) was a United States Representative from New York and an early nineteenth-century lawyer and banker in Saratoga County. He was born in 1800 in Charlton, New York, a rural community in what was then a developing region of the state. He attended the local public schools, receiving a basic education typical of the period, which prepared him for advanced study at a time when formal schooling beyond the primary level was still relatively uncommon.

Brown pursued higher education at Union College in Schenectady, New York, one of the leading institutions of higher learning in the state. He graduated from Union College in 1819, entering adult life at the close of the second decade of the nineteenth century, when New York was rapidly expanding in population and economic activity. His collegiate education placed him among the better-educated young men of his generation and provided the foundation for his subsequent legal and professional career.

After completing his studies, Brown read law in the customary manner of the era and was admitted to the bar. He commenced the practice of law in Ballston Spa, New York, the county seat of Saratoga County, which was emerging as a local center of commerce and government. As a practicing attorney, he became part of the professional and civic life of the community, representing clients and participating in the legal affairs of the region. His standing in Ballston Spa was further enhanced by his involvement in local financial institutions at a time when banking was becoming increasingly important to the economic development of upstate New York.

In 1830, Brown was named one of the first directors of the Ballston Spa State Bank, later known as the Ballston Spa National Bank. His role as an original director of this newly organized bank reflected both his prominence in the community and his engagement with the broader economic growth of the area. The establishment of the bank coincided with a period of expanding internal improvements, commerce, and industry in New York, and Brown’s participation in its governance placed him at the intersection of law, finance, and local development.

Brown entered national politics as a member of the Whig Party, which had formed in opposition to the policies of President Andrew Jackson and advocated for a stronger role for Congress, internal improvements, and a more active federal economic policy. He was elected as a Whig to the Twenty-sixth Congress, representing a New York district in the U.S. House of Representatives. He took his seat on March 4, 1839, joining Congress during a period marked by continuing debate over banking policy, the aftermath of the Panic of 1837, and sectional tensions that would later intensify in the decades before the Civil War.

Anson Brown’s service in Congress was cut short by his untimely death while still in office. He died in Ballston Spa, New York, on June 14, 1840, during his first term in the House of Representatives. As a member of the Twenty-sixth Congress who died before completing his service, he is included in the historical lists of members of the United States Congress who died in office between 1790 and 1899. Brown was interred in the cemetery of the Ballston Spa Cemetery Association in Ballston Spa, where his burial reflected his close identification with the community in which he had practiced law, helped organize a local bank, and maintained his residence throughout his public career.