Brown, Olympia, 1835-1926

Olympia Brown's parents, Lephia Olympia (Brown) and Asa B. Brown, moved from Vermont to Michigan the year before she was born. OB received her early education at local schools and spent the 1854-1855 academic year at Mount Holyoke Female Seminary in Massachusetts. She graduated from Antioch College (1860) and the St. Lawrence University Theological School (Canton, New York) in 1863. That same year she was ordained by the St. Lawrence Association of Universalists in Malone, New York. During the summer of 1863 she preached in Vermont and on July 8, 1864, she was installed as pastor of the First Universalist Society in Weymouth, Massachusetts. Subsequently she served in pastorates at Bridgeport, Connecticut (1870-1876), and Racine, Wisconsin (1878-1887), and as a non-resident preacher in several other Wisconsin parishes. OB's religious views were tolerant and liberal. She was opposed to the stern, orthodox teachings she first encountered at Mount Holyoke Seminary and believed "there was no such thing as everlasting punishment..." (An Autobiography, #2). An advocate of elocution lessons, she studied under T.F. Leonard and James J. Vance (see Index) and in time became an extremely effective extemporaneous speaker.

It was in Weymouth that OB met John Henry Willis, a trustee of the church. They were married in 1873 and had two children. OB never used her husband's name and was known as Reverend Olympia Brown throughout her life.

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