Phoebe Brown

Phoebe Hinsdale Brown (, Hinsdale; pen name, B.; May 1, 1783 – October 10, 1861) was one of the first notable American woman hymnwriters, and the first American woman to write a hymn of wide popularity, "I love to steal awhile away". Early years and education Phoebe (sometimes spelled, "Phebe") Hinsdale was born at Canaan, New York, May 1, 1783. Her parents had been attached to the Episcopal church. The father, George Hinsdale, was the reputed composer of the psalm-tune, "Hinsdale". He died when Brown was only ten months old, followed by the death of the widowed mother at the close of the next year. Her grandfather, Allen, took charge of the young orphan. Mr. and Mrs. Allen died when Brown was ten years old. She then moved to the home of her sister (at Claverack, New York), whose husband was the keeper of a county prison. Here, she remained for the next eight years, treated more as a servant than as a sister. Brown had no schooling during her first eighteen years, and was not even able to write her name. At the age of eighteen, she left her sister's home, and attended the district school at Claverack for three months, where she learned to write. In 1801, she went to live with the Whiting family in her native town, where she was treated as a daughter, and where, in the same year, she became a member of the Congregational church. Career In 1805, she married Timothy H. Brown, a house-painter of East Windsor, Connecticut. Two of her children were born in that town. After the Browns removed to Ellington, Connecticut, two more children were born to them. In Ellington, Brown became familiar with one of the Native Americans of the forest, still lingering in the East, of whom she gave an account in a Tract, called, "Poor Sarah, or the Indian Woman," published as Number 128, by the American Tract Society, New York.