Catharine Brown

vers 1800-1823 19th century

To know oneself small, and to want to carry one's own people anyway.

Who was Catharine Brown?

A Cherokee from Alabama, she entered the Brainerd mission school at eighteen and learned to read and write within months. She became a schoolteacher in her own nation, taught Cherokee children, and wrote urgent letters to her family. She died of tuberculosis at twenty-three; her letters and diary were published two years later.

In their own words

I will go wherever the Saviour calls me. I know he will be on my right hand.

Diary, 30 May 1820, in Memoir of Catharine Brown, 1825

O how much I need wisdom from God. I am a child. I can do nothing.

Diary, 5 June 1820, in Memoir of Catharine Brown, 1825

Let us only, my dear brother, put our whole trust in God, and be humble at the feet of Jesus.

Letter to her brother David, 16 May 1820, in Memoir of Catharine Brown, 1825

His ways are best, and he has graciously promised that all things shall work together for good.

Letter to Mrs Chamberlain, 12 December 1818, in Memoir of Catharine Brown, 1825