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Charles Farrar Browne (1834–1867) grew up with a humorous streak a mile long. Known for pranks and rambunctiousness, his over-the-top efforts to make people laugh remained his guiding principle.
Born in Waterford, Maine, Browne claimed to be a descendant of the Puritans. When asked from where the lineage of the Brownes originated, he answered in his typical humorous fashion, “I think we came from Jerusalem, for my father’s name was Levi and we had a Moses and a Nathan in the family, but my poor brother’s name was Cyrus; so, perhaps, that makes us Persians.”
The Printer’s Devil
His father, Levi, was a surveyor and also a justice of the peace. Browne’s life, however, took a dreadful turn at the age of 13 when his father died. He was ushered off to Lancaster, New Hampshire, to learn the printing trade. He became a printer’s apprentice, also known as a printer’s devil, for the Weekly Democrat. It was obvious that despite hard times, he had not lost his sense of humor. After about a year at the Lancaster paper, he and several other printer’s devils had become too unruly and were sent back home.
Dustin Bass is the creator and host of the “American Tales” podcast and cofounder of “The Sons of History.” He writes two weekly series for The Epoch Times: Profiles in History and This Week in History. He is also an author.
