Meshach Browning (1781-1859)
MSA SC 3520-13726
Biography:
Born 1781 in Frederick County, Maryland. Son of Joshua and Nancy Browning. Married first wife Mary McMullen (d. 1839) on April 30, 1799; eleven children were Dorcas (b. 1800, m. Joseph Kelly), Rachael (b. 1802, m. Joseph Friend), William (b. 1804, m. Elizabeth Drane, Anne DeWitt), John (b. 1809, m. Maria Thayer), James (b. 1811, m. Ismene Barnard), Nancy (b. 1812, m. Dominic Mattingly, John Kitzmiller), Allen (b. 1814, m. Hanah Kirkpatrick), Thomas (b. 1816, m. Susan DeWitt), Jane (b. 1817, m. Joab Browning), Jeremiah (b. 1819, m. Mary M. Dick), and Sally (b. 1821, m. Adam Nethkin). Married second wife Mary M. Smith (d. 1857) at Cumberland, April 23, 1841; no children. Resided at Sang Run, Garrett County, Maryland. Died of pneumonia in Johnstown, Allegany (now Garrett) County, November 19, 1859. Buried at Hoyes Catholic cemetery, Garrett County.
The youngest of four children born to Joshua and Nancy Browning, Meshach Browning is considered by many to be the greatest hunter in Maryland's history. Following the death of Joshua just two weeks after the birth of Meshach, Nancy Browning moved her young family from Frederick County to the unsettled land of Allegany County. Here, Browning lived with his aunt and uncle, Mr. and Mrs. John Spurgin. Browning recalled his accounts in his autobiography, Forty-Four Years of The Life of A Hunter, published just before his death in 1859. Although Browning only attended school for one term, he penned the book himself with turkey quills, gathered for him by his grandchildren. Browning estimates that during his career he killed "from 1800 to 2000 deer, from 300 to 400 bears, and about 50 panthers and catamounts, with scores of wolves and wildcats."1
In 1799, at the age of 18, Meshach married Mary McMullen in Pennsylvania. The couple settled in Blooming Rose, Allegany County, Maryland, and a year later Mary gave birth to their first child, a daughter named Dorcas. Over the next twenty years, the couple had five more daughters, and five sons. By the time of his death in 1859, Browning had 122 descendants.2 Around 1836, Mary was thrown from a horse and severely injured. She remained an invalid until her death on January 29, 1839. Browning married his second wife, a widow, Mary M. Smith, on April 23, 1841 in Cumberland. The couple lived together at Sang Run until Mary's death in 1857.
Browing purchased a 75-acre military lot at Sang Run from Dr. Brooker in 1806, and began construction of a homestead. He added a mill to the property in 1826, which operated until 1892. In 1856, Browning sold his homestead at Sang Run to his eldest son, William. The property consisted of 200 acres, a mill, and a homestead.3 During his lifetime, Browning helped settle Allegany County, by patenting numerous tracts of land.
Browning had a brief military career during the War of 1812, serving in the Maryland Militia, at first as a sergeant at Shelby's Port, and then as a captain. He never saw combat, refusing to march to the front line, before heading home to Sang Run. His father, Joshua, and grandfather, William, had served in the British Army under General Braddock during the French and Indian War. A Democrat, Browning served as Justice of the Peace at Sang Run, and in 1847 ran for the Maryland House of Delegates. He lost the election to John Galloway Lynn by two hundred votes.4
Raised a Protestant, Browning converted to Catholicism with his first
wife. He died of pneumonia in Johnstown, Allegany (now Garrett) County
on November 19, 1859. He is buried with both of his wives at Hoyes
Catholic Cemetery, Hoyes, Maryland.
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1. Charles E. Hoye, Garrett County History of the Browning and McMullen Families (Reprint, the Mountain Democrat, May-June 1935), 7.
2. J. Thomas Scharf, History of Western Maryland (Philadelphia: Louis H. Everts, 1882), 1453 .
3. Maryland State Archives ALLEGANY COUNTY REGISTER OF WILLS (Inventories) Volume O pp. 274a-276b [MSA C20, 1-1-3-3].
4. Hoye's Pioneer Families of Garrett County (Parsons, WV: McClain Printing Company, 1988), 106-107 .
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