Obadiah Bruen Brown

Raised a Presbyterian, Brown started attending the Baptist Church when it was organized in Newark.

At age 24, he joined this church and soon the members of the congregation began encouraging him to enter the ministry.

William Van Horn, pastor of the most prominent Baptist church in the New Jersey-New York area.

He became the fiscal agent representing several Congressmen in Washington during the months they returned to their home states.

At the encouragement of President James Monroe, Brown was among a group of Baptist leaders who created the Columbian College, which decades later became the George Washington University.