Discover the Life and Work of Historian Douglas Summers Brown
In 1966, Jane Douglas Summers Brown (who went by Douglas Summers Brown for most of her life) wrote The Catawba Indians: People of the River, a history of the Catawba Indian Nation.
It’s her best-known book and remains, today, a valuable resource for people interested in early South Carolina Native American history. It’s worth consulting, along with more recent work by James Merrell and Thomas J. Blumer on that tribe.
But it’s not Catawba history that I want to shine light on today. It’s Brown.
Brown wrote at a time when there were few women historians. She wrote and published history books and articles for more than six decades. With stories from those who knew her, a little research, and the obituary she wrote herself, I’ll weave in some take-home messages with her inspiring story.
Explore the world at a young age.
She grew up in Abingdon, Virginia (population 2,500), and went to college, graduating from Mary Baldwin in 1923. There were only nine women in her graduating class. She said she studied math but that history was her passion.
Even more remarkable, she took a tour of Europe (as her sister had done two years earlier) and visited Scandinavia, Western Europe, and the British Isles before becoming a high school teacher in Virginia.
She had a college education, was well traveled, and lived away from home before she was married. She did this at a time when it was not fashionable or common to do.
When you have a passion for writing (in this case, history), you make it happen.
Brown married a Presbyterian pastor, Henry Dockery Brown Jr., had two children, did extensive volunteer work, began writing for Christian publications, and was heavily involved in church ministry. She held several leadership positions in Presbyterian synods.
But it was history that interested her the most.
Her husband’s career took them from Richmond to Lynchburg. She wrote her first book in 1936, the year she and her husband appear in this photo from Lynchburghistory.com. (Click on link to view.)
Brown drew praise for her “historical instinct,” her ability to “revive the past in its true proportions and colors, to see the people and events of bygone times as they really existed, and [to] bring them to life.” She wrote in a “vivid and fascinating style” and drew on “solid and reliable” research.
There would be additional moves to Rock Hill, South Carolina; to Waycross, Georgia; and to Emporia, Virginia, before returning, in retirement, to Lynchburg.
Despite the various demands on her schedule Brown wrote five history books, including what were then the definitive histories of Rock Hill and of the Catawba Indians. Researchers can consult Brown’s papers at the Rock Hill Library and the Library of Virginia, among other places.
One way to get involved with your community is through local history.
She was interested in southwest Virginia history like her father, Abington (Virginia) attorney Lewis Preston Summers (author of The Annals of Southwest Virginia, 1769–1800), and occasionally wrote about her native Washington County, but that wasn’t her main focus.
She immersed herself in the places she lived, joined historical societies and commissions, and wrote about those places.
While living in Rock Hill from 1947 to 1956, she wrote City without Cobwebs and began her extensive research on the Catawba Indians. She made numerous visits to the reservation and earned the trust of the Indians.
She was the first non-academic historian to receive a grant from the American Association for State and Local History. She also received a grant from the American Historical Association.
The Charlotte Observer called A City without Cobwebs “as readable as a long-awaited letter from home.”
Said historian Dr. Louise Pettus of The Catawba Indians: The People of the River, “It’s where you should start if you’re going to do anything on the Catawba Indians.”
In 1968, while living in Emporia, Virginia, she compiled an edited volume of historical sketches about the area.
To write great history, visit the places you’re writing about.
Pettus praised Brown for always going to visit the places she was writing about and interviewing the people there.
Brown understood the geography of the places she wrote about and tapped into local knowledge.
If there’s any way you can do boots-on-the-ground history, do it.
Local history tours can be fun.
When her grandson, Henry Brown IV, took her out for weekly drives through the country, she talked enthusiastically about history, pointing out and explaining local landmarks and historical events.
Exploring local history can be fun. Look for the uplifting, the upsetting, and the offbeat. Even better if you can tour with an expert!
Is there a historic home in your community that was a stop on the Underground Railroad? An old cemetery you can explore? A strange building you’ve always wondered about? Find out more from someone in your community who knows more or look it up on the internet and check it out for yourself.
You can be a writer at an advanced age.
Well into her nineties, Brown wrote a number of articles for history magazines such as Virginia Cavalcade, Sandlapper, and Lynch’s Ferry. She lived to age 104 (and a half)!
I’ve not only worked with clients in their twenties, forties, and sixties in recent months; several are in their seventies with no signs of slowing down.
Writing isn’t just for spring chickens.
Reaching out to seniors and authors can lead to pleasant surprises.
In the early 2000s, several journalists connected with Brown (who started going by her given name, Jane Douglas Summers Brown, in her eighties, because it sounded more feminine).
In 2006, a Mary Baldwin alumna interviewed Brown for an article in the Mary Baldwin Bulletin. Brown reflected warmly about her college years in the 1920s. The two alumnae were separated by eighty years but united over their appreciation for their MBC experience.
The long-time editor of the Rock Hill Herald, Terry Plumb purchased an original copy of City of Cobwebs fifty years after its publication. As it turns out, it was the signed copy Brown had given to her brother, folk musician Andrew Rowan Summers, in 1953.
Plumb sent 99-year-old Brown a new book on Rock Hill’s history. Brown returned him a handwritten thank you note and a letter reminiscing about the years she and her husband had lived in Rock Hill. Coincidentally, Plumb and his wife were living in the home once owned by the best friends of Henry Dockery Brown Jr. and Douglas Summers Brown!
Have a question for a senior about something they experienced long ago? Ask. Want to reach out to author? Go for it.
I hope this post will inspire others to share the story of Douglas Summers Brown.
I’ll be happy to send a selected bibliography of Brown’s works to anyone who requests it via the form on my Contact page. If anyone knows how to make a Wikipedia page for her, I encourage you to do so.
Brown’s daughter-in-law, Helen Brown, remembered her as “a very proper and old-fashioned minister’s wife” and as generous to those in need. She was. But she was more than that.
She was an inspired and inspiring historian of early Virginia and South Carolina who, without a PhD or formal training and despite a very busy schedule, wrote five highly regarded books and dozens of articles at a time when few women were able to do such things.
Next time you pick up a book from long ago, I hope you’ll try learn more about who wrote it, like I did. You just may be surprised at what you discover!
Thanks for reading,