In April 1920, there was no mention in our local newspapers that a native son’s book had just been included in The New York Times’ list of notable new science books.
More than a century lat- er, we are finally printing the incredible story of Robert Tecumtha Browne, an African- American mathematician, philosopher and author who was born in Fayette County on July 16, 1882.
Browne usually listed his birthplace as La Grange, but local records suggest that he probably grew up north of town in the Rabbs Prairie vicinity.
He was one of at least twelve children of Jim and Bettie (Mc-Dow) Brown, who had moved their family from Alabama in the early 1870s. Although neither parent could read or write, Fayette County’s 1893 school census shows all five of their school-age children, including Robert, enrolled.
Browne later claimed to have taught 11 years in Texas, which would make him about sixteen when he began.
There were 16-year-old teachers in Fayette County, but we have not found a record that Browne was one of them.
Robert Brown is found with his family in the 1900 Fayette County census, but he enrolled at Samuel Huston College in Austin that fall. He was an assistant teacher there until he graduated in 1903.
At some point, he changed the spelling of his surname to Browne. The Romantic Story of Samuel Huston College, a 14page pamphlet printed in 1916, features a photograph captioned "R. T. Browne" as one of the "intelligent faces" of the col lege’s graduate workers.
There is a lengthy entry for Robert Tecumtha Browne in Who’s Who of the Colored Race published in Chicago in 1915. It states that while in Texas, he served as a commissioner for the State of Texas at the Young People’s Religious and Educational Congress in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1902; was vice-president of the Texas State Teachers’ Association from 1903 to 1904; and was active in statewide Republican politics.
Browne married Mylie De Pre Adams, a teacher from Corsicana, on December 29, 1904, in Goliad County. The couple’s son, Robert T. Browne, Jr., was born at Goliad in 1906 before the Brownes moved on to Millican, Texas.
Browne’s last teaching assignment was at a high school in Fort Worth.
Most biographies state that after passing the federal civil service exam in 1908, Browne began work as a civilian clerk at the U. S. Army Quartermaster Depot in San Antonio.
By 1910, he held a similar job in New York, where he was briefly living away from his family in the Manhattan borough. Mylie Browne joined him but died in New York the following summer.
Robert Browne and their son continued to live in New York City where he worked as a clerk for the U. S. Government War Department for many years.
One biographer states that Browne grew up in the Besade Methodist Church north of La Grange. Samuel Huston College also had its roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church.
During his early days in New York City, Browne was active in St. Mark’s Methodist Church, where he founded and served as president of the church’s Methodist Brotherhood and was editor-in-chief of Saint Mark’s Church Life.
His Who’s Who entry also claims that he was a delegate to the National Convention of Methodist Men in Indianapolis in 1913, was a member of the board of management for the Colored Y. M. C. A. of New York and was a member of the Negro Civic League of Greater New York among other interests.
Meanwhile, he also had time to study experimental chemistry and literature at the College of the City of New York—all by the time he was thirty-two years old in 1915.
By 1915 an interest in theosophy had also led him to become a Fellow of the World Theosophical Society based in Madras, India.
Theosophy is a complicated topic, but one definition states that it is a philosophy that draws from ancient religions and myths, especially Buddhism and Brahmanism, and teaches that God can be known through mystical insight.
Browne’s study of theosophy led him to write The Mystery of Space: A Study of the Hyperspace Movement and an Inquiry into the Genesis and Essential Nature of Space, which was published in New York in 1919 by E. P. Dutton and Company and also in London.
As the book’s author Browne was advised to conceal his race even from the publisher. The book, which combined science, mathematics, philosophy and mysticism, was well-received by a number of highly respected book critics.
“One of the most fascinat- ing books imaginable" and "profoundly original thoughts" were just two descriptions of his work.
However, there were no book signings and interviews. As Browne’s race became known, his work seemed to be taken less seriously.
He did give lectures, such as one on Einstein’s Theory of Relativity to the American Negro Academy in New York in December 1920, and he was elected vice president of that group the following year.
To be continued …
Photo captions: Photo of Robert T. Browne from a 1948 document allowing him an extended stay in the Dominican Republic, from familysearch.org.
First Edition of The Mystery of Space by Robert T. Browne, published by E. P. Dutton & Co., New York: 1919, courtesy of the Fayette Heritage Museum and Archives
