David J. Brown (Cherokee)
David J. Brown was born sometime around 1856 in the Cherokee Nation to John
Lowrey and Ann E. Schrimscher Brown. He composed the majority of his poetry
while he attended the Cherokee Male Seminary from which he graduated in
1878. Most of his poems dealt with Cherokee subjects while reflecting the
background in classical literature he received from the seminary. Brown, who
was described as "one of the most promising young men of the country," came
to a tragic end as he was shot in the streets of Muskogee, Creek Nation, in
February 1879. In his poem, Brown compares Sequoyah to Cadmus of Thebes, the
mythological inventor of the Greek alphabet. Brown's poem first appeared in
the Cherokee Advocate on February 26, 1879.
