The Teacher Who Erased His Own Past
Jesse Edward Brown ran Yakima's Indian school, gave away his salary to his pupils—and destroyed every paper that might explain who he was.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Jesse Edward Brown, teacher of the Indian school of this city, died on Sunday afternoon of pneumonia. Little is known of the deceased. He left no papers behind bearing on private affairs; in fact it appears as though he had made it a point to destroy anything and everything regarding his identity. An effort was made previous to his death to have him speak of his relatives, but he would say nothing. It is said that he was a son of Agnes May Flemming, the poetess, and he showed considerable talent in that direction himself. A brother was at one time superintendent of schools in Ohio, and he has a sister who is the superioress of a convent, and an effort is being made to get trace of and communicate with the former.
Mr. Brown has been connected with the Indian schools of Carlisle, Pa., Forest Grove, Ore., and other places. He was a man of much education, and very studious. His position at the head of the Indian school will be difficult to fill. He had a great amount of influence over the children, who were greatly attached to him, and well they might be, for while he was a disciplinarian he was also indulgent and spent all of his salary, after providing for his own necessary expenses, on his little charges. His age is unknown, but it was probably somewhere between thirty-five and forty years. The funeral was held from the Catholic church on Tuesday morning.
“He left no papers behind bearing on private affairs; in fact it appears as though he had made it a point to destroy anything and everything regarding his identity.”
Jesse Brown's determination to leave no record of his family, and his death while running a school for Native children, make his story a quiet case study in archival erasure. The Indian boarding-school system he served is now the subject of reckoning over records, names and the lives institutions kept—or failed to keep. His own pupils remembered him warmly, even as his past remained deliberately out of reach.
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