David Tilden Brown

For others of a similar name, see David Brown.
David Tilden Brown
Born(1823-08-11)August 11, 1823
Greenfield, Massachusetts
DiedSeptember 4, 1889(1889-09-04) (aged 66)
Batavia, Illinois
EducationCollege of Physicians and Surgeons (MD, 1844)
Occupationpsychiatrist

David Tilden Brown (August 11, 1823 - Greenfield, Massachusetts – September 4, 1889 - Batavia, Illinois)[1][2][3] practiced psychiatry from 1844-1849 in various asylums in eastern United States. When gold was found in the Sierra Nevada, Brown decided to cash in and travel to Central America in 1849, planning to establish a cheaper and faster commercial route west from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans across the isthmus of Nicaragua. He and his associates formed the Compania de Vapores de Nicaragua, but the company eventually was absorbed by Cornelius Vanderbilt's American Atlantic and Pacific Ship Canal Company.

Brown returned to the practice of medicine from 1852-1877. He was the medical advisor along with the architect Calvert Vaux, for plans to build the Sheppard Asylum, a modern hospital for mental patients, in Baltimore, Maryland, which opened in 1891. Brown suffered poor health and retired to his home in Batavia, Illinois. It was there that he committed suicide in 1889.

References

  1. ^ Vital records of Greenfield, Massachusetts, to the year 1850. Boston, Mass.: New England Historic Genealogical Society. 1915. p. 30.
  2. ^ "Burial headstone". Find a Grave. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
  3. ^  Kelly, Howard A.; Burrage, Walter L. (eds.). "Brown, David Tilden". American Medical Biographies . Baltimore: The Norman, Remington Company.