Theodore J. Brown was born on February 5, 1837, in Newark, New Jersey. He moved to Toledo, Ohio, around 1858, and he married Eliza L. Weed on November 15, 1865. The couple apparently had no children. Brown worked as a book dealer, and by 1870, he owned $4,000 of real estate and $5,000 of personal property. According to an early biographer, “Business prospered with him and shortly he took a partner and established the city’s first book store, T. J. Brown & Eager.” His business partner later praised his “rare virtues as a business man, and his gentlemanly courtesy to all whom he came in contact.” He traveled abroad in 189, and his passport described him as 5 feet, 10 inches tall, with red hair and blue eyes. He died in Toledo on October 15, 1899.

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