Frances A. Brown (maiden name: Lyman) was born around 1839 in Ohio to Frederick and Hannah Lyman. Her father was a miller who owned $100 of personal property by 1860. The family lived in Washington, Ohio, until the 1850s, when they moved to Delaware, Ohio. She married William Brown on December 27, 1860, and they had at least five children: Jessie, born around 1862; Mary, born around 1864; Charles, born around 1866; William, born around 1873; and Frederick, born around 1875. They lived in Delaware, Ohio, and her husband worked as a sheriff and a stone cutter. By 1870, they owned $550 of real estate and $1,600 of personal property. She died sometime after 1890.