suffragist, Universalist minister, b. Prairie Ronde, Mich. She graduated from Antioch College, Ohio (B.A., 1860), and from the Theological School of St. Lawrence Univ., Canton, N.Y. (1863). She was ordained in the Universalist Church (1863), the first woman in America to enter the ministry of an organized church. She held pastorates at Weymouth, Mass. (1864) and Bridgeport, Conn. (1869). Meeting Susan B. Anthony at a national suffragist convention in 1866, she became an ardent supporter of that cause. In 1867 she went to Kansas where she campaigned unsuccessfully in favor of a state constitutional amendment dropping the term "male" from the voting requirements. Returning to New England, she helped organize several suffrage societies, and continued her work in the ministry. In 1873 she married John H. Willis but retained her own name. In 1878 she moved to Wisconsin where she accepted the pastorate of the Good Shepherd Church in Racine and also preached at Mukwonago, Neenah, and Columbus. In Racine her husband was part owner and business manager of the Times Publishing Company (1884-1893) and after his death in 1893 Mrs. Brown managed his business affairs. In 1882 she joined the Wisconsin Woman's Suffrage Association and served as its president (1887-1912). She spent many years traveling and lecturing in favor of woman's suffrage. In 1914 she moved to Baltimore, Md., to live with her daughter. During the 1924 presidential campaign she was an ardent supporter of Robert M. La Follette, Sr. (q.v.). Dict. Amer. Biog.; O. B. Willis, Acquaintances . . . among Reformers ([Milwaukee] 1911); M. M. Quaife, Wis. (4 vols., Chicago, 1924); E. C. Stanton, et al., eds., Hist. of Woman Suffrage (6 vols., New York, 1881-[1922]); Who's Who in Amer., 8 (1914); Racine Journal News, Oct. 25, 1926.

The Wisconsin Historical Society has manuscripts related to this topic. See the catalog description of the Olympia Brown Letter and Biographical Information for details.

View newspaper clippings at Wisconsin Local History and Biography Articles.

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[Source: Dictionary of Wisconsin biography]