Stephen P. Brown, the grandson of Adam and Margaret Spait Brown, and the son of Paul and Maria Wotring Brown, was born July 19, 1835, in North Whitehall township. The neighboring school afforded him the rudiments of learning, and Allentown Seminary later enrolled his name among its pupils. At the age of seventeen he learned the trade of carpenter and that of mining engineer, finding employment for five years in this connection with the Ironton Railroad Company. On his removal, at the expiration of this period, to Allentown, he engaged with Barber & Co. as a builder of mining machinery and a pattern-maker. Three years after he entered the establishment of William F. Mosser & Co. in the same capacity. He subsequently erected much of the machinery for the slate-quarries and was also occupied in the superintendence of the Brown Iron Mine, owned by his father's estate. In 1879, Mr. Brown returned to the homestead, made it his permanent home, and has since been interested in the cultivation and improvement of the land embraced within its area.

He was married in 1859 to Miss Elrnina, daughter of Thomas Ruch, of North Whitehall township, whose children are Edward S., Laura C., Annie C., and Elmer J., living, and Hiram T., Wilson P., and Lizzie, deceased. Mr. Brown affiliates with the Democracy in politics, though neither his tastes nor his life of ceaseless activity have encouraged participation in the busy scenes attending public life. He is in religion a Lutheran, and member of the church of that denomination at Egypt.