Frances Jane Scroggins Brown

The couple settled in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, at a residence called Monongahela House.^[2][7] The Brown house in Pittsburgh became a frequent stop for enslaved people fleeing to Canada on the Underground Railroad.^[4] There, aided by a network including freedman physician Martin Robinson Delany and the Reverend Lewis Woodson, they offered food, shelter, and directions onward to safety.^[2]

In 1864, because of Frances' poor health, the family moved to Chatham, Ontario, Canada, returning to the US in 1870.^[4] The family then settled in Wilberforce, Ohio, where they built Homewood Cottage.^[4][8]

One of the Browns' six children,^[9] Hallie Quinn Brown, went on to become a prominent educator and elocutionist, who helped to pioneer African American women's clubs.^[10] In biographies of their daughter, the couple are described as having been "learned and passionate about education".^[11] Thomas Brown was known as the "walking encyclopedia", while Frances was said to have been very involved with Wilberforce University, where she acted as an unofficial counselor to students.^[11][12]

In Women of Ohio, it was written that:

Mr. and Mrs. Brown exerted a definite influence for good upon the community and “Ma” Brown, as she was affectionately called, lived serenely and did her alms quietly to the ripe age of ninety-five years.^[13]

In Front Line of Freedom, Keith P. Griffler numbered Frances Scroggins Brown as "among America’s forgotten children of the revolution", part of "the front line of the struggle against American slavery."^[7]

In 2023, Frances Scroggins Brown was included in The Day-Breakers, by poet Michael Fraser, which imagines the lives of Black soldiers who fought for the Union during the American Civil War.^[14][15]