Meshach Browning

In 1859, a book reviewer of Browning's newly published book noted that his family, founded in 1800, had increased “fifty years later to one hundred and twenty-two, of whom sixty-seven, as their progenitor says proudly, were 'capable of bearing arms for the defence of their country,'— though, to be sure, the Harper's Ferry affair leaves us in some doubt as to the direction in which they would bear them.”^[2] Browning's account of his fight with an unexpectedly formidable buck in the Youghiogheny River inspired Arthur Fitzwilliam Tait (1819-1905) — the great Adirondack artist and deer hunter — to paint the scene in 1861 (The Life of a Hunter: Catching a Tartar). The same year Currier and Ives published a hand-colored lithograph of Tait's black and white painting, thus immortalizing the incident.

A Maryland Historical Marker states Browning was Garrett County's most famous hunter, killing 2,000 deer and 500 bears during this 40-year period. This marker lies within eyesight of Browning's grave at St. Dominic's Catholic Cemetery in Hoye, Maryland.

In 1890, St. James Church was rebuilt under the pastorate of Rev. Romanus Mattingly. The name was changed from to St. Dominic Church (St. Dominic being the patron saint of Dominick Mattingly, who was a zealous Catholic. His wife, Ann Browning, was Meshach's daughter.) The church was located on the road opposite the Mattingly homestead in what is now Hoye, Maryland, and the cemetery adjoining contains the graves of Browning, D. J. Mattingly, and many of their descendants.

Forty-Four Years of the Life of a Hunter; Being Reminiscences of Meshach Browning, a Maryland Hunter; Roughly Written Down by Himself, Revised and illustrated by E. Stabler. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1859. (Many reprints include the twelve hunting scene engravings by Edward Stabler [1794–1883].)