Encyclopedia Dubuque
"Encyclopedia Dubuque is the online authority for all things Dubuque, written by the people who know the city best.”
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Affiliated with the Local History Network of the State Historical Society of Iowa, and the Iowa Museum Association.
BROWNSON, Orestes Augustus
Brownson, Orestes Augustus. (Ithaca, NY, Mar. 18, 1828--Rockdale, IA, Mar. 28, 1892). Educator, editor. Brownson was the principal of Dubuque's First Ward School from 1863 to 1878.
He is best remembered, however, as the editor of the DUBUQUE CHESS JOURNAL from 1870 to 1892. Brownson was known at the time for his collection of chess problems by American "composers" and by his "Elementary exercises in the construction of Chess Problems [sic]" Included in the advice he offered was "to learn chess quick and fast, play slowly and carefully several hours a day and study the best chess books you can get hold of very diligently and thoroughly: this will soon bring out what chess there is in you, if you are careful to play only with chess players stronger than yourself. As you live far from a large city, two or three hundred games by correspondence would be of assistance to you."
In 1872 Brownson wrote The Book of the Second American Chess Congress Held at Cleveland, Ohio.