1886, and Bear River 1889. At the end of his ministerial term in Bear River in 1892, 
     
     and after thirty-five years of active service in the Itinerancy, he retired from the 
     
     active work, and having been granted a Supernumerary relation, settled in South 
     
     Farmington on the Middleton circuit. After his residence of nine years in this place, 
     
     and at the age of 66 years and 5 months he departed this life on May 6th, 1901, his 
     
     wife having preceeded him to the better land by about three years. 
     
    
   
   
    
     In W.C. Brown were combined intellectual gifts of a very high order such as 
     
     conspire to make men shine in the world of letters, and those lovely traits of modesty 
     
     and humility which often veil brilliant parts from all but the really observing. On a 
     
     much smaller mental capital not a few have won much more marked recognition. He 
     
     was endowed by nature with a mind that was acute, logical and comprehensive in its 
     
     power of conception and of discipline and culture. His habits and tastes were those 
     
     of the Christian scholar. He was a good classical student, a thorough theologian, 
     
     and a man of wide reading and extensive knowledge. 
     
    
   
   
    
     His moral and religious character were undoubted, and his reputation spotless. 
     
     It could be said of him without qualification that he wore “the white flower of a 
     
     blameless life.” He was emphatically a good man, one of the highest class of good 
     
     men. Ministers who followed him on his various charges found the testimonies of 
     
     those who had known him unvarying on this point. 
     
    
   
   
    
     His character was positive as well as pure. Though of a disposition that shrank 
     
     from anything like display, assumption or assurance, he never shrank from duty or 
     
     from declaring the whole counsel of God, yet he was tenderly mindful of the rights 
     
     and feelings of others and sympathetic in relation to them. His letters, in the esteem 
     
     of a correspondent, were too precious, too richly freighted with words of thought, 
     
     tenderness and love to be consigned to the waste basket. 
     
    
   
   
    
     Brother Brown’s usefulness was extensive and unceasing during his active 
     
     ministry. Many persons bore grateful testimony to the benefits received from his 
     
     ministrations both in the pulpit and in personal relationships. His brethen showed 
     
     their confidence in his administrative ability by appointing him for five successive 
     
     years to the Chairmanship of the District within which for the time he was stationed, 
     
     and in 1882 to the Presidency of the Annual Conference. Nor did his usefulness ter— 
     
     minate with his more active career. In the retirement of his Supernumerary relation 
     
     he continued to toil for the Master. Though in comparatively feeble health, he still 
     
     preached almost every Sabbath. He was a man who watched for an opportunity to 
     
     do good. His armour kept bright through constant use. On the morning of the day 
     
     of his death, he sat in his usual place at his table and replied to two correspondents. 
     
     On the table lay two large envelopes containing the examination papers of the year 
     
     of the Candidates and Probationers for the ministry on the subject for which he was 
     
     the examiner, the inspection of which he had just finished, and which he had 
     
     prepared to despatch to their destination. On one and the same day he ceased both 
     
     to work and to live. 
     
    
   
   
    
     During the winter he had not been as well as usual. An abcess on the lower part 
     
     of the spine had made greater encroachments upon his health and strength than he 
     
    
   
   
    
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