Phoebe Hinsdale Brown was born in 1783 in Canaan, New York. Being left an orphan when only two years of age, her early life was one of want, hardship, and drudgery. At the age of nine she went to live with a relative who kept a county jail. “These were years of intense and cruel suffering,” wrote her son. “The tale of her early life is a narrative of such deprivations, toil, and cruel treatment as it breaks my heart to read.”