Harriet Chedie Connor [(1872-1959)] was born in Burlington, Iowa on September 11, 1872. Following graduation from Burlington High School, she spent a winter at Wheaton Seminary, Norton, Massachusetts before entering Cornell University where she received her A.B. degree in 1894. Among other honors, she was the first woman on the staff of Erg, the University newspaper. Having received a scholarship from the Association of Collegiate Alumnae, predecessor of Association of American University Women, she had a year of study in Berlin. Beginning in 1896, she served intermittently on the staffs of the New York Tribune, Washington bureau of the New York Journal, and the Buffalo Enquirer. Freelance writing from this time include reports, which are pHarriet Chedie Connor [(1872-1959)] was born in Burlington, Iowa on September 11, 1872. Following graduation from Burlington High School, she spent a winter at Wheaton Seminary, Norton, Massachusetts before entering Cornell University where she received her A.B. degree in 1894. Among other honors, she was the first woman on the staff of Erg, the University newspaper. Having received a scholarship from the Association of Collegiate Alumnae, predecessor of Association of American University Women, she had a year of study in Berlin. Beginning in 1896, she served intermittently on the staffs of the New York Tribune, Washington bureau of the New York Journal, and the Buffalo Enquirer. Freelance writing from this time include reports, which are present in the papers, on the National Republican and Democratic conventions of 1896. From 1903-07 she prepared the United States Geological Survey's regular press bulletin.
As the wife of Herbert D. Brown, whom she married in 1897, she collaborated with him in preparing reports on superannuation in the Civil Service of the United States, and for Congressional committees; studies for the Bureau of Labor, and President Taft's Commission on Economy and Efficiency. She also participated in official missions to Caribbean countries.
In 1929, Harriet Brown was awarded the Atlantic Monthly prize for biography Grandmother Brown's Hundred Years, 1827-1927 was the story of Harriet's mother-in-law of Ft. Madison, Iowa, a study of early American pioneer life.