 As well as being an enterprising industrialist, Brown is also remembered as being a major contributor to the social fabric of the Presbyterian community of Lithgow and even New South Wales.In 1851 he founded the Cooerwull Academy, a Presbyterian boarding school for boys, and also built the Methven church and the current Bowenfels Presbyterian church, as a school house for the children of itinerant rail workers in the area.He was also a leading force in the creation of St Andrew's College at the University of Sydney.