Charles Odell Brown worked as a timber cruiser, scaler, and buyer and seller of timberlands. He was born in Sherman, Maine, on April 20, 1841. In 1861 he entered the Union Army as a 2nd lieutenant and in 1862 was promoted to lst lieutenant. On February 6, 1868, he married Clara Edwina Scribner; they had three children, Mary, Nathaniel, and Della.

In 1887 the family moved to Kitchi, Michigan, where they lived until 1895. Brown began his diary in 1891. In June 1893, following a visit to the Chicago World's Fair, C.O. Brown made his first visit to Idaho, remaining until mid-August. Then on June 18, 1894, he returned with his son, arriving in Boise on June 23. They looked over the timber areas in north Idaho for several months, leaving Moscow for Michigan on October 10. On April 20, 1895, the entire family, including Mary's husband Theodore Fohl, left Kitchi, "without any regrets," and arrived in Moscow three days later. In August 1900 Brown acted as timber agent for Frederick Weyerhaeuser, exploring the upper Clearwater Valley white pine areas. This survey laid the foundation for the Potlatch Forests, Inc. timberlands in North Idaho.

C.O. Brown died August 2, 1902, just two weeks after his last diary entry. He is buried in the Moscow cemetery. The Latah County Historical Society, Moscow, has a small collection of C.O. Brown's letters.