Meshach Browning through the "western wilderness" became legendary. This wilderness was the Allegheny Mountains, especially in Garrett County, Maryland and the surrounding regions of what is now West Virginia. He was known as a profit hunter. Meshach Browning and his son-in-law, Dominick Mattingly, were selected to collect donations to build a church at Johnstown, Maryland. The result of their labors was St. James Church, dedicated in 1853 under the pastorate of Rev. William Lambert and prosperous for many years. Meshach Browning died on November 19, 1859 in Johnstown, Cambria County, Pennsylvania. In 1859, a book reviewer of Meschach Browning’s newly published book
On the Reliability of the Old Testament the Old Testament. The book opens with an introductory chapter surveying the history with which it intends to deal, the continuous narrative in the Hebrew Bible from the Genesis creation narrative to the return of the Jews to Jerusalem from the Babylonian captivity in the early days of the Persian Empire in the 5th century BC. The author claims that this history was written at the same time as the events it describes in its various sections, and that this can be confirmed by comparing the Old Testament with non-Biblical sources, both written and archaeological. He clarifies by stating that