"Brownie...the name comes from the deep brown color of the confection, and it has been an American favorite since the nineteenth century first appearing in print in 1906 in the "Boston Cooking-School Cook Book,"
Earlier references to brownies" include Sears, Roebuck Catalog for 1897, although the reference is to mail order chocolate candies named after cartoon elves created by author Palmer Cox in a series that began with "The Brownies: Their Book" [1887], and in the 1896 edition of the "Boston Cooking-School Cook Book" for a browned molasses confection containing no chocolate."
source: The Encyclopedia of American Food & Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p.44)
http://www.gti.net/mocolib1/kid/foodfaq.html
just ask Jeeves hehee