Owen Brown was the son of Abolitionist John Brown and the highest ranking surviving, uncaptured member of the party assembled for John Brown's Raid on Harpers Ferry. Owen led a party of five escapees from the failed raid to safety in the north. On or about the night of October 23, 1859 these men ascended the slope of South Mountain after circling around Turner's Gap to avoid the men and dogs lying in wait for them in the mountain pass. To their astonishment, there on the crest of the mountain was an odd stone tower. Owen Brown retold the experience during his only known interview in 1873, both he and the interviewer then still apparently unaware the men had stumbled upon Washington's Monument.