The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1881-05-04
JOHN BROWN.
The Room in Which the Plot OF Har-
per's Ferry Insurrection
y~ Was Planned.
A Red Brick House in Chatham where,
in All Probability, ellis Soul
is Marching On"
Detroit Free Press.l

all times a busy thoroughfare, and with it
Detroiters are most familiar. III the visitor
were to take this street and walk eastward
he would come to part of the town inhab-
tied mainly by colOred people, and he would
see neat and often handsome residences, and
a school house for colored children, that
would do honor to any city. Nearly oppo-
site this school house is a twe-story red
brick dwelling of quaint, osd-fashioned
build, whose length is Just about the same
as its height The gables are bricked Tip
higher than the roof, aud broSd chtmr4e y
occupies each end. The side is toward the
road, and the five front windows are broad
and rather low, while the paneltng and
holdings on the white door are unique as,d
intricate.
In this house were held secret me etiE1s
that doubtless fastened, if they did not bring
on, the American Civil War
The house is owned by ]. Holden, prob
ably the best kno.yn uasR ig Chatham and
a gentlemSR wkese fsoe Is familiar IN De-
troit Mr.. Holden is Louisiana creole,
and has lived ia Chatham about twenty-five
wears He has = fund OF historical peuinis-
cences. and when [ told him the particular
period to which I wished to direct his. atten-
ton, he very cheerfully gave me every ia
cility for writing this article. iecention
this because, Under Tire circumstances, most
people would not have teen SO affable,
as Mr. HoiieR hrs leS S159es by the
burning of his City Mills only q Few days
ago.
As we walked Up King street to his
residence he related the hithertc unNgritten
incidents that preceded Aarpe-s Ferry in
surrectiOH.
Our talk was Eethec interrupted by a
rather curious meeting
We met a Yawcob Strauss ,SEkey. Inn
agine IA cOlored u&R talkiCg broken Ger
man
He was a negro with predigious lips and
narrow forehead The igs 1rnde you for
get every other feature in his ffce- Hello
Africa" cried Mr. Holdez, eheerily. Had
anything to eat 3atelyf" -'Iaw," said
Africa, II got ne dem srPlC." And he held
uD a paper bag with baE e dJzen apples IN
it. THAT won't keep yea elNe. You ought
TO buy some bread"
well, l don't got soFse D,Ccey."
''YOu Will remember To pay this back
when you make some KnOneE-"
''Oh, vaw," said a frica- pocketing the
half dollar given hiEp and making a gro
tesque bow rs he walked away.
HE came from C1pe Town, and have
been supporting him al winter and just got
him a Job in Z stable Tthe other day. He
belonged to the British II arines, and was for
"A long time among the Beers, and that &C
counts for his strange veraacular. He speaks
Boer English said Africas guardian, in
answer to my inquiries.
'JOhn Brown came here in the spring of
1856, continued Mr.. Holden, land came 90
my house. He staiG here for about two.
weeks Some of the meetings were held in
the Baptist Church, hat the most important
Committee meetings were held in John
Browns ROOM"
Here we came to the Church. 1t Was
quite large frame structure, but as it had
new siding. new roef and new furniture
there is little to remind the visitor of its for
mer state.
A few doors further on we came to the
Holden Homestead, with its neat front yard,
white picket fence and comfortable appear
ance.
Up stairway from the front entrance we
come to door to the left that opens into
John Browns room" which looks out
with its two bread windows toward the
mountains where the struggle planned with
in its walls had taken place.
Browns plan was this" Mr.. II. went on.
He wanted TO iraugurate a sort of guerrilla
warfare in the BlDe Ridge Mountains. He
wanted to assist the slaves to fly to the
mountains and get the most inaccessible po-
ssitions they could. Raids were TO be made
on the plains below to get provisions am
munitiOn and firearms, and TO induce other
slaves 10 Join the Mountain Republic. Brown
expected'to scatter this colony all along this
range and even ifsne section were captured
or defeated, it would not materially affect
the rest
How long did he expect to hold the
fOrt?'
HE expected to.hOld it all the time, but
those of US who were less enthusiastic
thought it could be held till the attention
of the country was called to a struggle of
the cdlOred man for liberty."
''Mr Brown had the whole government of
this colony planned The officers were &p-
pointed and all the laws were written out
They were written in such language that
even if they had fallen into the hands of the
United States GoVernH ent nothing treason
able could be found in them. The Pres-
-deney was offered to Fred Douglass first,
but he refused, and it was then offered to
Martin Z. Delaney, who also refused il.
The fact is, Delaney was better at talking
than at acting, and besides he was precious
careful of his own safety"
''Whe ultimately became President of The
Government in the-el0udsf7
Nobody The plan was exposed by a for
eigner who was in the plot. He was in Bos-
ton when it became known that he was
going to turn traitor to iuE- Brown then
went back to Kansas and went 70 British
Columbia and vas there when Brown made
his attempt at HarPefss Ferry to establish
mountain government"
At this time there wereaboGt ], 900 negroes
in Chatham, but only half q dozen or so
was given out that Brown wa an illus.triOus
member of the Masonic Order who was init
ating the eolsred brethren into the myst erie:
in that seeond-story front rem. No letter.
were received or sent from Chatham. A
messenger went every now ;and
then to London, siKty-fou miles, to the
east for the correspondence Brown had
with him his surveyors instruments and
passed for a civil engineer Only oHe
Ch2tam man took part in the insurrection
this was Osburn Anderson, who died som
fight, and escaped to the mountains, through
which he wandered for weeks and came
back to Chatham quaint, living skeleton.
After my interview with Mr.. Holden, /
started out toward Buxton, the great Can
adian Paradise for the colored man.
As we lurked along over the terrible roads
a solitary horseman overlook us He was a
stalwart negro with an intelligent face and
rather long, black beard.
There's your man. That's Garrison Shad.
called after William Lloyd Garrison" said
my companion.
Mr.. Shad had a black, fiat bag slung over
his shoulder. He had just finished his task
of taking the census of that part of the
County seat He rode up beside the buggy,
and we had a sort of rough-and-tumble in
terview over the rugged road.
He thought Mrs. Holden was misfaken in
saving John Brown went TO Kansas after the
visionary Government was formed Brown
staid i'm Chatham till while before the
II 1nfN~ - A..