The great West. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1889-18??, 1890-12-05
JOHN BROWNS GRAVE.
WHERE THE REMAINS OF THE
OLD MAN LIE.
Buried at His Old Home with Huge Adirondack
Bowlder for Moaanent-He Selected
tho Place HlmselfAany visi.
tors Every Year.

The grave of John Brown is almost
the only point of historic interest in
the Adirondacka There are many
points Of interest, but they are not
historic, says the Philadelphia Item.
People go about to look at beautiful
mountain and lake scenery, to witness
the attractions of this or that summer
hotel, to see fine camps, and for other
purposes, but the region appears to
have no history except its natural his
tory. Columbus did not discover the
Adirondacks, the Pilgrims did not
land in them, no important battle of
the Revolution, nor even of the war of
1872, was fought in them. So far as
men are concerned, these mountains
appear to be comparatively new
ground.
Perhaps it is because of these facts
that SO many people visit John
Browns grave. He was the object of
good deal of interest in this country
thirty-one years ago. but it is proba-
ent generation know or care what he
did that made him famous. They
have all heard that
John Browns body lies a-moldering in the
grave,
But his soul goes marching on.
But the general belief is that he is
not the only man in that condition
that, in fact, he is hardly exceptional
enough in that respect to make him
worthy of such general mention as he
receives. Nevertheless, whatever may
be the reason, a great many people in
that region make pilgrimages to John
Browns grave, and visitors to the
mountains are apt to get the idea that
it is duty not to be left undone.
The visitor in search of John
Browns grave. is now guided to it by
a finger-board at the point where the
road to the farm branches from the
main road. That point is two or three
miles from Lake Placid. The sign on
the finger-board reads, 'John Brown
farmhouse, ] mile-meals served"
The road thence to the farm bears
evidence of a good deal of travel,
though there is no other dwelling near
it except the Brown homestead, and it
ends there. 1t leads through a piece
of woods and then energies into q
clearing. which it circles through and
lands it's visitor at the farmhouse
door. It is a modest house, and no de-
scendant or relative of Brown is now
in possession. A country lad whose
trousers hung by one suspender, was
giving information and Offering photo
graphs and relics for sale to two
carriage loads of visitors.
About fifteen yards from the house
and nearly in front lies great bowl
der of nearly rectangular form and
perhaps fifteen feet broad by 20 feet
long. Its surface is nearly d plane,
slightly inclined, and is five or six
feet above the surface of the ground.
Beside this bowlder are two mounds,
one of which is said to be the grave of
John Brown and the other that of his
son Watson Brown. At the head of
one of the mounds is headstone, ap-
parently of slate rock, on which are
inscriptions giving dates of birth and
death of Captain John Brown. father
of the hero, of John Brown himself,
and of Watson Brown, his son. There
ic no eulogy. The John Brown in
scription merely says, after giving the
date of his birth, Executed at
Charleston, Va, Dec. 2, 1852" The
headstone has been badly SCARED by
relic hunters. and evidently to prevent
damage to it a wooden cover has been
made for it, which is fastened over it
by q paddock. The boy of one sus-
pender unlocks and removes the
cover when visitors wish to see the
headstone, but never leaves the cover
of, though he has to take it of and
put it on again many times day.
But this headstone is not the memo
rial. The great bowlder beside which
the grave is has deeply cut in its
upper surface in letters and figures a
foot long, John Brown. 1852" The
visitor may ascend this bowlder by
wooden steps, and he will hardly fail
to be impressed with the idea that
when the mounds shall have sunk.
when the little headstones shall have
crumbled, when. perhaps, the spot
shall cease to be inclosed by fence as
now, and visitors shall cease to seek
it, the bowlder will remain with suffi-
Gent tracing Of the name on its sur
face to commemorate it for centuries.
1t is said that it was after Brown
had been condemned to death and his
wife visited him in the Jail in Virginia
that he ronuoafed that his ho6 ~ oh o,,l5