Little Falls weekly transcript. (Little Falls, Morrison Co., Minn.) 1894-19??, 1894-05-18
JOHN Browns GRAVE

mountain, 1900 feet in height, and
from the farm one can look up it's entire
southern slope and see where it dips
into the famous Wilmington notch.
Looking southwark, the visitor has a
magnificent view of the grandest of the
Adirondack mountains. Mount Marcy,
with its domelike crown piercing the
atmosphere at all altitude of near 5, 600
feet, is the highest mountain east of the
Rockies, with the single exception of
Black mountain, in North Carolina.
Near it is the Elephant, long mountain
with an apparent resemblance to the
animal for which it is named. West
ward of Marcy stands Mount Mcintyre,
second in height Of the Adirondacks and
afording, it is said, finer views than
Marcy, owing to it's more isolated posi-
ton.
The finest views of all, however, are
to be had from Whiteface, which also
stands apart from the other mountains
seems, in fact, entirely separated from
them. From it's summit almost the en-
tire length Of Lake Chan1plain is visible
as we'll as hundreds Of the Adirondack
lakes and the st. Lawrence river. A
project is now under consideration to
make the summit of Whiteface more
accessible. It is proposed to build a rail-
road up from Mirror lake, like those up
Rigi and Pilatus in Switzerland and like
those up Mount Washington and Pixies
peak.
That John Brown must have had an
Unborn love Of natural grandeur is shown
by his selection of burial place in the
heart Of this magnificent valley. But
with his first coming to North Elba love
Of the beautiful had far less to do than
his passionate love of freedom. What
attracted him most was the fact that
Gerrit Smith had there established
colony for negroes rescued from slavery:
1t may be that he thought it would be a
good center from which to propagate his
openly avowed idea Of organizing a negro
army to make war upon the slave hold
ing states.
At any rate, he took a farm of 248
acres in the then mbroken wilderness,
made clearing and erected little
wooden house, which still stands where
he built it, though it has been consider
ably improved in recent years. There he
left his wife and the younger members
Of his family when he went to Kansas to
fight against the extension Of slavery into
that territory. From there he went forth
to his death in that famous raid on Har-
per's Ferry. There, after his execution,
his widow took his body and buried it,
in accordance with his DESIRE in the
shadow Of a huge bowlder that stands
30 or 40 feet away from the front Of the
house.
The house and farm are now the prop
erty Of Kate Field, Sinclair Tousey, the
sons Of William Lloyd Garrison and sew
eral other admirers Of John Brown.
They bought the farm and put neat
wooden fence about the grave. Their aim
was to protect the grave from desecra-
ton and the farm from unworthy uses.
The inclosure about the grave contains
about an eighth Of an acre and is filled
with wild rosebushes. At the head of the
grave stands tombstone which John
Brown brought from the grave of his
grandfather at Torrington, Conn.,, and
on it are inscriptions commemorative Of
his death and that Of his three SONS, who
died, like him, in the effort to emanci-
pate the negroes The tombstone has to
be kept boxed up and padlocked to pro-
tect it from Dissertation by relic hunters,
who had already Clipped it somewhat
before this precaution was taken. The
bow1der has also suffered In like man.
ner and has to be carefully guarded. On
its summit, carved in great letters, is the
inscription. "John Brown, 1862"