Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1895-09-28
RESCUED FROM OBLIVION.
Graves of Seven of John Browns Fol-
lowers Located at Last.

UrdveS OF seven OF JOnn Browns fOl-
lowers Located at Last.
The following from Washington. is
of interest to many persons in this
locality:
DIR. Thomas Featherstonhaugh,
Medical Referee of the Pension Blu
reau, has just returned from Harpsrs
Ferry, where he has succeeded in
definitely locating the burial places of
seven of John Browns followers who
were killed in the memorable raid of
October, 1859.
Numerous attempts have been made
hitherto to locate these graves, but all
have been unsuccessful.
The tradition at Harpers Ferry was
that they were buried beneath the
waters of the Shenandoah river, and
that all trace of the graves had long
since washed away The bodies
of Oliver and Watson Brown, two
i sons of John Brown. were sent home
to North Elba, Essex county, N. Y,
! for burial. The body of ]. H.
Kagi was thrown into a barrel
and sent to medical college at Win
chester, Va, where it was dissected.
The bodies of the other seven, Stewart
Taylor, w. H. Leeman, jeremiah An
derson, Dauphin Thompson, Danger
field Newly (colored), and Lewis S.
Leary (coloredD, were thrown into two
large dry goods boxes and taken away
for burial.
DR.. Featherstonhaugh has for the
last five years been gathering materi-
al for history of the John Brown
raid. After much painstaking labor
he has secured portraits of every
member of the raiding party except
one of the negroes and has now locat-
ed the graves.
On Loudoun Heights, across the
Shenandoah from Harpers Ferry, in
Virginia, he found an aged white man
named James Foreman, who assisted
in the burial of the dead raiders. Mr..
Foreman guided DIR. Featherston-
haugh up the south bank of the She
nandoah to point about half a mile
above Harpers Ferry, and there, in
tie low ground between the Heights
and the river, washed by every spring
freshet, he pointed out depression
in the ground.
"There," said he, ''you will find
four of them, and just beyond the
other three"
Shovels and picks were set to work,
and with his own hands DR.. Feath-
erstonhaugh pulled off the rotten COW
er of the huge dry-goods bcx. In it,
mingled with clay and silt which had
seeped through from the overlooking
river, were the ragged garments and
the skeletons of four of the principals
of the tragedy. Then the boards were
replaced and the soil was again thrown
over them. The site of the other
grave was marked by DR.. Featherston-
haugh with few punches of wild
flowers. DR.. Featherstonhaugh be-
lieves that he will be able, from the
testimony in his possession of the
physical characteristics of each man
and statements Of the gunshot wounds
which each received, to finally identi-
fly the body of each.
When the engine-house which form
ed old John Browns fort is returned
from Chicago and again set up at
Harpers Ferry it is DR.. Featherston-
laughs purpose to have the bodies of
these seven men carefully reinterred
near the fort and monument erected
above them, bearing their names and
the incidents of their death In view
of the historic importance of the in
cident it is believed that there will be
sufficient contributions from people
throughout the country to make the
monument fitting for the place and
occasion.
DIR. Featherstonhaugh is from Sche-
nectady, N. Y. Hisgreat grandfather
was James Duane, member OF the
Continental Congress, and the first
mayor of New York City after the
close of the Revolution His grand
father was G. W. Featherstonhaugh,
an English scientist, who came to
the United States in connection with
the negotiations preceding the Ash
burton treaty, and remained in this
country and became one of the most
prominent and best-known biologists
of his day.