The Roanoke daily times. (Roanoke, Va.) 1895-1897, 1896-08-30
JOHN BROWNS FARM.
After Failing in the Wool Business He
Turned Farmer

Turned Farmer.
IL was at this time, about 1913 or 1S49,
that John Brown, having failed in the
Swool business, visited Gerrit Smith and
suggested that he be assigned tract of
4 the Essex county land, in consideration
i OF which he would make his home there.
showing the negro colonists how to
clear away the forest and till the ground,
ana in other respects act as general adj
/ wiser and friend to the humble commu.
nifty. The proposition was entirely sat
3-isfactory to Gerrit Smith, and the John
y Brown farm dates from that bargain
The tract now contains PA acres and is
presumably of the same dimensions as
\ when originally assigned by Gerritt Smith
to John Brown. Along one side of it
dashes the Au Sable river, n turbulent
mountain stream. The house commands
/ fine view of noble old White Face, and
in the near background are Marcy, and
the other high peaks of the Adirondacks
The place is always approached from the
/ side toward Lake Placid. 1t has pri-
vate lane, half mile long, coming down
from the house to the Wilmington and
Lake Champlain road, which is the prin-
cipie thoroughfare of the neighborhood
AS | walked up this lane to attend the
commemoration services of July 81,
asked many questions of an old man who
had evidently come n. long distance son
foot and was greatly bent and crippled
! from rheumatism. He gave me n vivid
account of John Brown as he remembered
him, and particularly of long night
when several scores of people were gath.
ered ut the John Brown homestead to
await the grey dawn when the captain
with handful of his devoted young
followers, to the music of n local band.
marched down the lane through the pine
| woods to take the road for Westport and
the outer world. The old man believes
| to this day that he then witnessed the
occasion of John Browns departure for
Harper's Ferry. But it was probably
i the leave taking of the neighbors when
Brown went on his second trip to Kansas
80 far rs the manner of it all was con-
cerned, this return to the scene OF border
/ warfare in Kansas was more striking
i and impressive affair by far than the sub
sequent entrance upon the Virginia cam
paign There were no drums or flies or
hagsor public leave takings when, with the
utmost attempt at secrecy and under as
sumed names, the handful of conspirators
were assembling from different directions
and keeping themselves in hiding Mt the
4 lonely little Kennedy farmstead four or
five miles from Harper's Ferry, which
! John Brown rented in 1859, under the
4 false name of Smith, as II place from
4 which to conduct the business of IL cattle
! drover. This unlettered old cripple of
7 Essex county had II bad memory for his
I tory; but undoubtedly his memory was
wholly reliable so far as it dealt with the
j things he had actually seen. John
4 Browns farm as il now appears, is large
q lT,aleared meadowland and pasture al
4 t. 'dgh the dense forest lies in the back
A ground and reaches to the top of the hills
4 and mountains that form the serricd hor-
8 lion line. But through the vvidness of
2 the old mans simple description | could
4 see the forest growing where now | saw
a the scythe swinging, and down the lane
4 could imagine John Brown dwiving the
81 OK team where now the smart coaches
and four-in hands from the summer ho-
= tells were driving up to the celebration
I 1t happens that there is plenty of evidence
4 besides the traditions of the old settlers
1of Essex county to show us the personal
characteristics of John Brown. Nothing
a could be more severely plain and simple
! than the life he led, yet nothing could
q diminish IA personal dignity that might
4 have been mistaken for hauteur. He was
81 not man Of many books besides the BIZ
q BILE, of which his knowledge was profound.
q But n few other books, also, he had read
i with thoroughness; and even if he read
a comp aratively little he thought compar-
4 atively much He was n Student of the
Il history OF the revolutionary movements,
81 and had pondcred on the strategy of mil
81 itary campaigns, both ancient and mod
s ern.-From ",John Brown in the Adiron-
= dacks,n by Albert Shaw, in September
a Review of Reviews.