The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1898-06-22

oii MS silver Watcnt ana, prouucing
the key for it, insisted upon Deputy
Sheriff Avis taking it.
'Gentlemen, may be alone little
while?' he said TO US. We, too full of
sadness to speak, nodded, and he drew
his grated cell door in aud kneIt down
at his cot to pray. In ten minutes or
so, although il seemed like an age to
US, he arose, took off his prison clothes,
and put on a new suit of black that
had been brought to him from Boston.
At 1890 O'Clock Sheriff Campbell came
into the corridor.
"'Captain, said he, twenty minutes
more remain
"'Do your duty, Sheriff Campbell;
don't let any one ever complain that
you were not faithful Sheriff after 1
am gone was the reply.
"At little before IL the Sheriff and
two military lieutenants in full uniform
came into the corridor. John Brown
was seated on his cot waiting for them.
"'Do you wish to pinion my arms
here or at the scaffold?' he asked, see
ing an officer holding the arm straps
in his hand.
"'At the scaffold,' said the Sheriff.
sin a second the prisoner turned, and
walking past the grated door of each of
the other cells, where his faithful men
were confined, awaiting their subse-
quent execution for completely in the
Harper's Ferry affair, he shook hands
through the grating. God bless you,
nay dear men, or May we meet in
heaven was all he said to each, for it
was evident he was full of emotion, and
the sObs of his imprisoned associates
moved him so that he could hardly
control his voice. When he came to
Us guards he never spoke, but the pres
sure of his two hands about ours and
the tear-suifused eyes told of the emo
ton he felt moving him.
$50 John Brown started for the gal
lows with the Sheriff, the lieutenants,
and two of Us guards. When we reach
ed the front door of the Jail and saw
columns of uniformed Virginia militia
men drawn up on both sides OF the
long street he looked surprised.
~ had no idea Governor Wise con-
sidered my execution so important he
remarked.
"He went down the steps and took
seat in a platform wagon at the side of
the Sheriff, and with Guard Avis and
myself on the back seat. The story
about John Browns having stopped to
kiss a poor negro boy at the Jail door
is untrue, Notwithstanding the touch
ing poems that tell of it. There was no
negro boy about the Jail, and the old
man was too intent on watching the
militia all about him.
IA ride of three minutes brought us
to the gallows. 1t was erected in the
middle of a great field near town, and
the platform was seven feet above the
ground. 1 saw Brown looking il all
over carefully AS the wagon drew slowly
up at the steps. The coffin had been
laid at one side, and can see now how
pathetically the old man glanced at
that while he was going up the gallows
steps between Sheriff Campbell and
Guard Avis. They gave him seat
while the soldiers were performing ev-
olutions under command of General
Taliaferro in order to form a hollow
square about the gallows. Sheriff
Campbell read the death warrant.
'Then the arms and legs of John
Brown were strapped together, and he
was shown where to stand on the drop.
The black cap was put on his head, but
not drawn over his face. He looked
taller and more powerful than ever as
he stood there strapped and with the
moose about his neck, towering head
and shoulders above the Sheriff and the
two lieutenants. The Sheriff stood
waiting minute longer until fnssy old
General Taliaferro had drawn his men
up in military order. Amid the sound
of drum-beats and the tramping of
soldiers on the frozen earth, heard
Sheriff Campbell say:
"'Captain, this is an unexpected de-
lay. Are you not tired?
"'No, not tired, but please don't let
there be unnecessary waiting were the
last words of Jchn Brown.
"The militia was still manoeuvring
in the field, but the Sheriff quickly
drew the cap over the face of the
doomed man, and, stepping aside, the
drop fell. John Browns body darted
through the opening in the platform,
and his soul went marching on through
all eternity.
'srhe only evidences of life were a
few clinchings of his hands. 1 believe
his neck was broken by the fall. After
the body had been hanging five min
utes physician went and felt of the
dying mans pulse. Then the cap was
raised few inches and an artist for an
Eastern publication sketched the face
as the body swayed TO aud fro in the
morning breeze. Sheriff Campbell did
not once look upon the hanging, and
kept his eys turned away.
"At exactly noon the body was low
cred and was put into the cOfIin. Law
yer Hunter arranged the collar and era
vat to conceal the blue marks OF the
moose, and arranged the hands and
arms. The body was taken to Harper's
Ferry that same day. where Mrs. Brown
had been for a week with friends. The
next day it was put on the ears and
taken to North EIba, in the Adiron-
dack region Of Northern New York.
Sheriff Campbell wanted me TO remain
as guard in the Jail until the other
six prisoners were executed in Febrn.
airy, but / never went into the Jail cor
ridor after John Brown was hanged.
- i1Ct III CouHcCttoH WIN enC hanB
ing Of old John Brown that have
never seen in print is that John Wilkes
Booth, who assassinated President Lin
coin in 1865, was sergeant in one of
the militia companies at the execution.
Sheriff Campbell told ms later that the
day before the execution Booth, hand
some, fresh, blackeyed youth of twenty
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