The Washington herald., 1909-10-10
PHONES
\. STAT, 5142, 5143.

land while John Brown got together bis
ammunition and implements 81 war.
said Mr. Brewster. she was gone al
summer and until some time in October
think she started north go as TO reach
home about the time the attack on Har-
pers Ferry was made.
II remember well the night OF the at
tack, though I did not then guess what II
was that made the family at the farm SO
uneasy Ny sister had been back from
Maryland only q few days; the men OF
the family and the Thompson boys were
still absent II was a fine October night
sharp but not cold: just the kind or good
weather we usually have I'D here about
the middle Of October.
Il think the family must have sat ID
all night. At any rate, we were In and
out until late hour. sometimes under
the stars, sometimes indoors beside the
lamp. The grown folks knew what was
going on four or Eve hundred miles south,
and the women realized that their hus-
bands and brothers were risking their
lives In desperate undertaking, but they
were quiet and self-conuolled
News travelled slowly up here in those
days and II was some time after the raid
that we learned. by way OF Elizabeth
town, then the gateway OF the Adiron-
dacks. how terribly the undertaking had
failed. at least for the time being. Even
then the widowed women showed no
great feeling, because they had been
schooled By Brown and his wife In pa
tience.
i don't remember the details OF the
trial except as have read them since,
hrrf ,Na~ -
body was brought home early in Deem
Der, a few days after the hanging. The
upper part OF the house was unfinished,
because the Browns were not we'll enough
of TO do more than keep shelter over
their heads, and the stairway ended op-
posite e room that had not been walled
of.
NeighbOrs Are Surprised.
The cOhn was carried up the stairs
and placed on the floor Of that open room,
so that looking up you could see one end
OF It. Next day was the funeral. There
were good many OF our scattered neigh
oors up at the farm. Most OF them must
have been surprised TO learn that the
John Brown who had come and gone
mysteriously among them for eight or
ten years and had exhibited at the Essex
County fair the first Devon cattle ever
seen IN North Elba Township was the
same man who had made such a stir in
his warfare on slavery.
I've buried him with his feet toward
the big bowlder upon which ne had not
long before carved the initials j. B. and
where II was understood that he had
wished to lie. His widow visited the spot
fifteen or twenty years ago. She Is dead
now and buried out In California, though
1 think she ought to lie here beside her
husband. None OF the family came back
alive at that time to North Elba, and my
sister Martha died the next March"
Kate Field some years ago raised mon
ey for the purchase OF the John Brown
house and the grave site. The place was
presented TO the State OF New York. and
the State now maintains a caretalzer IN
the house. The bowlder and the grave
have been Enclosed in an iron fence and
the marble stone at the head OF the grave
has been framed in wood to protect it
from relic hunters. who had begun to
chip It to bits.
Through tho sheet Of glass that covers
the stone, which Is q memorial not only
to john Brown. but to his father and his
son Oliver. one may read that John
Brown was born May 9, 1900, and that he
1859. The bowIder at the foot OF the grave
Is marked in large. deep-cut letters John
Brown" Above the grave there waves
from tall flag pole the Stars and
Stripes