The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-04-11
HARPER'S FERRY AGAIN PASSPORT
 OF JOHN BROWN
Engine House Used as Last Stand of Abolitionist In-
 teresting to Tourist.

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 teresting to Tourist. Ohio railroad, who looks out of the window at HaHpers Ferry, W. Va, sees near the station a small white monument bearing in inscription, "John Browns Fort" The monu- ment is a marker of the original site. The fort itself has been trav- cling since 1903, but is at last in a spot peculiarly appropriate for it's final resting place, says the Indianapolis News.
 John Browns Fort" was the en- zine house that stood near the gate ito the United States armory grounds at Harper's Ferry, and was, so named because it was in it that Brown and his band barricaded themselves and made their last stand against the ci- yilian and soldier force called togeth- CT to put down the raid. Harper's Ferry had been selected by Brown as his beginning point because of the armory, which had been established there in 1794 by President Washing
 
 in the drama of those never to be for gotten days in October, 1859. The engine house was used by him as a prison for the leading citizens of the vicinity whom he had captured. These were liberated before the capture by Captain Robert E. Lee of Brown and ten of his band, including two of his sons, who were killed. Brown himself was seriously wounded.
 Lee at the head of company of marines had been hastily sent out from Washington in response to the appeal for assistance from the citizens. In the same company was Lieutenant J. B. B. Stuart. Both captain and lieu tenant afterward became famous lead CTS in the Confederate army.
 Brown was removed to Charlestown, sufficiently to stand trial, and was ex- the county seat, where he recovered ecuted on December 2, 1859. The details of the trial and execution are familiar to all readers of the history of the period. The spot on which his scaffold stood is now covered by "a handsome home. The old red brick courthouse with it's tower and white pillars still stands in the main street of the beautiful little village.
 The body of the old abolitionist was taken by his devoted wife to their farm at North Elba, N, Y., in the -Ad- irondack country on which farm it had been Browns dream to found a colony for negroes. Wendell Phil lips pronounced the oration at the burial. God make us all worthier of him whose dust we lay among the hills he loved," he said. The grave was neglected for many years and ti was finally a woman, Miss Kate Field, the gifted lecturer and writer, who aroused. public sentiment concerning 1t. It was the theme of her first work .Ons the lecture platform and largely through her efforts, $2,00Q was raised with which. the farm was bought and presented to the state of New York. The gpave is now appropriately mark ed, and the farmhouse where Brown and his family lived may be visited by the curious. The bodies of Browns followers were. buried in a rude trench on the Shenandoah side of Harpers Ferry, and here they rested until 1899, when they were removed to North Elba, to be placed beside their Q, tablet bearing all their names was unveiled. It is fastened to the giant boulder near which Brown was ac- customed to sit and read his Bible.
 John Browns raid left the people of Harper's Ferry in state of terror and for years civilians patrolled the streets each night lest there be an- other surprise. With the coming of the war, the little town became a cen ter for the. operations of both the ar mics of the north and of the south. Soldiers, wearing the blue and the gray, crossed and recrossed on the pontoon bridges cavalry forces rode through the winding hillside streets, batteries were stationed on Maryland and London heights. Here General Dixon Miles surrendered 12,500 men to Jackson, and was shortly .afterward mortally wounded, it is still contended by the people of Harper's Ferry, by shot from one of his own men for his supposed act of treachery. Here was camped the army of Little Mack and sixteen miles away was fought one of the. bloodiest battles of all the war Antietam.
 Mecca for Travellers.
 After the armies had marched away never to return, Harper's Ferry and the old engine house became the mecca for every traveller who visited the vicinity. When preparations for the Columbian exposition in Chicago were in progress, the engine house was sold to company of speculators for exhibition at the fair, and with it's going," says an old chronicler of the village, "went forever the glory of Harper's Ferry So felt Miss Field, and as her first work had been the preservation of Browns grave. her last work was the restoration of the old fort to it's original environment. She spent one hot summer, says her biographer, featuring and raising mon ey and in 1895 the fort was returned to Jefferson county, West Virginia, and placed on the farm of MT. Mur- phy some distance up the Shenandoah.
 In 1896 Miss Field died in Hawaii, where she had gone to make a study of the people and conditions of the island. It had been her hope when the fort was placed on this farm that the government might be induced to build a rode thither and that the fort the project fell through and in 1910s Storer college bought the fort and had it removed to the college grounds on the top of camp hill, above the old town of HarperS Ferry These