Ohio History Journal

Comments, Notes and Reviews.                  375   Mr. Sherman was one of the first members of the Ohio State Archaeo- logical and Historical Society, and for some years took a personal in- terest in its proceedings. For ten years past, and at the time of his death, he was one of the trustees.     JOHN BROWN-A REVIEW. In American history there are few, if any characters, the story of whose life is so erratic, dramatic or so tragic, as that of John Brown. As

he spent his youth and many years of his manhood as a resident of Ohio (see account of the Hudson Centennial in the previous pages of this Quarterly) he is a proper subject for our consideration. His life has recently been written and published by William Elsey Connelley, a life member of the Ohio Archaeological and Historical Society, the author of several valuable historical works, now a resi- dent of Topeka, Kansas, where he improved un- usual facilities for obtaining accurate knowledge concerning the career of John Brown in that state. Indeed, the work of Mr. Connelley deals mostly with the Kansas portion of Brown's efforts in behalf of freedom for the slaves. The author rather slight-

ingly passes over the youth and formative period of John Brown, but does ampler justice to the latter part of his life. John Brown was the direct de- scendant of Peter Brown, an English Puritan, and one of the Pilgrim fathers, in the Mayflower, who landed on Plymouth Rock, December 22, 1620. Owen Brown, father of the famous John, was a Revolu- tionary hero, a tanner and a shoemaker, and lived at Torrington, Con- necticut, where John was born, May 9, 1800. In the year 1805 the family moved to Hudson, Ohio. Owen Brown was an ardent aboli- tionist, and religiously encouraged similar sentiments in the minds of his children. John was taught from earliest childhood to "fear God and keep his commandments." He received no more education than fell to the lot of the average boy on the pioneer man's frontier, where schools were few and necessarily inferior. He had an exceptionally studious and reflective disposition. He read such books as came within his reach. They were mainly "AEsop's Fables," "Life of Franklin," "Pilgrim's Pro- gress," "Plutarch Lives," "Life of Oliver Cromwell," "Baxter's Saint's Rest," Dr. Watts' Hymns, and above all and constantly the Bible. He learned little at school but something of mathematics and the principles of surveying. He never became much of a scholar. Thoreau has quaintly said of him, "He did not go to Harvard. He was not fed on the pap that is there furnished. As he phrased it, 'I know no more grammar than one of your calves,' but he went to the University of the West,

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376        Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

 

where he studied the science of liberty; and, having taken his degree,

he finally commenced the public practice of humanity in Kansas. Such

were his humanities--he would have left a Greek accent slanting the

wrong way and righted up a falling man." He swore eternal enmity to

slavery. About 1837 he assembled his household and devoutly laid be-

fore them the burden of his heart. The time for action had come.

Henceforth he was to enlist in the war for freedom. His first soldiers

were to be, like the converts of Mahomet, members of his own family.

Three of his sons, then old enough, consecrated themselves to this work

by prayer. In this service the father was seen for the first time to

kneel in supplication, his uniform attitude previously having been that

of "standing with reverence before the throne." We can not follow in

detail the incidents of Brown's life as narrated by Mr. Connelley. He

moved many times from Ohio to the East and back, and was engaged

in many vocations. He was not a success in business enterprises. He

failed several times, often at the expense of his friends. His honesty

of purpose and integrity of conduct were not questioned. In 1840 he

was residing at Hudson, Ohio, and engaged in the wool business. In

1842 he moved to Richfield, where he was involved in transactions with

Heman Oviatt (see Hudson Centennial, ante). Mr. Oviatt and others

became his sureties and were obliged to pay many thousand dollars in

his behalf. This led to a law suit, which is fully reported in Oviatt

v. Brown, 14 Ohio, 286. Yet Mr. Oviatt, grandfather of the writer of

this incident, wrote subsequently, "from boyhood I have known him

(John Brown), I have known him through manhood; and through life

he has been distinguished for his truthfulness and integrity; he has

ever been esteemed, by those who have known him, as a very conscien-

tious man."

In 1844 John Brown moved to Akron, Ohio; in 1846 he went to

Springfield, Massachusetts. He then made a tour through Europe, in

which he particularly studied the battle fields of Napoleon. In 1849 he

moved to North Elba, Essex county, New York. It was about this

time that Gerritt Smith offered to colored settlers his wild lands in that

district of the Adirondack wilderness. Many accepted his offer. John

Brown offered to live with them and aid them. It is well known this

experiment was a failure on the part of the negroes, though through

no fault of John Brown's. Then came May 25, 1854, the passage by

Congress of the bill providing for the organization of the Kansas and

Nebraska territories and the repeal of the Missouri compromise (1820).

The existence of slavery was left to the decision of the people of the

state when admitted. Emigrants from Arkansas and Missouri imme-

diately began to move into Kansas to hold the state for the pro-slavery

party. On the other hand the Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Society sent

out colonies to keep slavery out of the state. The "Kansas struggle"

then began. All the details of this political discussion and warlike dis-

turbance are fully told by Mr. Connelley, and this portion of his book

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Comments, Notes and Reviews.                  377

 

is a well digested resume of that important period. In 1854 the four

eldest sons of John Brown, named John, Jr., Jason, Owen and Fred-

erick, all children by his first wife, then living in Ohio, determined to

move to Kansas. The removal, with two other sons and a son-in-law,

was completed in 1855. The family settled near the Pottawattomie,

a little stream in southern Kansas, in Lykins county, about eight miles

distant from the site of Ossawattomie, which the deeds of his family, as

Redpath says, subsequently converted into "classic ground." We can not

dwell upon the exciting scenes that occurred in "Bleeding Kansas." Brown

and his brave boys did not shrink from the conflict. In 1857 Brown,

carrying with him the memory of his son Frederick, murdered at Ossa-

wattomie, returned to his home at Elba. But he immediately began a

crusade throughout New England in behalf of abolition, and in prep--

aration for his contemplated insurrection at Harper's Ferry. This pro-

ject was put in operation in the summer of 1859, which he spent in mov-

ing the arms and other articles from Ohio and various points to the

vicinity of Harper's Ferry. Early in July he located with his little force,

in disguise as farmers, upon the farm of Dr. Booth Kennedy, some five

miles from Harper's Ferry, on the Maryland side of the Potomac. The

little band at the Kennedy farm grew slowly, until it finally consisted

of twenty-three, three of whom were his sons. They had adopted (earlier

in the year in Chatham, Canada) a provisional government with a con-

stitution. In compliance with this pretentious organization Captain John

Brown was made commander-in-chief; John Henry Kagi, secretary of

war; Richard Realf, secretary of state, and Owen Brown, treasurer.

This government was to be proclaimed throughout the country round

about, with the idea that accessions would swarm to it from the slaves

and freedom sympathizers. A guerilla warfare was to be waged against

the slave owners; slaves were to be liberated, armed and turned against

their masters, etc. On Sunday, October 16 (1859) the little band, under

cover of evening darkness, proceeded to Harper's Ferry, and during the

night took possession of the armory by forcing the door and overcoming

the watchman. By one o'clock on the morning of the 17th, Brown had

complete possession of Harper's Ferry, and all the arms of the Federal

government, then at that place. The subsequent events are well known

history; how Colonel Robert E. Lee, of the U. S. army, was sent from

Washington to suppress the invaders; how the door was forced, and

Brown overcome with saber cuts and bayonet thrusts; his son Watson

wounded and his son Oliver killed. Then followed the tragic and far-

cical trial at Charlestown, seat of Jefferson county, Virginia (now West

Virginia), and the final scene at the scaffold, December 2, 1859. The

north stood aghast. The slave power with malignant brutality had

crushed John Brown and his movement, but they had stirred the North

and aroused the slumbering sentiment that burst forth in the flames of

Civil War. Mrs. D. A. Randall, daughter of Heman Oviatt, the mother

of the writer of this review, was throughout life an intimate personal

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378        Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

 

friend and ardent admirer of and deep sympathizer with John Brown.

He wrote her a letter the night before his execution, expressing his

appreciation of her long friendship and his perfect resignation to his

fate. Well do we remember, though at that time but a child of eight,

how on the morning of December 2, after the breakfast meal, that

mother at the morning invocation, broke forth in a fervent prayer that

Divine Providence would sustain John Brown in the ordeal through

which, in a few hours he was to pass, and bless the cause for which he

was to die. Thousands of such petitions ascended throughout the land.

John Brown's execution was a triumphant apotheosis. He suffered

death upon the scaffold. It was an unparalleled exhibition of consecrated

heroism in behalf of the cause of freedom. His soul went marching on

and led the armies of liberty and humanity to the sublimest victory

the world has ever witnessed.

John Brown is one of the great characters of history. He had a

prophetic soul, the fortitude and faith of the Christian martyrs. His

life and deeds will shine brighter and brighter throughout the ages. The

story of his life, with all its undercurrents and its subtle influences and

tendencies, has not yet been told. Mr. Von Hoist has touched upon

the philisophy of his life. Mr. Sanborn has thrown much light upon

the events of his career. Mr. Redpath has concisely related the main

facts. But the proper historian of John Brown has not yet appeared, per-

haps he is not yet born. Mr. Connelley's book admirably accomplishes

the purpose for which it was put forth. It should be read by all students

of John Brown. It is published by Crane & Co., Topeka, Kansas.

 

 

BURKE AARON HINSDALE.

Burke Aaron Hinsdale, born at Wadsworth, Ohio, March 31, 1837,

died at Atlanta, Georgia, November 29, 1900. His ancestors were New

England Puritans. His parents came from Connecticut to the Western

Reserve in 1812. Burke was raised upon the farm. He had an irre-

sistible desire for scholarship. At the age of sixteen he made his way

to Hiram Hill, where the Western Reserve Eclectic Institute (afterwards

Hiram College) had been opened three years before. For thirty years,

as student and professor, Mr. Hinsdale was identified with this insti-

tution. Young Garfield was a fellow student, and there sprang up be-

tween them a firm and sympathetic friendship, broken only by the tragic

death of Garfield. Professor Hinsdale was a close and accurate scholar.

Possessed of a remarkable memory and an omniverous reader, he be-

came a man of most extensive and useful information. He was a

natural educator. He became President of Hiram College (1870), was

ordained to the Christian ministery. For years associate editor of the

Christian Standard. His capacity for work and powers of endurance,

almost incredible. He lectured, preached, edited, talked and wrote books

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