Reviews, Notes and Comments 313
conditions at the time," he said,
"I am not surprised at
the action of the United States
government. Slavery
is now recognized as morally and
economically wrong,
but at the time of the Harper's Ferry
raid it was legal-
ized by the United States and the State
of Virginia. It
is generally admitted now that the blow
at Harper's
Ferry hastened the outbreak of the
Civil War, which
brought slavery to an end in the United
States. John
Brown's contribution to this
achievement will not be for-
gotten. Of course there has been and
will be criticism
of the means that he employed. His sincerity and
singleness of purpose, however, are
seldom questioned."
Charles Brown had lived in Summit
County all his
life, except a few months of his
childhood in Kansas
before the Civil War. For about twenty
years he worked
as an engineer in the old Schumacher
Milling Company
Mills, then one of Akron's foremost
industries. Later
he operated a berry farm. In recent
years he has lived
a retired life in his comfortable home
at 152 N. Portage
Path, Akron. He leaves a widow, Mrs.
Alice M.
Brown, formerly Miss Alice Pettit, a
son by a former
marriage, Gerald H. Brown, a veteran of
the War with
Spain, who lives at 182 Maplecliff
Drive, Lakewood,
Ohio, and three grandchildren.
JOHN BROWN HOME IN AKRON
The house in which John Brown lived for
some time
when he was a citizen of Akron, Ohio,
we learn from
an exchange is about to be sold and
razed to make way
for another building. There is a
disposition on the part
of some citizens of Akron to regret the
removal of this
314
Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications
historic building, but no one has come
forward with
the money to purchase and preserve it.
It is likely to
share the fate of the house in Niles in
which William
McKinley was born.
JUDSON HARMON
Judson Harmon, jurist, attorney general
in the cabi-
net of President Cleveland and twice
elected governor
of Ohio, died in Cincinnati, February
22, 1927. He
was a graduate of Denison University, a
lawyer of emi-
nent ability and a life member of the
Ohio State Arch-
aeological and Historical Society.
During his admin-
istration as governor of the State,
provision was made
for the front wing of the present
Museum and Library
Building on the University Grounds and
for the Hayes
Memorial Building, at Fremont, Ohio.
His law part-
ner, Hugh L. Nichols, former Chief
Justice of the Su-
preme Court of Ohio, will write a
sketch of Governor
Harmon for the QUARTERLY.
HENRY FORD AND THE McGUFFEY READERS
The interest of Henry Ford, the Detroit
automobile
manufacturer, in the McGuffey Readers
and the Mc-
Guffey Society is worthy of note in
this issue. Evidence
of his interest in the Readers has been
manifest in his
effort to acquire a complete set of
them, and in articles
that have appeared at different times
in the Dearborn
Independent.
He has had reprinted at considerable
expense the
First, Second, Third and Fourth
Readers, editions 1866-