John Brown&#039;s body

|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/62998074/situation-in-charles-town-virginia/

|access-date=November 11, 2020

|archive-date=December 9, 2020

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201209093209/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/62998074/situation-in-charles-town-virginia/

|url-status=live

}}

What to do with John Brown's body was a question of national significance. A modern scholar called the journey of his corpse "a media event of the highest order."{{cite journal

|title=John Brown's Grave

|first=Naton

|last=Leslie

|journal=The North American Review

|date=May–Aug 2002

|volume= 287

|number=3/4

|pages=74–77

|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25126805

|jstor=25126805}} Union soldiers sang "John Brown's Body" as they marched during the war.

Dissection by medical students

Dr. W. C. Hicks, of the New Orleans School of Medicine, offered, in a letter to Governor Wise, to pay Virginia $500 ({{inflation|US|500|1859|fmt=eq}}) for Brown's remains, to be used for dissection by medical students. He also pledged that once the skeleton was "properly dried and arranged", he would exhibit it throughout New England, not for money, but to "frighten every Scoundrel Abolitionist out of the country".{{rp|123}} "The medical faculty of Richmond College" also requested, on November 2, "the bodies of such as may be executed."{{cite encyclopedia

|first=Henry A.

|last=Wise

|authorlink=Henry A. Wise

|title=The Execution of John Brown

|editor-first=Josiah P.

|editor-last=Quincy

|journal=Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society

|series=3rd series

|volume=1 [Vol. 41 of continuous numbering]

|date=November 2, 1859

|pages=326–331, at p. 329

|contribution=Letter to Andrew Hunter

|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25079946

|jstor=25079946

|access-date=September 16, 2021

|archive-date=October 13, 2020

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201013173504/https://www.jstor.org/stable/25079946

|url-status=live

}} Wise instead had the body released to Mary Ann Day Brown, John's widow, who was awaiting it in Harpers Ferry to take it home for burial. It was the corpse of a son of Brown (only much later identified as Watson) that was turned into an anatomical specimen, with a note saying it was a message to abolitionists (see Burning of Winchester Medical College). The corpses of three other members of Brown's party—Shields Green, John Anthony Copeland Jr., and Jeremiah Anderson—were also used by medical students.

Other proposals

The Richmond Examiner proposed that Brown's body be “chopped into small pieces, in the Chinese manner, and distributed in terrorem all over the land."{{cite journal

|title=Mary Ann Day Brown, Widow of John Brown

|first=Sandra

|last=Weber

|date=March 26, 2016

|journal=Adirondack Almanac

|url=https://www.adirondackalmanack.com/2016/03/mary-ann-day-brown-wife-widow-john-brown.html}}

Brown wanted his body and those of his sons and the two Thompson boys burned,{{cite book

|title=Five for Freedom. The African American Soldiers in John Brown's Army

|first=Eugene L.

|last=Meyer

|location=Chicago

|publisher=Lawrence Hill Books (Chicago Review Press)

|year=2018

|isbn=9781613735725}}{{rp|181}} which he said would be much less expensive than burial,{{cite news

|title=The Execution of Friday Last

|newspaper=New-York Tribune

|date=5 Dec 1859

|page=5

|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/84101801/execution-of-john-brown/

|access-date=25 August 2021

|archive-date=25 August 2021

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210825131620/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/84101801/execution-of-john-brown/

|url-status=live

}}{{cite news

|title=Brown's Interview with his Wife

|newspaper=Montrose Democrat

|location=Montrose, Pennsylvania

|date=Dec 8, 1859

|page=2

|url=https://newspaperarchive.com/celebrity-clipping-dec-08-1859-2682549/

|access-date=September 7, 2021

|archive-date=September 25, 2021

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210925151101/https://newspaperarchive.com/celebrity-clipping-dec-08-1859-2682549/

|url-status=live

}} but that was not allowed in Virginia, the Sheriff said, and Mrs. Brown did not want it either.{{cite news

|title=Directions about the disposition of his body

|newspaper=National Era

|location=Washington, D. C.

|date=December 8, 1859

|page=3

|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/64932448/disposition-of-john-browns-body/

|access-date=December 9, 2020

|archive-date=December 9, 2020

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201209093236/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/64932448/disposition-of-john-browns-body/

|url-status=live

}}{{cite news

|newspaper=Boston Cultivator

|date=December 10, 1859

|page=402

|url=https://archive.org/details/abrahamlincolnrelrjblinc/page/n9/mode/2up

|title=Visit of Mrs. Brown to her Husband}}{{cite news

|title=The Burial of John Brown

|newspaper=Daily News (London, England)

|date=3 Jan 1860

|page=2

|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/82780064/john-browns-funeral-and-burial/

|access-date=6 August 2021

|archive-date=6 August 2021

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210806185452/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/82780064/john-browns-funeral-and-burial/

|url-status=live

}}{{cite news

|title=John Brown's Grave. — In a Picturesque Spot in the Adirondacks. — Where Nature and Beauty Hold Full Sway—The Tombstone and Inscriptions—The John Brown Farm—The Old Man's Will—Miss Kate Field's Story

|newspaper=The Argus

|location=Albany, New York

|date=April 14, 1895

|page=15

|url=https://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/lccn/sn83045592/1895-04-14/ed-1/seq-15/}} Also, she did not feel up to identifying the partially decomposed body of Oliver, dead for over a month.{{cite news

|title=The Execution of Old John Brown. Full particulars of the prison and gallows scene. Old Brown's Will. He writes his own epitaph. Last interview with his wife and fellow-prisoners, &c. &c.

|newspaper=Chicago Tribune

|date=December 5, 1859

|page=1

|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/64103879/hanging-of-john-brown/

|access-date=November 27, 2020

|archive-date=December 9, 2020

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201209093237/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/64103879/hanging-of-john-brown/

|url-status=live

}}{{cite news

|title=Letter of Gov. Wise to Mrs. Brown

|newspaper=Gettysburg Compiler

|location=Gettysburg, Pennsylvania

|date=December 12, 1859

|page=1

|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/78589809/mrs-john-brown-and-governor-henry-a/

|access-date=July 11, 2021

|archive-date=June 2, 2021

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210602214941/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/78589809/mrs-john-brown-and-governor-henry-a/

|url-status=live

}} She rejected the repeated suggestion of Wendell Phillips, Lydia Maria Child, and others that John be buried "with impressive funeral solemnities" in Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with the erection of a monument. Also she rejected proposals to pack his body in ice, with the rope around his neck, and exhibit it in "all our principal cities and even the minor ones."

The trip to North Elba

=Harpers Ferry to Rutland, Vermont=

Despite the "great propaganda value" of these proposed measures,{{cite book

|title=His Soul Goes Marching On. Responses to John Brown and the Harpers Ferry Raid

|editor-first=Paul

|editor-last=Finkleman

|editor-link=Paul Finkleman

|location=Charlottesville, Virginia

|publisher=University Press of Virginia

|year=1995

|isbn=0813915368

|first=Paul

|last=Finkleman

|author-link=Paul Finkleman

|chapter=Manufacturing Martyrdom. The Anti-Slavery Response to John Brown's Raid

|pages=41–66, at p. 43}}{{rp|47}} Mary set off early Saturday morning, December 3, on the one daily Baltimore and Ohio express train for Baltimore—the same one Brown stopped on October 16, and Robert E. Lee took home on October 19—with her husband's body. She was accompanied by James Miller McKim and Hector Tyndale. In Baltimore she changed trains for Philadelphia, arriving about 12:30 pm.{{cite news

|title=John Brown's remains

|newspaper=National Anti-Slavery Standard

|date=December 10, 1859

|page=3

|via=accessible-archives.com

|url-access=subscription

|url=https://www.accessible.com/accessible/docButton?AAWhat=builtPage&AAWhere=NATIONALANTISLAVERYSTANDARD.18591210_002.image&AABeanName=toc3&AANextPage=/printBrowseBuiltImagePage.jsp

|access-date=July 11, 2021

|archive-date=July 11, 2021

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210711100434/https://www.accessible.com/accessible/docButton?AAWhat=builtPage&AAWhere=NATIONALANTISLAVERYSTANDARD.18591210_002.image&AABeanName=toc3&AANextPage=%2FprintBrowseBuiltImagePage.jsp

|url-status=live

}} Mary intended to stop there, rest, and have the body prepared by an undertaker, "but the prospect of the body's approach produced such an excitement in that city...that the Mayor believed it would be impossible, if the body should remain," to maintain public order.{{cite news

|title=John Brown's remains

|newspaper=New-York Tribune

|date=5 Dec 1859

|page=5

|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/84101801/execution-of-john-brown/

|access-date=25 August 2021

|archive-date=25 August 2021

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210825131620/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/84101801/execution-of-john-brown/

|url-status=live

}} Accompanied by many policemen, he met the train. Although most of the crowd awaiting its arrival consisted of sympathetic Blacks, the Mayor took a long tool box from a baggage car, covered it, and had it taken away quickly, the crowd following the sham coffin.{{rp|234}} Brown's body was taken immediately by ferry to Camden, New Jersey, and from there via the Camden & Amboy Railroad to South Amboy, New Jersey. A Quaker undertaker, Jacob M. Hopper, met the ferry from South Amboy to New York at the ferry port, The Battery. Although Hopper's studio was in Brooklyn, he rented briefly a room at another funeral establishment, McGraw and Taylor, at 163 Bowery, in Manhattan. There is a historic marker.{{cite news

|title=John Brown's Body On The Bowery. McGraw and Taylor Undertakers — 163 Bowery —

|publisher=Historical Marker Database

|date=2019

|access-date=August 14, 2021

|url=https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=179403

|archive-date=August 14, 2021

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210814110334/https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=179403

|url-status=live

}} There he removed the body from the plain coffin it came in,{{cite news

|title=To Major-General Wm. B. Taliaferro, in command at Charlestown

|first=Henry A.

|last=Wise

|author-link=Henry A. Wise

|orig-date=November 26, 1859

|newspaper=Elizabethtown Post (Elizabethtown, New York)

|date=December 10, 1859

|page=2

|url=https://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/lccn/sn83030973/1859-12-10/ed-1/seq-2/

|access-date=July 25, 2021

|archive-date=July 25, 2021

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210725235710/https://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/lccn/sn83030973/1859-12-10/ed-1/seq-2/

|url-status=live

}} washed it, dressed it, and placed it in a {{convert|5|ft|10|in}} walnut coffin.{{citation

|date=December 4, 1859

|title=[Statement and receipt]

|url=http://www.wvculture.org/history/jbexhibit/bbsms12-0054.html

|author=J. M. Hopper, General Furnishing Undertaker

|location=Brooklyn, New York

|access-date=July 11, 2021

|archive-date=April 27, 2021

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210427175252/http://www.wvculture.org/history/jbexhibit/bbsms12-0054.html

|url-status=live

}} A small crowd gathered outside the establishment. After resting Saturday night in Philadelphia Mrs. Brown continued to New York on Sunday, spending the night there with friends.{{cite book

|title=The John Brown invasion; an authentic history of the Harper's Ferry tragedy, with full details of the capture, trial, and execution of the invaders and of all the incidents connected therewith. With a lithographic portrait of Capt. John Brown, from a photograph by Whipple

|first=Thomas

|last=Drew

|year=1860

|location=Boston

|publisher=James Campbell

|url=https://digital.library.cornell.edu/catalog/may852407

|access-date=2021-07-14

|archive-date=2021-07-14

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210714161142/https://digital.library.cornell.edu/catalog/may852407

|url-status=live

}}{{rp|70}}

At 7 AM on Monday the 5th, Mrs. Brown, described as "quite unwell", McKim, Richard P. Hallowell, and the coffin proceeded north on the Hudson River Railroad, the oak coffin having been placed inside a pine box.{{cite news

|title=Arrival of John Brown's remains at Troy

| url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/113414148/john-browns-remains-arrive-in-troy/

|newspaper=The New York Times

|date=Dec 7, 1859

|page=1}} They were accompanied by a reporter from the New-York Tribune and Thomas Nast, a sketch artist for Harper's and the New York Illustrated Weekly. Church bells rang and crowds gathered as they proceeded up the Hudson{{rp|48}}{{cite news

|title=The Burial of John Brown. The passage of the body to North Elba. The funeral. Speeches of Mr. McKim and Mr. Phillips

|newspaper=New-York Tribune

|date=December 12, 1859

|page=6

|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/76940404/john-browns-funeral/

|access-date=July 11, 2021

|archive-date=May 3, 2021

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210503111419/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/76940404/john-browns-funeral/

|url-status=live

}} (Most of this article appeared in [https://www.newspapers.com/clip/63000537/burial-of-john-brown-in-north-elba/ The Liberator, December 16, 1859, p. 3] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210412104910/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/63000537/burial-of-john-brown-in-north-elba/ |date=April 12, 2021 }}, as well as other newspapers) to Troy, New York, where they were joined by Wendell Phillips, arriving from Boston with the hope of bringing Brown's body to Boston for burial in Mount Auburn Cemetery.{{cite news

|title=Telegraphic to the Daily Whig & Courier

|newspaper=Bangor Daily Whig and Courier (Bangor, Maine)

|date=5 Dec 1859

|page=3

|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/83791779/john-browns-burial/

|access-date=20 August 2021

|archive-date=20 August 2021

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210820090446/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/83791779/john-browns-burial/

|url-status=live

}} An impromptu announcement said this was not going to happen, since Brown had wanted to be buried at his farm.{{cite news

|title=The remains of John Brown

|newspaper=New York Daily Herald

|date=6 Dec 1859

|page=8

File:Essex County Courthouse, Elizabethtown, New York.jpg

|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/83790742/john-browns-remains/

|access-date=20 August 2021

|archive-date=20 August 2021

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210820071545/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/83790742/john-browns-remains/

|url-status=live

}} Waiting for the next train they stopped briefly at the American House hotel, where John had often stayed, and whose manager said he had been offered "tempting prices" for the signatures in his register. Another train took them to Rutland, Vermont, where they spent Monday night.

=Rutland to North Elba=

File:John Brown's Trial at Charlestown, Va.jpg

File:John Brown's coffin arrives at North Elba.jpg

On Tuesday morning, December 6, the party continued by train to Vergennes, from which a ferry crossed Lake Champlain. 75 citizens escorted the party to the border of the city, standing in two lines with uncovered heads as the coffin passed by.{{cite news

|title=Funeral of John Brown—Wendell Phillips at Vergennes

|newspaper=Vermont Patriot and State Gazette (Montpelier, Vermont)

|date=December 17, 1859

|page=2

|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/81618851/funeral-of-john-brown/

|access-date=July 17, 2021

|archive-date=July 17, 2021

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210717112305/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/81618851/funeral-of-john-brown/

|url-status=live

}} A "procession of carriages" escorted them to the lake shore, with church bells ringing,{{rp|71}} and they boarded the ferry, which altered its normal docking point on the New York side to leave them closer to their destination.{{cite journal

|first=Joshua

|last=Young

|title=The Funeral of John Brown

|journal=New England Magazine

|pages=229–243

|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RaUTAAAAYAAJ&q=Funeral

|volume=30

|date=April 1904

|number=2

|access-date=2021-07-11

|archive-date=2021-07-11

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210711100451/https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_New_England_Magazine/RaUTAAAAYAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=Funeral

|url-status=live

}}

A wagon awaited them at Westport, New York, and took them to Elizabethtown over an abandoned plank road, described as "excessively rough and unpleasant".{{cite journal |date=1861–1862 |title=A Visit to the Adirondack Mountains, in the summer of 1861 |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.ah6nb6&view=1up&seq=662 |url-status=live |journal=Friends' Intelligencer |volume=18 |pages=650–652, 665–667, 699–701, 715–717, 726–728, 742–743 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210728184842/https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.ah6nb6&view=1up&seq=662 |archive-date=2021-07-28 |access-date=2021-07-28}}{{rp|666}} Tuesday night, December 6, was spent at Adam's Hotel in Elizabethtown, New York. Brown's body lay in state at the Essex County Courthouse, with an honor guard of six men,{{rp|237}}{{rp|124}} chief among them Orlando Kellogg, "who never tired of telling the story of that December night".{{citation |title=What Mary Brown Saw: A Self-Guided Tour |date=2005 |url=https://ahmexhibits.omeka.net/exhibits/show/on-the-trail-of-john-brown--wh/on-the-trail-of-john-brown--wh |access-date=July 20, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210728213945/https://ahmexhibits.omeka.net/exhibits/show/on-the-trail-of-john-brown--wh/on-the-trail-of-john-brown--wh |archive-date=July 28, 2021 |url-status=live |series=On the Trail of John Brown |publisher=Adirondack History Museum, Elizabethtown, New York}}. A cultural heritage tour developed by the Essex County Historical Society and Adirondack Architectural Heritage.{{rp|18}} Wendell Phillips gave an impromptu talk of almost two hours on Brown's failed raid, his trial, and his execution.{{cite news

|title=Historical Reminiscences. Essex County, its Shire Town, Court House and Prominent Men

|first=David

|last=Turner

|newspaper=Elizabethtown Post (Elizabethtown, New York)

|date=March 2, 1899

|via=NYS Historical Newspapers

|url=https://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/lccn/sn92061913/1899-03-02/ed-1/seq-1/

|access-date=2021-08-23

|archive-date=2021-08-23

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210823104929/https://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/lccn/sn92061913/1899-03-02/ed-1/seq-1/

|url-status=live

}} There is a historical marker,{{citation

|title=John Brown's Body

|publisher=Historical Marker Database

|year=2019

|access-date=August 10, 2021

|url=https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=136665

|archive-date=August 14, 2021

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210814102019/https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=136665

|url-status=live

}} and in the Courthouse, since 1923, a painting of John Brown on trial.

The next day, December 7, the casket and the party, in two wagons, made the "most arduous trip" to Brown's farm.{{cite news

|title=The Burial of John Brown.—Incidents Along the Route of the Procession—Obsequies at North Elba—The Scene at the Grave—Oration of Rev. J. M. McKim—Interesting Letter from Edwin Coppi[c]—John Brown's Last Epistle to His Wife—Eulogy by Wendell Phillips, &c., &c.

|newspaper=New York Daily Herald

|date=12 Dec 1859

|page=1

|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/82677949/john-browns-funeral/

|access-date=2 August 2021

|archive-date=2 August 2021

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210802200341/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/82677949/john-browns-funeral/

|url-status=live

}}{{rp|238}} It took a whole day to cover the {{convert|20|mi}} from Elizabethtown, through Keene, to North Elba. Everyone had to get off the wagons and walk for part of the day, to lighten the load on the horses. The descent was even more dangerous than the ascent. From Keene to North Elba they went via what is today (2021) called Old Mountain Road,{{cite news

|title=Taking a trip on the Old Mountain Road

|first=Lee

|last=Manchester

|newspaper=Lake Placid News (Lake Placid, New York)

|date=May 23, 2000

|url=http://www.aarch.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/030523VLPOldMtn.Road_.pdf

|access-date=August 23, 2021

|archive-date=August 23, 2021

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210823100317/http://www.aarch.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/030523VLPOldMtn.Road_.pdf

|url-status=live

}}{{cite news

|title=John Brown. A new guidebook follows the route of his body to North Elba (part 2 of 2)

|newspaper=Lake Placid News (Lake Placid, New York)

|date=December 9, 2005

|page=34

|url=https://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/lccn/sn86033359/2005-12-09/ed-1/seq-34/

File:John Brown's burial.jpg

|access-date=2021-08-14

|archive-date=2021-08-14

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210814113157/https://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/lccn/sn86033359/2005-12-09/ed-1/seq-34/

|url-status=live

}} not via Indian Pass, as Young misremembered.{{rp|238}} The final part of the road, impassible to vehicles for many years, is since 1986 part of the Jackrabbit Ski Trail.{{cite web

|title=Jackrabbit Ski Trail

|author=Barkeater Trails Alliance

|location=Lake Placid, New York

|url=https://www.betatrails.org/jackrabbit-ski-trail.html

|accessdate=April 4, 2022}}

From 2002 to 2005 a yearly excursion retraced this most difficult part of the trip.{{cite news |date=December 9, 2005 |title=Lest We Forget. A new guidebook follows the path taken home by abolitionist John abrown's coffin in 1859. Brown's burial was 144 years ago this week. Lee Manchester retraces the abolitionist's body's return to his North Elba farm |url=https://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/lccn/sn86033359/2005-12-09/ed-1/seq-27/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210814102018/https://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/lccn/sn86033359/2005-12-09/ed-1/seq-27/ |archive-date=2021-08-14 |access-date=2021-08-14 |newspaper=Lake Placid News |page=27 |via=NYS Historic Newspapers}} In 2005 a guidebook to the route was published.{{cite news |date=July 4, 2002 |title='What Mary Brown Saw' with AARCH |url=https://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/lccn/sn86033359/2002-07-04/ed-1/seq-12/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210814090558/https://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/lccn/sn86033359/2002-07-04/ed-1/seq-12/ |archive-date=2021-08-14 |access-date=2021-08-14 |newspaper=Lake Placid News |page=13 |via=NYS Historic Newspapers}}

Brown's funeral

His funeral, with open casket, and burial took place on December 8, 1859, at the John Brown Farm State Historic Site, near modern Lake Placid, New York, where his "body lies a-mouldering", as the Battle Hymn of the Republic says. "Quite a number" of local residents attended.{{cite news

|title=John Brown, His Raiders, and Their Last Resting Place

|newspaper=Elizabethtown Post (Elizabethtown, New York)

|date=August 31, 1899

|page=4

|url=https://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/lccn/sn92061913/1899-08-31/ed-1/seq-4/

|access-date=2021-08-23

|archive-date=2021-08-23

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210823101856/https://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/lccn/sn92061913/1899-08-31/ed-1/seq-4/

|url-status=live

}} Oliver's widow was present, but not the widow of Watson.{{rp|73}} It would be many years before their bodies, along with those of Ruth Brown's husband William Thompson and his brother Augustus Dauphin Thompson, were recovered and buried next to their father.{{cite journal

|title=The Final Burial of the Followers of John Brown

|first=Thomas

|last=Featherstonhaugh

|journal=New England Magazine

|date=April 1901

|url=http://www.wvculture.org/history/jbexhibit/bbspr03-0015.html

|access-date=2021-07-14

|archive-date=2020-02-19

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200219113507/http://www.wvculture.org/history/jbexhibit/bbspr03-0015.html

|url-status=live

}}

The company sang Brown's favorite hymn, "Blow ye the trumpet—Blow".{{cite news

|title=John Brown's Funeral

|newspaper=New-York Tribune

|date=December 10, 1859

|page=5

|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/76940237/john-browns-funeral/

|access-date=July 11, 2021

|archive-date=July 9, 2021

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210709185453/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/76940237/john-browns-funeral/

|url-status=live

}}{{rp|239}} The hymn's reference to {{Bible|Joel|2:1}}, "Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming, it is near" was known to those that read the Bible, and it announced the liberation of slaves, for "The year of jubilee is come! Return, ye ransomed sinners, home." Eldest daughter Ruth accompanied on a melodeon, a wedding present from her father,{{cite encyclopedia

|encyclopedia=KansaPedia

|entry=John Brown Melodeon

|publisher=Kansas Historical Society

|date=2010

|entry-url=https://www.kshs.org/kansapedia/john-brown-melodeon/10326

|title=John Brown Melodeon - Kansapedia - Kansas Historical Society

|access-date=2021-08-04

|archive-date=2021-08-04

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210804121953/https://www.kshs.org/kansapedia/john-brown-melodeon/10326

|url-status=live

}} later to occupy a niche in her home in Pasadena, California,{{cite news

|title=John Brown's Family. The Man of Harper's Ferry Fame. His Sons and Daughter. Visit to Their Homes in Pasadena. California. One Who Lived Has Suffered Intensely and Above the Petty Annoyances of Life.

|newspaper=The Inter Ocean (Chicago, Illinois)

|date=July 23, 1893

|page=13

|first=Una B.

|last=Nixson

|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/76818707/the-brown-family-in-pasadena/

|access-date=July 11, 2021

|archive-date=May 25, 2021

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210525051006/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/76818707/the-brown-family-in-pasadena/

|url-status=live

}}

Rev. Joshua Young, from nearby Burlington, heard of the upcoming burial as the body passed through Rutland, and decided to attend, traveling all night—the moon was almost full{{cite web

|url=https://www.moongiant.com/calendar/december/1859/

|access-date=December 15, 2020

|publisher=MoonGiant

|title=December 1859 - Moon Phase Calendar

|archive-date=September 25, 2021

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210925150949/https://www.moongiant.com/calendar/december/1859/

|url-status=live

}}—and arriving only hours before the ceremony. As he was the only clergyman present—others had declined{{cite encyclopedia

|contribution=Joshua Young

|first1=Melinda

|last1=Green

|first2=Karen G.

|last2=Johnston

|date=August 8, 2018

|title=Dictionary of Unitarian & Universalist Biography

|publisher=Unitarian Universalist History & Heritage Society

|url=https://uudb.org/articles/joshuayoung.html

|access-date=July 11, 2021

|archive-date=April 22, 2020

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200422090457/https://uudb.org/articles/joshuayoung.html

|url-status=live

}}—Phillips requested that he conduct the funeral service, and Young said he then "knew why God had sent [him] there".{{rp|239}} The reporter present, who took it down stenographically, called Young's impromptu opening prayer "impressive":

{{blockquote|Our souls are filled with awe and are subdued to silence, as we think of that great, reverential, heroic soul, whose mortal remains we are now to commit to the earth, 'dust to dust,' while his spirit dwells with God who gave it, and his memory is enshrined in every pure and holy heart. ...May we consecrate ourselves anew to the work of Truth, Righteousness, and Love, forevermore to sympathize with the outcast and the oppressed, with the humble and the least of our suffering fellow-men.

...But, father in heaven, in imitation of the self-forgetfulness and self-sacrifice of the great departed, putting aside all personal anguish and all private grief, we supplicate thy special blessing upon God's despised ones—the poor enslaved, for whom our brother laid down his life. O! God cause the oppressed to go free, break any yoke and prostrate the pride and prejudice that dare to lift themselves up; and O! hasten the day when no more wrong or injustice shall be done on the earth; when all men shall love one another with pure hearts, fervently, and love God and do his will with all their soul and all their strength.{{cite news

|title=The Burial of John Brown. The passage of the body to North Elba. The funeral. Speeches of Mr. McKim and Mr. Phillips

|newspaper=New-York Tribune

|date=December 12, 1859

|page=6

|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/76940404/john-browns-funeral/

|access-date=July 11, 2021

|archive-date=May 3, 2021

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210503111419/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/76940404/john-browns-funeral/

|url-status=live

James McKim, who had accompanied Mrs. Brown in retrieving the body of her husband from Virginia, then offered remarks, and Wendell Phillips gave what Rev. Young called "one of his matchless speeches... Every hearer saw a great vision—one never to be forgotten".{{rp|239}} According to Phillips, "hereafter you will tell children standing at your knees, 'I saw John Brown buried, — I sat under his roof.'"{{cite book

|first=Wendell

|last=Phillips

|chapter=Burial of John Brown

|pages=289–293, at p. 292

|title=Speeches, Lectures, and Letters

|location=Boston

|publisher=James Redpath

|year=1863

|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/speecheslectures01phil/page/262/mode/2up}} Phillips "intimated that Massachusetts would yet possess the remains of John Brown."{{cite news

|title=The final disposition of the Remains of John Brown

|newspaper=Elizabethtown Post (Elizabethtown, New York)

|date=December 10, 1859

|page=2

|url=https://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/lccn/sn83030973/1859-12-10/ed-1/seq-2/

|access-date=2021-07-25

|archive-date=2021-07-25

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210725235710/https://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/lccn/sn83030973/1859-12-10/ed-1/seq-2/

|url-status=live

}}

Brown had requested that he be buried next to the large boulder near his farmhouse: "When I die, bury me by the big rock where I love to sit and read the word of God."{{cite news

|title=John Brown's Grave

|first=Ruth C.

|last=Cairns

|newspaper=Western Spirit

|location=Paola, Kansas

|date=15 Oct 1915

|page=7

|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/98770727/john-browns-grave/}} As the body was lowered into the grave, Rev. Young recited the words of Paul just before his death, words John especially loved and which were inscribed in birch bark on the wall of a room in his house:{{cite news

|title=John Brown's Grave. — His Farm Is Kept as a Memorial. — The House Where He Lived, Surrounding Scenery, Abolition Relics, New Railroads, &c.

|newspaper=St. Lawrence Republican and Ogdensburgh Weekly Journal

|date=April 18, 1894

|page=4

|url=https://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/lccn/sn83031416/1894-04-18/ed-1/seq-4/}} "I have fought the good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. From now on there is reserved for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give me on that day" ({{Bibleverse|2 Timothy|4:7-8}}).{{cite news

|title=The Burial of John Brown

|newspaper=Cincinnati Daily Commercial (Cincinnati, Ohio)

|date=December 14, 1859

|page=3

|url=https://newspaperarchive.com/cincinnati-daily-commercial-dec-14-1859-p-3/

|access-date=February 16, 2022

|archive-date=February 17, 2022

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220217010552/https://newspaperarchive.com/cincinnati-daily-commercial-dec-14-1859-p-3/

|url-status=live

}}{{rp|240}} For this specifically, and in general for having presided over Brown's funeral, he found himself reviled upon his return home to Burlington.{{rp|240–242}}{{cite news

|title=(Untitled)

|newspaper=Burlington Weekly Sentinel (Burlington, Vermont)

|date=December 16, 1859

|page=2

|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/58151592/the-burlington-weekly-sentinel/

|access-date=July 11, 2021

|archive-date=July 9, 2021

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210709184409/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/58151592/the-burlington-weekly-sentinel/

|url-status=live

}} "I was called all manner of names. I was an anarchist, a traitor to my country, a blasphemer, and a 'vile associate of Garrison and Phillips.'"{{cite news

|title=How It Happened Body of John Brown Came to Town

|first=John Parker

|last=Lee

|newspaper=Rutland Daily Herald (Rutland, Vermont)

|date=September 2, 1925

|page=4

|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/81079431/passage-of-john-browns-gody-through/

|access-date=July 17, 2021

|archive-date=July 17, 2021

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210717124433/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/81079431/passage-of-john-browns-gody-through/

|url-status=live

}} "The best thing I ever did was called the worst."{{cite journal

|title=A Martyr for John Brown. The absorbing true story of a Vermont Abolitionist minister who sacrificed his livelihood and jeopardized his career to preach the funeral service of John Brown.

|pages=265–267, at p. 267

|first=Leonard

|last=Twynham

|journal=Opportunity

|date=September 1938

|url=https://archive.org/details/sim_opportunity-a-journal-of-negro-life_1938-09_16_9/page/264/mode/2up}} He was eventually forced to resign his pulpit, and was told he would never get another ministerial position, which turned out not to be true.

Accompanying him back to Vermont, Wendell Phillips repeated his lecture, in a Town Hall full to overflowing, in Vergennes:

{{blockquote|John Brown, said Mr. Phillips, represented the idea of the Northern people. He was emphatically one of those old Puritans of whom we love to dream. It is the death of men that make the greatest changes in the world. John Brown's death would effect a great change in American politics. A great man is one who becomes a centre for people to crystallize around. John Brown was such a man.{{cite news

|title=Funeral of John Brown. Wendell Phillips at Vergennes

|newspaper=Burlington Times (Burlington, Vermont)

|date=December 14, 1859

|page=1

|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/81619187/funeral-of-john-brown/

|access-date=July 17, 2021

|archive-date=July 17, 2021

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210717115410/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/81619187/funeral-of-john-brown/

|url-status=live

}}}}

Mr. Phillips carried to Boston, from North Elba, a "large quantity of valuable matter", intended for Mr. Child's promised memoir of John Brown (which never appeared). This matter consisted of letters and other papers, and photographs of several members of the Brown and Thompson families.{{cite news

|title=Speech of Wendell Phillips

|newspaper=New-York Tribune

|date=December 12, 1859

|page=6

|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/76940404/john-browns-funeral/

|access-date=July 11, 2021

|archive-date=May 3, 2021

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210503111419/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/76940404/john-browns-funeral/

|url-status=live

}} This material was then made available to the family's chosen biographer, James Redpath.

Memorial on July 4, 1860

His widow Mary soon complained to the press about "the multitude of letters addressed to her, for one purpose or another, by entire strangers, who have no claims upon her attention, and who seek to promote their own interest or gratify their curiosity, regardless of the restraints of delicacy and propriety."{{cite journal

|title=Personal

|journal=Harpers Weekly

|page=135

|date=March 3, 1860

|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015006963360&view=2up&seq=125&q1=John%20brown

|access-date=July 11, 2021

|archive-date=July 11, 2021

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210711100437/https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015006963360&view=2up&seq=125

|url-status=live

}}

On July 4, 1860, there was a memorial ceremony in honor of Brown at his farm. A Programme was issued announcing it;{{cite news

|title=Programme of a John Brown Fourth of July Celebration

|newspaper=Memphis Weekly Bulletin (Memphis, Tennessee)

|date=5 Jul 1860

|page=3

|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/80776105/fourth-at-north-elba-programme/

|access-date=30 January 2022

|archive-date=30 January 2022

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220130212837/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/80776105/fourth-at-north-elba-programme/

|url-status=live

}} the family friends and biographers Richard J. Hinton and James Redpath signed them. This was the last time the living members of Brown's family would gather as a group.{{cite journal

|title=Owen Brown's Escape From Harper's Ferry.

|journal=Atlantic Monthly

|date=March 1874

|pages=342–365, at p. 365

|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=chi.25763588&view=2up&seq=352

|first=Ralph

|last=Keeler

|access-date=2021-07-11

|archive-date=2020-11-07

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201107072844/https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=chi.25763588&view=2up&seq=352

|url-status=live

}}{{cite journal

|pages=691–703, at p. 701

|title=John Brown and His Men

|first=Richard J.

|last=Hinton

|journal=Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly

|volume=27

|year=1889

|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=inu.32000000492225&view=1up&seq=709

|access-date=2021-07-11

|archive-date=2021-07-11

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210711100437/https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=inu.32000000492225&view=1up&seq=709

|url-status=live

}} Those of his raiders still alive, except Tidd, also attended.

By 10 AM, 1,000 people were in attendance.{{rp|16}} The Declaration of Independence was read. Brown's favorite hymn, "Blow ye the trumpet, blow," was sung.

The "Orator of the Day", who stood atop the large boulder when speaking, was Luther Lee, a senior member of the U.S. abolitionist movement, born the same year as John Brown (1800). He spoke for two hours.{{cite news

|title=The Fourth at North Elba

|first=L. C.

|last=Patridge

|newspaper=Anti-Slavery Bugle

|location=Salem, Ohio

|date=August 4, 1860

|page=2

|url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83035487/1860-08-04/ed-1/seq-2/}}

Thaddeus Hyatt attended, and spoke briefly. Letters apologizing for non-attendance were read from Thomas Wentworth Higginson, H. Ford Douglas, Rev. J. Sella Martin, James Redpath, F. B. Sanborn (who enclosed a hymn, which was also read), C. H. Brainard, and Frederick Douglass. Thoreau's "The Last Days of John Brown" was read in full. Brown's sons John Jr. and Owen, visiting from Ohio, also spoke. Others speaking were raiders Osborne Anderson, Barclay Coppoc, and Francis J. Meriam.{{cite news

|title=Celebration at North Elba. The Fourth of July among the Adirondacks (pt. 1 of 2)

|newspaper=The Liberator

|location=Boston, Massachusetts

|date=27 Jul 1860

|page=1

|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/54680019/fourth-at-north-elba-part-1/

|access-date=2 February 2022

|archive-date=2 February 2022

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220202004710/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/54680019/fourth-at-north-elba-part-1/

|url-status=live

}}{{cite news

|title=Celebration at North Elba. The Fourth of July among the Adirondacks (pt. 2 of 2)

|newspaper=The Liberator

|location=Boston, Massachusetts

|date=27 Jul 1860

|page=2

|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/54680188/fourth-at-north-elba-part-2/

|access-date=2 February 2022

|archive-date=2 February 2022

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220202004651/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/54680188/fourth-at-north-elba-part-2/

|url-status=live

}}

The family moves to California

In 1860, the only son at the farm was Salmon, born in 1836, married in 1857.{{cite news

|title=John Brown's family comes west—Chapter 2

|first=Al

|last=Reck

|newspaper=Oakland Tribune (Oakland, California)

|date=15 Jan 1961

|page=103 (4-M)

|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/342899122/

|access-date=21 February 2022

|archive-date=21 February 2022

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220221035759/https://www.newspapers.com/image/342899122/

|url-status=live

}} The oldest boys, John Jr. and Jason, who, like Salmon, chose not to go to Harpers Ferry after their experiences in Kansas, were already farming in Ohio. Owen, escaping from the Harpers Ferry raid, joined them and remained in Ohio until the Civil War was over. Frederick was killed in Kansas; Oliver and Watson were killed at Harpers Ferry. Annie and Sarah were enrolled in Franklin Sanborn's school in Concord, Massachusetts; tuition was paid by George L. Stearns, one of the Secret Six.{{rp|32}}

It was lonely for Mary, and more so after Salmon departed early in 1862 to join the Union Army; he was sworn in as 2nd Lieutenant of the 96th Regiment New York Volunteers, but he soon resigned, as those under him, presumably pro-slavery men, complained over his head about having a son of John Brown as their leader.{{cite news

|title=An incident for history

|newspaper=The Liberator

|location=Boston, Massachusetts

|date=28 Mar 1862

|page=3

|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/58118099/salmon-brown-asked-to-resign/

|access-date=21 February 2022

|archive-date=21 February 2022

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220221120126/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/58118099/salmon-brown-asked-to-resign/

|url-status=live

}}{{cite news

|title=A small potato affair

|newspaper=Sandusky Daily Commercial Register (Sandusky, Ohio)

|date=Mar 20, 1862

|page=2

|url=https://newspaperarchive.com/military-clipping-mar-20-1862-3038195/

|access-date=February 18, 2022

|archive-date=February 18, 2022

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220218035906/https://newspaperarchive.com/military-clipping-mar-20-1862-3038195/

|url-status=live

}} In 1863 she leased and in 1865 sold the farm, {{convert|244|acre}}, to Alexis Hinckley, a brother of Salmon's wife Abigail, for $800 ({{inflation|US|800|1863|fmt=eq}}).{{cite book

|title=Kate Field; a record

|first=Lilian

|last=Whiting

|publisher=Little, Brown & Co.

|location=Boston

|year=1900

|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433082349501&view=1up&seq=271&skin=2021&q1=%22John%20%20brown%22

|page=225}} The grave site was not sold, and it was written into the sale that everyone would be able to access John Brown's grave.

Accompanied by Salmon, his wife and two daughters, and Brown's daughters Sarah and Ellen, Mary set out in November 1863,{{cite news

|title=John Brown's family comes west – Chapter 1

|newspaper=Oakland Tribune (Oakland, California)

|date=8 Jan 1961

|page=114 (4-M)

|first=Al

|last=Reck

|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/33881314/brown-family/

|access-date=22 February 2022

|archive-date=22 February 2022

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220222132451/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/33881314/brown-family/

|url-status=live

}} driven by Lyman Epps to the new rail line at Keene, for John Jr.'s home at Put-in-Bay, Ohio.{{rp|18}} John Jr. joined Mary in complaining about the large number of curiosity seekers that visited him. "Our house has been like a well-patronized Hotel," he said.

File:Sarah Brown and a replica "prairie schooner".jpg are replicas.)]]

Pushing on, Mary bought a farm in Decorah, Iowa, raising poultry and quail,{{cite news

|title=Abbie Brown's Memoir. Across the Plains in the Early 60's As Told By One Who Participated in the Stirring Events of That Adventurous Western Era

|first=Abbie C. Hinckley

|last=Brown

|journal=Overland Journal

|issn=0738-1093

|date=Summer 2019

|via=Ebsco

|volume=37

|number=2

|editor-first=Will

|editor-last=Bagley

|others=The author was the wife of Salmon Brown

|orig-date=1916

|url=https://web-s-ebscohost-com.wikipedialibrary.idm.oclc.org/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=7&sid=cf69eff3-dd6b-4052-bad5-f3f30280899f%40redis

|pages=68–76

|access-date=2022-02-23

|archive-date=2022-03-01

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220301161207/https://wikipedialibrary.wmflabs.org/?next_url=/ezproxy/r/ezp.2aHR0cHM6Ly93ZWIucy5lYnNjb2hvc3QuY29tL2Vob3N0L3BkZnZpZXdlci9wZGZ2aWV3ZXI.dmlkPTcmc2lkPWNmNjllZmYzLWRkNmItNDA1Mi1iYWQ1LWYzZjMwMjgwODk5ZiU0MHJlZGlz

|url-status=live

}}{{rp|70}} and was joined there by Annie, who had just spent six months teaching former slaves in Norfolk, Virginia.{{cite journal

|title=Living legacies of Harpers Ferry

|last=Weber

|first=Sandra

|journal=Civil War Times

|issn=1546-9980

|date=Feb 2005

|volume=43

|issue=6

|via=Ebsco Academic Search Complete

|url=https://web-s-ebscohost-com.wikipedialibrary.idm.oclc.org/ehost/detail/detail?vid=25&sid=337826d0-6e74-4044-95e7-3a39ddb533f2%40redis

|access-date=2022-02-21

|archive-date=2022-03-01

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220301161204/https://wikipedialibrary.wmflabs.org/?next_url=/ezproxy/r/ezp.2aHR0cHM6Ly93ZWIucy5lYnNjb2hvc3QuY29tL2Vob3N0L2RldGFpbC9kZXRhaWw.dmlkPTI1JnNpZD0zMzc4MjZkMC02ZTc0LTQwNDQtOTVlNy0zYTM5ZGRiNTMzZjIlNDByZWRpcw--

|url-status=live

}} After one winter, the hardest on record as of that date,{{cite news

|title=Threats, then friends for John Brown's people. A long journey brings widow Brown to rest in Saratoga

|newspaper=Los Gatos Times-Saratoga Observer (Los Gatos, California)

|date=26 Mar 1953

|page=7

|first=Sam

|last=Hanson

|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/96415646/john-browns-family-pt-1-of-2/

|access-date=25 February 2022

|archive-date=25 February 2022

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220225191446/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/96415646/john-browns-family-pt-1-of-2/

|url-status=live

}} colder than anything they'd experienced in North Elba,{{cite news

|title=John Brown's Son Writes Interestingly. Recent Letter from Salmon Brown to B. R. Brewster Recalls Reminiscences of the Past

|first=Salmon

|last=Brown

|newspaper=Lake Placid News (Lake Placid, New York)

|date=July 24, 1914

|url=https://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/lccn/sn86033359/1914-07-24/ed-1/seq-8/

|page=8}} the family set off further west, in three covered wagons, via the Mormon Trail, crossing the Mississippi at Council Bluffs, Iowa, then Fort Kearny, Nebraska, and Soda Springs, Idaho.{{cite book

|title=Mary Brown: From Harpers Ferry to California

|date=1975

|first=Daniel

|last=Rosenberg

|location=New York

|publisher=American Institute for Marxist Studies}}{{rp|18–21}} Southern sympathizers attempted to kill them on the trip, and four of Salmon's Merino sheep—travelling in a wagon—were poisoned. The family received a military escort for several hundred miles.{{rp|21–24}}{{cite news

|title=The Family of John Brown. How Part of Them as it Were Miraculously Escaped Perils of Death on the Plains

|last=Brown

|first=Agnes Stuart

|others=(The author is daughter of John Brown's son Salmon Brown)

|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/95312879/mary-brown-salmon-brown-en-route-to/

|newspaper=Boston Evening Transcript (Boston, Massachusetts)

|date=21 Sep 1900

|page=8

|access-date=18 February 2022

|archive-date=18 February 2022

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220218195805/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/95312879/mary-brown-salmon-brown-en-route-to/

|url-status=live

}}

"You will ask how I liked crossing the Plains," wrote Annie to her sister in 1864. "It will do for one six mouths of one's life, but I should hate to waste another by doing it over again. We had a remarkably good time, and enjoyed it much; did not suffer deprivations or otherwise, as I supposed we should; still, I do not think I could advise any one to undertake the journey."{{cite news

|title=John Brown's Family Safe

|newspaper=The Liberator

|location=Boston, Massachusetts=

|date=25 Nov 1864

|page=2

|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/2563691/the-liberator/

|orig-date=October 9, 1864

|first=Annie

|last=Brown}}

The end of the trip, where they settled in the fall of 1864, after 25 weeks of travel, was Red Bluff, California.{{rp|24–26}}{{cite news

|title=Fine sheep

|newspaper=Red Bluff Independent (Red Bluff, California)

|date=25 May 1865

|page=2

|via=California Digital Newspaper Collection

|url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=RBI18650525.2.7.2

|access-date=16 February 2022

|archive-date=16 February 2022

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220216125621/https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=RBI18650525.2.7.2

|url-status=live

}} They were near destitute: "a hungry, almost barefoot, ragged lot".{{cite news

|title=Chapter 3—Indians terrorize John Brown party [Part 2 of 2]

|first=Al

|last=Reck

|newspaper=Oakland Tribune (Oakland, California)

|date=22 Jan 1961

|page=109 (5-M)

|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/96167698/john-browns-family-arrives-in/

|access-date=22 February 2022

|archive-date=22 February 2022

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220222145247/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/96167698/john-browns-family-arrives-in/

|url-status=live

}} Residents in Red Bluff helped them with their immediate needs.{{rp|75}} "We were given a sack of flour and other groceries, and I was given a pair of shoes and cloth for a dress," recalled Annie. "Mr. [Salmon] Brown got a job at once grubbing out young oaks for forty dollars. He did the job in eight days and we felt rich. How I loved California."{{citation

|date=March 26, 2016

|title=Mary Ann Day Brown, Widow of John Brown

|first=Sandra

|last=Weber

|journal=Adirondack Almanack

|url=https://www.adirondackalmanack.com/2016/03/mary-ann-day-brown-wife-widow-john-brown.html}}

A statewide subscription, in which California Governor Frederick Low participated, raised $450 ({{inflation|US|450|1865|fmt=eq}}), bought land, and built her a small house in Red Bluff, California.{{cite news

|title=Aid to John Brown's family

|newspaper=Contra Costa Gazette (Martinez, California)

|date=27 May 1865

|page=2

|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/96171618/aid-to-john-browns-family/

|access-date=22 February 2022

|archive-date=22 February 2022

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220222155630/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/96171618/aid-to-john-browns-family/

|url-status=live

}}{{cite news

|title=Sacramento affairs, etc.

|newspaper=San Francisco Examiner (San Francisco, California)

|date=20 Jul 1865

|page=1

|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/96169273/fund-to-aid-mary-brown-john-browns/

|access-date=22 February 2022

|archive-date=22 February 2022

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220222154846/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/96169273/fund-to-aid-mary-brown-john-browns/

|url-status=live

}}{{cite news

|title=How John Brown family touched life in Red Bluff

|newspaper=Red Bluff Tehama County Daily News (Red Bluff, California§)

|date=2 Jul 1927

|page=2

|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/96395352/john-brown-family-in-red-bluff-p-2-of/

|access-date=25 February 2022

|archive-date=1 March 2022

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220301161157/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/96395352/john-brown-family-in-red-bluff-p-2-of/

|url-status=live

}} It is a California State Historic Landmark, Home of Mrs. John Brown, although unmarked.{{cite web

|title=CHL No. 117 Home of Mrs. John Brown – Tehama

|publisher=California Historic Landmarks

|access-date=Feb 10, 2022

|url=https://www.californiahistoricallandmarks.com/landmarks/chl-117

|archive-date=February 19, 2022

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220219164535/https://www.californiahistoricallandmarks.com/landmarks/chl-117

|url-status=live

}} Mary lived there from 1866 to 1870, working as nurse and midwife. Salmon started ranching nearby, with only two sheep that survived the trip, one ram and one ewe; when one was sheared, the quality of the wool made the newspaper.{{cite news

|newspaper=Sonoma Democrat

|date=14 April 1866

|via=California Digital Newspaper Collection

|title=Heavy fleece

|url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=SD18660414.2.16&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN-%22Salmon+brown%22-------1

|page=5

|access-date=21 February 2022

|archive-date=21 February 2022

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220221150115/https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=SD18660414.2.16&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN-%22Salmon+brown%22-------1

|url-status=live

}} He bought on credit new sheep and a ranch of {{convert|128|acres}} near Corning, California. Annie (born 1843) taught in a school for Black children some distance away, boarding with a Black family, until the school was destroyed by arson.{{citation

|title=Brief biography of Mary A, wife of John Brown of Harpers Ferry[,] interred at Madronia Cemetery in Saratoga, California.

|year=2016

|location=Palo Alto, California

|first=Jean

|last=Libby

|url=https://www.academia.edu/24400040

|publisher=Allie for Freedom Publications}} Sarah (born 1846) also taught school to Black children, then moved to San Francisco and worked for the U.S. Mint. Ellen (born 1854) attended the local school. However, hostility towards the Browns developed.{{cite news

|title=Unmarked Frame House in Red Bluff Was Home of John Brown's Widow

|newspaper=Sacramento Bee (Sacramento, California)

|date=31 Oct 1965

|page=32

|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/95469420/john-browns-widows-house-in-red-bluff/

|access-date=19 February 2022

|archive-date=19 February 2022

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220219164535/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/95469420/john-browns-widows-house-in-red-bluff/

|url-status=live

}}{{cite news

|title=A Much Underrated Piece Of Red Bluff Real Estate

|newspaper=Red Bluff Tehama County Daily News (Red Bluff, California)

|date=21 Feb 1968

|page=9

|first=Bill

|last=Bryan

File:Salmon Brown's sheep ranch, two miles from Bridgeville, Humboldt County, California.jpg

|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/95491453/mary-browns-house-in-red-bluff/

|access-date=19 February 2022

|archive-date=19 February 2022

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220219164534/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/95491453/mary-browns-house-in-red-bluff/

|url-status=live

}}

After six years Mary, Sarah, and Salmon and his family moved to Humboldt County. (Salmon's daughter says he left Red Bluff after two years.) Salmon had lost many sheep in the winter and he sold his ranch and bought one of {{convert|320|acre}},{{cite web

|title=Land patents

|newspaper=Sacramento Daily Union (Sacramento, California)

|date=27 March 1883

|url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=SDU18830327.2.13&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN-%22Salmon+brown%22-------1

|page=3

|access-date=21 February 2022

|archive-date=21 February 2022

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220221152526/https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=SDU18830327.2.13&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN-%22Salmon+brown%22-------1

|url-status=live

}} where the weather was better for sheep, near Bridgeville. He was described in the press as prosperous.{{cite news

|title=Personal

|newspaper=Wheeling Daily Intelligencer (Wheeling, West Virginia)

|date=November 24, 1883

|page=2

|via=Chronicling America

|url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84026844/1883-11-24/ed-1/seq-2/

|access-date=2022-02-21

|archive-date=2022-02-21

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220221153304/https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84026844/1883-11-24/ed-1/seq-2/

|url-status=live

}} Mary and Sarah lived in nearby Rohnerville.{{cite news

|title=Rohnerville was friendly to John Brown's widow

|first=Andrew

|last=Ganzoli

|newspaper=Times-Standard (Eureka, California)

|date=September 24, 1977

|page=18

|url=https://newspaperarchive.com/celebrity-clipping-sep-26-1977-3034340/

|access-date=February 16, 2022

|archive-date=February 16, 2022

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220216162414/https://newspaperarchive.com/celebrity-clipping-sep-26-1977-3034340/

|url-status=live

}} In 1881 they moved to Saratoga, California, in Santa Clara County, and were joined by Ellen, her husband James Fablinger, a teacher, and their four small girls.{{cite news

|title=John Brown's family to California

|newspaper=Chicago Tribune (Chicago, Illinois)

|date=4 Aug 1882

|page=9

|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/96543808/john-browns-family/

|access-date=27 February 2022

|archive-date=27 February 2022

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220227112206/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/96543808/john-browns-family/

|url-status=live

}} Salmon did not accompany them, and in 1889 leased {{convert|2000|acre}} and 2,000 sheep.{{cite news

|title=Local brevities

|newspaper=Healdsburg Enterprise (Healdsburg, California)

|date=25 December 1889

|page=3

|via=California Digital Newspaper Collection

|url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=HE18891225.2.16.3

|access-date=21 February 2022

|archive-date=21 February 2022

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220221220052/https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=HE18891225.2.16.3

|url-status=live

}} He added to the ranch, making it {{convert|3000|acre}}, and he and his partner had fourteen thousand sheep.{{rp|75}} However, the loss of 8,000 of them during the winter of 1890–1891 led him to abandon sheep raising.{{cite news

|title=A Brief Biography — Having to Do With the Life of Salmon Brown, Son of Famous Abolitionist

|newspaper=Lake Placid News

|date=July 14, 1916

|page=2

|url=https://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/lccn/sn86033359/1916-07-14/ed-1/seq-2/}} In 1893 he and his family moved to Salem, Oregon.{{cite news

|title=Son of Ossawatomie

|newspaper=The Dalles Times-Mountaineer (The Dalles, Oregon)

|date=September 30, 1893

|page=4

|via=Chronicling America

|url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn93051669/1893-09-30/ed-1/seq-4/

|access-date=2022-02-21

|archive-date=2022-02-21

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220221220716/https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn93051669/1893-09-30/ed-1/seq-4/

|url-status=live

}}{{rp|75–76}} Alone among the Brown children, he publicly defended his father at length.{{cite news

|title=Answers Pres. Hawley. — Salmon Brown Quotes History on Old John Brown. — He CompletelyVindicates His Father's Anti-Slavery Record

|newspaper=Capital Journal

|location=Salem, Oregon

|date=11 Mar 1898

|page=3

|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/101673567/salmon-brown-defends-his-father-john/}} In 1902 he moved to Portland, Oregon, where he ended in economic distress,{{cite news

|title=John Brown's Son In Want — He Is Now Nearly Eighty Years of Age and Partly Paral6zed. — Lansas Promises Relief — Owes Dbt to Man Who Helped Famous Father to Make That Territory a Free State

|newspaper=The Argus

|location=Albany, New York

|date=July 14, 1916

|page=10