John Brown Farm, Shelbee on the Edge

A Visit to John Brown Farm & Link Up On the Edge #308

August 12, 2022 / 53 Comments
John Brown Farm, Shelbee on the Edge
John Brown Farm, Shelbee on the Edge
John Brown Farm, Shelbee on the Edge
John Brown Farm, Shelbee on the Edge
John Brown Farm, Shelbee on the Edge
John Brown Farm, Shelbee on the Edge
John Brown Farm, Shelbee on the Edge

During our recent family weekend trip to Burlington, Vermont, and Lake Placid, New York, we visited John Brown Farm in Lake Placid before heading to Olympic Stadium. I was wholly unfamiliar with John Brown before stumbling upon his farm on the New York State Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation website when I was searching for things to do and see in Lake Placid. I am so glad that I found it because it was a powerful and moving educational experience for all of us.

John Brown was an American abolitionist born on May 9, 1800, in Torrington, Connecticut, the fourth of eight children of Owen Brown and Ruth Mills, a “poor but respectable” family according to John Brown himself. Both his maternal and paternal grandfathers were officers in the American Revolutionary War.

When Brown was very young, his family moved from Torrington to West Simsbury, Connecticut, then to Hudson, Ohio, in 1805. This area of Ohio was primarily wilderness but would soon become the most anti-slavery region of the United States. His father Owen Brown became an affluent and prominent citizen of Hudson, an opponent of slavery, and a participant in anti-slavery activity and debate offering a safe house to Underground Railroad fugitives. There was no schooling after elementary grades in Hudson for the Brown children so John received his education at the school of abolitionist Elizur Wright. In 1808, John’s mother Ruth died. He wrote in his journals that he mourned her for years and never felt an emotional bond with his father’s new wife.

When John was just 12 years old, he was moving cattle for his father and stayed at the home of a slave owner. He witnessed the slave owner beating a young slave boy with an iron shovel and asked why he was treating the boy in such a way. The slave owner replied “because he is a slave.” It was at this moment that the young John Brown dedicated his life to improving conditions for African Americans.

At the age of 16, he left for Plainfield, Massachusetts, to study to become a Gospel minister. He had planned to continue his studies at Amherst College but chronic inflammation of the eyes prevented him from traditional classroom studies. He returned to Hudson and taught himself from books. Back in Hudson, he took up residence with his adopted brother and met his first wife Dianthe Lusk who was the daughter of their housekeeper. John and Dianthe were married in 1820. During their 12 years of marriage, Dianthe birthed seven children, dying in childbirth along with her last child in 1832.

In 1825, seeking a safer location for fugitive slaves, John Brown moved his family to New Richmond, Pennsylvania. He lived more years in Pennsylvania than in any other residence during his life and has stated that Crawford County, Pennsylvania, is of great importance to him because two of his children and his wife are buried there. He ran a successful tannery in Pennsylvania that was an important stop on the Underground Railroad from 1825-1835. It is estimated that he helped 2,500 slaves escape to Canada through his tannery.

In 1831, Brown’s youngest son died at the age of 4 which was followed by the death of his wife and newest child the following year. Following these losses, Brown fell ill and his business suffered severely, leaving him widowed with children and swimming in debt. In 1833, he married 17 year old Mary Ann Day of Washington County, New York. She was the younger sister of his housekeeper. John and Mary would have 13 children together. Seven of them would join their father in his fight against slavery.

John Brown Farm, Shelbee on the Edge
John Brown’s children

Brown moved his family back to Ohio in 1836 where he built a reputation as an expert in sheep and wool, winning 5 first prizes for his sheep and cattle at the 1852 Ohio State Fair. As an agent for wool producers, he moved to Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1846, and in 1848, he purchased land in North Elba, New York (near Lake Placid) where he rented a house for 2 years before building the farmhouse that is preserved as the historic site at the John Brown Farm.

John Brown Farm, Shelbee on the Edge
John Brown Farm, Shelbee on the Edge
John Brown Farm, Shelbee on the Edge
John Brown Farm, Shelbee on the Edge
John Brown Farm, Shelbee on the Edge
John Brown Farm, Shelbee on the Edge
John Brown Farm, Shelbee on the Edge
John Brown Farm, Shelbee on the Edge

On October 16, 1859, Brown and his followers led an assault on the U.S. Arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia), with a plan to capture the weapons and use them in a campaign for the liberation of Southern slaves. He was captured on October 18, tried and found guilty of treason by the Commonwealth of Virginia, and hanged on December 2, 1859, at the age of 59. His body was returned to his home in North Elba, New York, and buried in front of his house on December 8, 1859. In 1899, the remains of some of the men he lost in the raid at Harper’s Ferry were moved to the small graveyard on his property.

John Brown Farm, Shelbee on the Edge
John Brown Farm, Shelbee on the Edge
John Brown Farm, Shelbee on the Edge
John Brown Farm, Shelbee on the Edge
John Brown Farm, Shelbee on the Edge
John Brown Farm, Shelbee on the Edge
John Brown Farm, Shelbee on the Edge
John Brown Farm, Shelbee on the Edge
John Brown Farm, Shelbee on the Edge
John Brown Farm, Shelbee on the Edge
John Brown Farm, Shelbee on the Edge
John Brown Farm, Shelbee on the Edge
John Brown Farm, Shelbee on the Edge
John Brown Farm, Shelbee on the Edge
John Brown Farm, Shelbee on the Edge

John Brown’s final prophesy would soon be realized shortly after his death when the American Civil War began on April 12, 1861.

“I, John Brown, am quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood. I had, as I now think, vainly flattered myself that without very much bloodshed it might be done.”

John Brown
John Brown Farm, Shelbee on the Edge
John Brown Farm, Shelbee on the Edge
John Brown Farm, Shelbee on the Edge
John Brown Farm, Shelbee on the Edge

A visit to this historic site is free to the public. We spent about an hour walking around the property, reading all the exhibits, and reflecting upon John Brown’s work, how far we have come, and how far we still have to go.

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I am a midlife woman, wife, and stay-at-home mother of 2 boys and 2 cats. I have a passion for helping other women feel fabulous in the midst of this crazy, beautiful life.

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