Page:The life and letters of John Brown (Sanborn).djvu/39

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1856.]

ANCESTRY AND CHILDHOOD.

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The house in which John Brown was born, as mentioned in this autobiography,^[1] still stands in Torrington, Conn., in the western part of the town, three miles from Wolcottville, six from Litchfield, and ten from Winsted, on a by-road. It much resembles the old farm-house in Concord in which Thoreau was born, and the engraving of one might easily pass for that of the other. The log-house of Owen Brown, in Hudson, Ohio, stood on what is now the public square in that town; and in a little valley near by, not far from the railroad, was the tannery where John Brown learned his father's trade. His childhood was passed in Hudson and its vicinity in the manner above described. He read the Bible, the "Fables of Æsop," the "Life of Franklin," the hymns of Dr. Watts, "Pilgrim's Progress," and a few more books; but his school education was very scanty.

Although in order of time the following correspondence belongs in a later chapter, I introduce it here to show what were the relations throughout life of John Brown and his father. The latter lived till within four years of John Brown's execution, dying May 8, 1856, at the age of eighty-five. Only six weeks before his death he wrote as follows to his son in Kansas,—verbatim et literatim:—

Letter of Owen Brown to John Brown.

Hudson (Ohio), March 27, '56.

Dear son John,—I received yours of 13th on the 25th, and was very glad to that all your were so well, and that you had not been by the enemy. Your letters come very regular, and we look after them. I have been to answer

↑ It was after hearing this letter read that Miss Osgood, of Medford, remarked, "If Captain Brown had not been called, in the providence of God, to a very different work, what charming stories he could have written for young children!" The original manuscript fills six pages of closely written letter-paper, without division into paragraphs. The contributions made by Harry Stearns and by others "in aid of the cause in which I serve," were given to help the oppressed pioneers of Kansas whom Brown was then defending. His father, Owen Brown, as a beef contractor, was with Hull's army at or just before the surrender at Detroit in 1812, accompanied by his son John. John, then twelve years old, circulated among the American soldiers and officers, and overheard many conversations in camp

[p19-1] It was after hearing this letter read that Miss Osgood, of Medford, remarked, "If Captain Brown had not been called, in the providence of God, to a very different work, what charming stories he could have written for young children!" The original manuscript fills six pages of closely written letter-paper, without division into paragraphs. The contributions made by Harry Stearns and by others "in aid of the cause in which I serve," were given to help the oppressed pioneers of Kansas whom Brown was then defending. His father, Owen Brown, as a beef contractor, was with Hull's army at or just before the surrender at Detroit in 1812, accompanied by his son John. John, then twelve years old, circulated among the American soldiers and officers, and overheard many conversations in camp

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