John Brown, 1800-1859: A Biography Fifty Years After

Aaron Dwight Stevens, in many ways the most interesting and attractive of the personalities gathered around him by John Brown, ran away from home at the age of sixteen, in 1847, and enlisted in a Massachusetts volunteer regiment, in which he served in Mexico during the Mexican War. Later, he enlisted in Company F of the First  United States Dragoons, and was tried for "mutiny, engaging in a drunken riot, and assaulting Major George A. H. Blake of his regiment," at Taos, New Mexico, in May, 1855. Stevens was sentenced to death, but this was commuted by President Pierce to imprisonment for three years at hard labor at Fort Leavenworth, from which post he escaped and joined the Free State forces. In these he became colonel of the Second Kansas Militia, under the name of Whipple. Thereafter his story is so intertwined with that of John Brown as to need no retelling here. Stevens came of old Puritan stock, his great-grandfather having been a captain in the Revolutionary army. He was a man of superb bravery and of wonderful physique; he was well over six feet, was blessed with a great sense of humor, and was sustained at the end by his belief in spiritualism. George B. Gill wrote of him in 1860: "Stevens — how gloriously he sang! His was the noblest soul I ever knew. Though owing to his rash, hasty way, I often found occasion to quarrel with him, more so than with any of the others, and though I liked Kagi better than any man I ever knew, our temperaments being adapted to each other, yet I can truly say that Stevens was the most noble man that I ever knew." George H. Hoyt, Brown's counsel, in a letter to J. W. Le Barnes, October 31, 1859, thus recorded his first impression of Stevens at Harper's Ferry: "Stevens is in the same cell with Brown. I have frequent talks with him. He 's in a most pitiable condition physically, his wounds being of the most painful and dangerous character. He has now four balls in his body, two of these being about the head and neck. He bears his sufferings with grim and silent fortitude, never complaining and absolutely without hope. He is a splendid looking young fellow. Such black and penetrating eyes! Such an expansive brow! Such a grand chest and limbs! He was the best, and in fact the only man Brown had who was a good soldier, besides being reliable otherwise." Stevens was executed March 16, 1860.

Albert Hazlett was born in Pennsylvania, September 21, 1837, and was executed March 16, 1860. George B. Gill says: "I was acquainted with Hazlett well enough in Kansas, yet after all knew but little of him. He was with Montgomery considerably, and was with Stevens on the raid in which Cruise was killed. He was a good- sized, fine-looking fellow, overflowing with good nature and social feelings... Brown got acquainted with him just before leaving Kansas." Before the raid he worked on his brother's farm in western Pennsylvania, joining the others at Kennedy Farm in the early part of September, 1859. To Mrs. Rebecca Spring he wrote on March 15, 1860, the eve of his execution, "Your letter gave me great comfort to know that my body would be taken from this land of chains... I am willing to die in the cause of liberty, if I had ten thousand lives I would willingly lay them all down for the same cause." He was arrested in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, under the name of William Harrison, on October 22, extradited to Virginia, tried and sentenced at the spring term of the Court, and hanged on March 16, 1860.

Barclay Coppoc was born at Salem, Ohio, January 4, 1839, and had not attained his majority at the time of the raid. He escaped from Harper's Ferry, but only to meet a tragic fate in that he was killed by the fall of a train into the Platte River from a trestle forty feet high, the supports of which had been burned away by Confederates. Coppoc was then a first lieutenant in the Third Kansas Infantry, Colonel Montgomery's regiment, having received his commission July 24, 1861. Barclay Coppoc went straight to Iowa after his escape from Harper's Ferry, whither Virginia agents followed to attempt his arrest. He went back to Kansas in 1860, helped to run off some Missouri slaves, and nearly lost his life in a second undertaking of this kind. The accident which ended his life took place at night; he survived his injuries until the next day, September 3, 1861. He was buried at Leavenworth, Kansas. He was in Kansas for a time in the fall of 1856.

Charles Plummer Tidd, known as Charles Plummer, died of fever, on the transport Northerner, as a first sergeant of the Twenty-first Massachusetts Volunteers, on February 8, 1862, with the roar of the battle of Roanoke Island in his ears. This he had particularly wished to take part in, for ex-Governor Henry A. Wise was in command of the Confederates, his son, O. Jennings Wise, being killed in the engagement. Tidd had enlisted July 19, 1861, as a private. He was born in Palermo, Maine, in 1834, and changed his name after the raid in order to avoid possible arrest and trial as a Harper's Ferry raider — a precaution of greater importance when he entered the army. He emigrated to Kansas with the party of Dr. Calvin Cutter, of Worcester, in 1856. He joined John Brown's party at Tabor, in 1857, and thereafter, in Canada and elsewhere, was one of Brown's closest associates, returning to Kansas in 1858 as a follower of "Shubel Morgan." He took part in the raid into Missouri. After his escape from Virginia, he visited Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Canada, and was freely consulted in the plans for rescue of Stevens and Hazlett. "Tidd," writes Mrs. Annie Brown Adams, " had not much education, but good common sense. After the raid he began to study, and tried to repair his deficiencies. He was by no means handsome. He had a quick temper, but was kind-hearted. His rages soon passed and then he tried all he could to repair damages. He was a fine singer and of strong family affections." His grave is No. 40 in the New Berne, N. C., National Cemetery.

Dangerfield Newby, colored, was born a slave in 1815, in Fauqier County, Virginia. His father, a Scotchman, freed his mulatto children. Newby’s wife, from whom he received the touching letters given in the text, was the slave of Jesse Jennings, of Warington, Virginia. She and her children were “sold South” after the raid, but it is said that she subsequently lived in Ohio. The shot that gave Newby his death-wound cut his throat from ear to ear, the missile being a six-inch spike in lieu of a bullet. Newby was six feet two inches tall, a splendid physical specimen, of light color.

Dauphin Osgood Thompson, brother of William and also a neighbor of the Browns at North Elba, was born April 17, 1838, and was killed in the engine house on October 18, 1859. He was the brother of William Thompson, who also fell, and of Henry Thompson, Their sister Isabella married Watson Brown. Dauphin Thompson was a handsome, inexperienced, country boy, “more like a girl than a warrior,” and “diffident and quiet.”

Edwin Coppoc, brother of Barclay, was captured with Brown in the engine house, tried immediately after him, sentenced on November 2, and hung with Cook on December 16, 1859. The father of the Coppocs died when Edwin was six, the latter having been born June 30, 1835. For nine years thereafter Edwin lived with John Butler, a farmer, near Salem, Ohio, removing then with his mother to Springdale, Iowa. This place he left in the spring of 1858, to become a settler in Kansas. He took no part in the Territorial troubles, and returned to Springdale in the autumn of 1858, when he became acquainted with Brown. He always bore an excellent reputation as an honest, brave, straightforward, well-behaved man, and his death was particularly lamented by many friends. An exemplary prisoner, there were many Southerners who hoped for his pardon. He was buried first in Winona [later in Salem, Ohio], after a public funeral, attended by the entire town. In jail he regretted his situation, wrote his mother of his sorrow that he must die a dishonorable death, and explained that he had not understood what the full consequences of the raid would be. He died with absolute fortitude.

Francis Jackson Meriam was born November 17, 1837, at Framingham, Massachusetts, and died suddenly November 28, 1865, in New York City, after having served in the army as a captain in the Third South Carolina Colored Infantry. Erratic and unbalanced, he was forever urging wild schemes upon his superiors, and often attempting them. In an engagement under Grant he was severely wounded in the leg. Early in the war he married Minerva Caldwell, of Galena, Illinois. He was in Boston, coming from Canada, on the day of John Brown’s execution, but was finally induced by friends to go back to Canada. Mr. Sanborn has characterized Meriam as of “little judgment and in feeble health,” but “generous, brave, and devoted.”

Jeremiah Goldsmith Anderson was born April 17, 1833, in Indiana, and was therefore in his twenty-seventh year when killed at Harper's Ferry. He was the son of John Anderson, and was the grandson of slaveholders; his maternal grandfather, Colonel Jacob Westfall, of Tygert Valley, Virginia, was a soldier in the Revolutionary War; he went to school at Galesburg, Illinois, and Kossuth, Iowa; was a peddler, farmer, and employee of a saw-mill, before emigrating to Kansas in August, 1857, where he settled on the Little Osage, Bourbon County, a mile from Fort Bain. He was twice arrested by proslaveryites, and for ten weeks imprisoned at Fort Scott; he then became a lieutenant of Captain Montgomery, and was with him in the attack on Captain Anderson's troop of the First U. S. Cavalry. He also witnessed the murder on his own doorstep of a Mr. Denton by Border Ruffians. He was with John Brown on the slave raid into Missouri, and thereafter followed Brown's fortunes. Writing July 5, 1859, of his determination to continue to fight for freedom, he said: "Millions of fellow-beings require it of us; their cries for help go out to the universe daily and hourly. Whose duty is it to help them? Is it yours? Is it mine? It is every man's, but how few there are to help. But there are a few who dare to answer this call, and dare to answer it in a manner that will make this land of liberty and equality shake to the centre."

John E. Cook, who could successfully have escaped had he not, against the advice of his comrades, been reckless in his search for food, was born in the summer of 1830, in Haddam, Connecticut. He was of a well-to-do family, and studied law in Brooklyn and New York. He went to Kansas in 1855. His movements from the time of his first meeting with Brown, just after the battle of Black Jack, in June, 1856, until after his capture, are set forth in his "Confession" made while in jail (published at Charlestown as a pamphlet in the middle of November, 1859, for the benefit of Samuel C. Young, who was crippled for life in the fighting at Harper's Ferry). For this confession Cook was severely censured at the time by the friends of Brown; he was even called the "Judas" of the raid. But the document, when examined to-day, obviously contains only facts which are of great historical value, and whose promulgation at the time in no wise injured the case of his fellow raiders. Had it not been made, the result of the trial would have been the same. Cook preceded John Brown to the Harper's Ferry neighborhood by more than a year, there sometimes teaching school, and again living as a lock-tender, while in the registration of his marriage to a lock-tender, while in the registration of his marriage to Mary V. Kennedy, of Harper's Ferry, April 18, 1859, he was described as a book-agent. He was captured eight miles from Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, October 25, 1859, and hanged on December 16. He was a remarkably fine shot, and had seen much fighting in Kansas. He was reckless, impulsive, indiscreet, but genial, generous and brave.

John Henry Kagi was the best educated of all the raiders, but was largely self-taught. Many admirably written letters survive as the productions of his pen, in the New York Tribune, the New York Evening Post, and the National Era. He was, moreover, an able man of business, besides being an excellent debater and speaker. He was an expert stenographer and a total abstainer. His father was the respected village blacksmith in Bristolville, Ohio, whose family was of Swiss descent, the name being originally Kagy. John A. Kagi was born at Bristolville, March 15, 1835; and was killed October 17, 1859. In 1854-55 ne taught school at Hawkinstown, Virginia, where he obtained a personal knowledge of slavery. This resulted in such abolition manifestations on his part, that he was compelled to leave for Ohio under a pledge never to return to Hawkinstown. Kagi then went to Nebraska City, Nebraska, where he was admitted to the bar. He next entered Kansas with one of General James H. Lane's parties. He enlisted in A. D. Stevens's ("Colonel Whipple's") Second Kansas Militia, and was captured in 1856 by United States troops. Kagi was imprisoned first at Lecompton and then at Tecumseh, but was finally liberated. He was assaulted and severely injured by Judge Elmore, the pro-slavery judge, who struck him over the head with a gold headed cane, on January 31, 1857. Kagi drew his revolver and shot the Judge in the groin. Elmore then fired three times and shot Kagi over the heart, the bullet being stopped by a memorandum-book. Kagi was long in recovering from his wounds. After a visit to his Ohio home he returned to Kansas and joined John Brown. When in Chambersburg as agent for the raiders, he boarded with Mrs. Mary Rittner.

Lewis Sheridan Leary, colored, left a wife and a six months old child at Oberlin, to go to Harper’s Ferry. The latter was subsequently educated by James Redpath and Wendell Phillips; the widow, now Mrs. Mary Leary Langston, is still a resident of Lawrence, Kansas. Leary was descended from an Irishman, Jeremiah O’Leary, who fought in the Revolution under General Nathanael Greene, and married a woman of mixed blood, partly negro, partly of that Croatan Indian stock of North Carolina, which is believed by some to be lineally descended from the “lost colonists” left by John White on Roanoke Island in 1587. Leary, like his father, was a saddler and harness-maker. In 1857 he went to Oberlin to live, marrying there, and making the acquaintance of John Brown in Cleveland. He survived his terrible wounds for eight hours, during which he was well treated and able to send messages to his family. He is reported as saying: “I am ready to die.” His wife was in ignorance of his object when he left home. Leary was born at Fayetteville, North Carolina, March 17, 1835, and was therefore in his twenty-fifth year when killed.

Oliver Brown, the youngest son of John Brown to reach manhood, was born March 9, 1839, at Franklin, Ohio. He went to Kansas in 1855 with his father, returning to North Elba in October, 1856. For a time in 1857 he was at work in Connecticut. He married Martha E. Brewster, April 7, 1858, when but nineteen years old, and died at Harper’s Ferry, October 18, 1859, in his twenty-first year. His girl-wife and her baby died early in 1860. “Oliver developed rather slowly,” says Miss Sarah Brown. “In his earlier teens he was always pre-occupied, absent-minded, - always reading, and then it was impossible to catch his attention. But in his last few years he came out very fast. His awkwardness left him. He read every solid book that he could find, and was especially fond of Theodore Parker’s writings, as was his father. Had Oliver lived, and not killed himself by over-study, he would have made his mark. By his exertions the sale of liquor was stopped at North Elba.”

Osborn Perry Anderson, colored, survived the raid to die of consumption at Washington, D. C., December 13, 1872. Born July 27, 1830, at West Fallowfield, Pennsylvania, he was in his thirtieth year at the time of the raid, of which and o f his escape he left a record in ‘A Voice from Harper’s Ferry,’ which contains, however, many erroneous statements. He learned the printing trade in Canada, where he met John Brown in 1858. After his escape he returned to Canada. During the Civil War, in 1864, he enlisted, became a non-commissioned officer, and was mustered out at the close of the war in Washington.

Owen Brown, born November 4, 1824, at Hudson, Ohio, was John Brown’s third son, and his stalwart, reliable lieutenant both in Kansas and at Harper’s Ferry. It was due largely to his unfaltering determination and great physical strength that the little group of survivors of which he was the leader reached safe havens. After the war he was for some time a grape-grower in Ohio, in association with two of his brothers. Thence he removed to California, where he died, January 9, 1891, in his mountain home, “Brown’s Peak,” near Pasadena, poor in worldly goods, but with the respect and regard of his neighbors. A marble monument marks his mountain-side grave. He never married. He was, like all Browns, original in expression and in thought, and not without considerable humor. He was the only one of five men who escaped from the raid who did not enter the union army, and he was t he last of the raiders to die.

Shields Green, colored, otherwise known as “Emperor,” was born a slave. After the death of his wife, he escaped on a sailing vessel from Charleston, South Carolina, leaving a little son in slavery. He eventually found his way to Rochester, New York, three years after his escape and after a sojourn in Canada. Here he became acquainted with Frederick Douglass, and though him with John Brown. And went on with Brown when Douglass turned back. Several reliable prisoners in the engine house testified to Shields Green’s cowardice during the fight. He endeavored to avoid arrest by palming himself off as one of the slaves impressed by Brown. O. P. Anderson, however, speaks of Green’s bravery, and declares that Green could have escaped with him, but that the form slave protested that he would go back “to de ole man,” even if there was no chance of escape. Owen Brown had a poor opinion of Green’s staunchness, after his experience in bringing him down from Chambersburg to the Kennedy Farm. Green’s age is said to have been twenty-three years. He was full-blooded negro.

Stewart Taylor, the only one of the raiders not of American birth, was but twenty-three when killed, having been born October 29, 1836 at Uxbridge, Canada. Of American descent, and a wagonmaker by trade, he went to Iowa in 1853, where in 1858 he became acquainted with John Brown through George B. Gill. He is described as being “heart and soul in the anti-slavery cause. An excellent debater and very fond of studying history. He stayed at home, in Canada, for the winter of 1858-59, and then went to Chicago, thence to Bloomington, Illinois, and thence to Harper’s Ferry. He was a very good phonographer [stereographer], rapid and accurate. He was overcome with distress when getting out of communication with the John Brown movement, he thought for a time that he was to be left our.” – Letter of Jacob L. Taylor, Pine Orchard, Canada West, April 23, 1860, to Richard J. Hinton, - in Hinton Papers, Kansas Historical Society. Taylor was a spiritualist.

Watson Brown, born at Franklin, Ohio, October 7, 1835, married Isabella M. Thompson in September, 1856, and died of his wounds at Harper’s Ferry on October 18, 1859. He was: “Tall and rather fair, with finely knit frame, athletic and active.” Of little education, he was a man of marked ability and sterling character, who bore well the family responsibilities which fell to him when all the other men of the clan went to Kansas. His son lived only to his fifth year; his widow later married her husband's cousin, Salmon Brown.

William H. Leeman, born March 20, 1839, and killed on October 17, 1859, the youngest of the raiders, had early left home, being of a rather wild disposition. Owen Brown found him hard to control at Springdale. Mrs. Annie Brown Adams writes of him: “He was only a boy. He smoked a good deal and drank sometimes; but perhaps people would not think that so very wicked now. He was very handsome and very attractive.” Educated in the public schools of Saco and Hallowell, Maine, he worked in a shoe-factory in Haverhill, Massachusetts, at the age of fourteen. In 1856 he entered Kansas with the second Massachusetts colony of that year, and became a member of John Brown’s “Volunteer Regulars” September 9, 1856. He fought well at Osawatomie, when but seventeen years old. George B. Gill says of him that he had “a good intellect with great ingenuity.”

William Thompson, son of Roswell Thompson, was born in August, 1833, and was killed October 17, 1859. He married Mary Ann brown, a neighbor, but no relation of the Brown family. He had no hesitation as to where his duty lay when the call came to help free the slaves. He started for Kansas in 1856, but turned back on meeting the Brown sons, who returned to North Elba in the fall of that year. He was full of fun and good nature, and bore himself unflinchingly when face to face with death. Both William Thompson and his brother Dauphin went to Harper’s Ferry without being urged and purely from a sense of right and duty to a great cause.