Fifty years and over of Akron and Summit County : embellished by nearly six hundred engravings--portraits of pioneer settlers, prominent citizens, business, official and professional--ancient and modern views, etc.; nine-tenth's of a century of solid local history--pioneer incidents, interesting events--industrial, commercial, financial and educational progress, biographies, etc., Part 72

Author: Lane, Samuel A. (Samuel Alanson), 1815-1905
Publication date: 1892
Publisher: Akron, Ohio : Beacon Job Department
Number of Pages: 1228

USA > Ohio > Summit County > Akron > Fifty years and over of Akron and Summit County : embellished by nearly six hundred engravings--portraits of pioneer settlers, prominent citizens, business, official and professional--ancient and modern views, etc.; nine-tenth's of a century of solid local history--pioneer incidents, interesting events--industrial, commercial, financial and educational progress, biographies, etc. > Part 72

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Messrs. Upson and Wolcott demanded to see the papers on which the arrest was made and the pretended warrant was exhibited, which purported to have been issued by direction of U. S. Judge Leavitt at Steubenville, to which place they alleged they were going to take the prisoner for examination. But the paper lacked every legal feature, having no apparent genuine signature, and no recitation of the proper filing of an affidavit, and the gen- tlemen were told that they could play no such game as that in Akron, and must release Jim at once. This they refused to do and threatened to shoot any one who should attempt a rescue.

AN INFURIATED CROWD .- The threat of the kidnappers to shoot, infuriated the crowd. Uncle Fred. Wadsworth (father-in-law of the late J. A. Beebe) shook his cane in their faces and dared them to try it on. Mr. E. C. Sackett declared that an exhibition of arms would result in their being torn to pieces; Rev. N. P. Bailey (now

582

AKRON AND SUMMIT COUNTY.

of Massillon) used some very emphatic language, doing full jus- tice to the "Queen's English," though in a recent letter to the writer on the subject he says: "I didn't take off my coat, nor knock anybody down, nor do any ministerial swearing."

GLAD TO ESCAPE WITH WHOLE HEADS .- Alarmed at the menac- ing attitude of the crowd, who closed around them, the kidnappers. released their hold of Jim, and edged backwards towards the cars, which they were permitted to board, and to depart without moles- tation, though the indignation of the crowd was so intense that a single word from some of the more prudent present would have brought summary vengeance upon the heads of the perpetrators. of the dastardly outrage.

It transpired that the pretended "Sheriff from Chicago" was an officer from Louisville, Ky .; that "Jim's" former master, (then hold- ing the office of Sheriff, at Louisville,) was in Cleveland, engineer- ing the matter, and that though they had genuine papers, under the Fugitive Slave Law, the counterfeit dodge was played to avoid the popular clamor that an open arrest of a fugitive from slavery would naturally create in so Abolition-tainted a locality as the Western Reserve; the discomfited master remarking, as he paid the hotel bills for himself and his minions, in Cleveland, that the Fugitive Slave Law didn't "amount to much in Ohio, anyhow."

MARSHAL WRIGHT EXONERATED .- Certain jealous-minded med- dlers being disposed to charge Marshal Wright with having knowingly participated in the arrest of "Jim" as a fugitive slave, that officer addressed a note to United States Deputy Marshal Dennis, at Newark, to which he received the following reply:

U. S. DEPUTY MARSHAL'S OFFICE, ¿ NEWARK, O., June 12, 1854. 5

J. J. Wright,

SIR :- Yours of the 9th inst. came to hand by last evening's mail, and in answer I will state in writing, what I said at the depot after the negro was set at liberty, that no blame should be attached to you, as everything, so far as you were concerned, was done in good faith, and, as you had every reason to believe, in the discharge of your duty as any officer who might be called upon. I did not know there was a Deputy U. S. Marshal in your place. No person ever directed me to you. Your being the Marshal of Akron, is the only excuse I have to offer on that point. In haste,

P. H. DENNIS.

And yet, Captain Wright, who fought so gallantly, and suffered so much, in the great struggle that knocked the shackles off from the very last slave upon the American Continent, says that a streak of meanness comes over him every time he thinks of the part he unwittingly played in the capture of poor "Jim." But he has no occasion, whatever, for feeling thus; for his very promptness, in obeying what he believed to be a call to official duty, was the very means of thwarting the designs of the kidnappers; for had he not reached the depot an hour earlier than the time mentioned by the "Sheriff from Chicago," they would have arrived at the station with their victim just as the train was ready to leave, and would thus have got safely off with him. Singular, wasn't it, that though deceived into aiding in the perpetration of a wrongful act, Mr Wright did precisely the right thing to prevent its successful consummation.

583

"JIM" SAFE IN CANADA.

JUDGE VORIS RESPONSIBLE .- Section 7 of the Fugitive Slave Law, among other things provides, that "Whoever shall harbor or conceal such fugitive, so as to prevent the discovery and arrest of such person, shall be subject to a fine not exceeding one thousand dollars, and imprisonment not exceeding six months; and shall, moreover, forfeit and pay, by way of civil damages, to the party injured by such illegal conduct, the sum of one thousand dollars, for each fugitive so lost," etc.

Now, Judge A. C. Voris, then the law-partner of the late Gen. Bierce, not having the fear of the minions of slavery, or of the slave- hunting minions of Uncle Sam before his eyes, did both "harbor" and "conceal" the said "fugitive," in the back attic of the story and a-half house he then occupied on South Broadway, for several days, until his business matters could be properly arranged for a protracted absence, after which said Voris clandestinely turned said fugitive over to an agent of the U. G. R. R., to be shipped Canada-ward, where, at last accounts, he was living the life of an industrious and respectable citizen. Judge Voris also confesses to having, eight years later, " stolen a nigger" from the plantation of Ex-President John Tyler, on the James river. Quere? As this was before the taking effect of Mr. Lincoln's Emancipation Procla- mation, haven't the heirs of the Ex-President a valid claim against the Judge for the market value of the article thus stolen by him.

OTHER FUGITIVES ALARMED .- In 1836, there came to Akron, from Columbus, one of the brightest and finest looking, middle- aged colored men that the writer ever knew; a light mulatto, with high forehead, intelligent countenance and in every sense of the word a perfect gentleman, by the name of Edward Smith. He was a barber by trade, and lived in Columbus some eighteen or twenty years, and had, by his industry and frugality, become the owner of a valuable lot upon which were two very comfortable two-story brick dwelling houses. As Columbus was then somewhat over- stocked with barbers, having heard of the new and enterprising town of Akron, he came here and opened a shop, bearing with him the not inappropriate sobriquet of "The Emperor of the West," by which he had been known in Columbus .. His wife, Mrs. Sarah Smith, was also a portly, fine-looking mulatto woman, and both soon came to be very greatly respected by all the people of Akron. They were very prosperous, and with their earnings here, and the rents from their Columbus property, bought the lot now covered by the grocery store of Bittman & Son, on East Market street, building for themselves a comfortable frame house on the rear of the lot, fronting on the alley, and afterwards a small frame building fronting on Market street, which they rented for business purposes.

Along in the middle forties " Uncle Ned," as he was familiarly called, was stricken with apoplexy, and, after lingering a few months, died. Mrs. Smith thoroughly alarmed at "Jim's" narrow escape, hastily placed her property matters in the hands of a reliable agent, and joined the Canadian colony. Many other local colored people also quietly flitted thither, either because they were escaped slaves, or because, having been born free, but with colored skins, they were fearful of being kidnapped into slavery, as had, in several well authenticated instances, already been done.

CHAPTER XXII.

OUR OWN JOHN BROWN-"OLD OSSAWATOMIE"-FREEDOM'S HERO AND MARTYR-BIRTH, BOYHOOD AND EARLY MANHOOD-THE PATRIARCHAL FATHER OF 20 CHILDREN-EMBRYO PREACHER, FARMER, TANNER AND REAL ESTATE SPECULATOR-SHEEP GROWER AND WOOL FACTOR-DISAS- TROUS EUROPEAN ENTERPRISE-LIFE IN THE WILDERNESS-REPEAL OF THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE-" SQUATTER SOVEREIGNTY"-"BORDER RUF- FIANISM" IN "BLEEDING KANSAS"-SYMPATHETIC SUMMITONIANS-FREE- DOM AT LENGTH VICTORIOUS-GUERRILLA WARFARE ON THE "PECULIAR INSTITUTION"-STUPENDOUS PROJECT IN BEHALF OF FREEDOM-CAPTURE OF HARPER'S FERRY-DESPERATE RESISTANCE TO STATE AND GOVERNMENT TROOPS-OVERPOWERED AT LAST-TRIAL FOR TREASON, INSURRECTION AND MURDER-MOCKERY OF JUSTICE-CONVICTION, SENTENCE, EXECU- TION-HEROIC TO THE VERY LAST-VERY LATEST WRITTEN COMMUNICA- TION-GENERAL AND GENUINE MOURNING IN THE NORTH-"BODY MOULD- ERING IN THE GROUND," BUT "SOUL STILL MARCHING ALONG !"

OUR OWN JOHN BROWN.

'THOUGH born in Connecticut, on May 9, in the first year of the century, John Brown may be fairly claimed as a native of Summit county, having emigrated to the township of Hudson, with his father's family, as early as 1805. Here, possessing in a marked degree, the strong characteristics of his energetic and enterprising father, the late Owen Brown, of direct Mayflower Puritanic descent, John grew to manhood, inured to frontier hardships and pioneer privations and toil; but under the advanced educational and thor- oughly orthodox influences of the ... enlightened and God-fearing inhabitants of that town, in those early days.

Possessing a sternly religious bent of mind, it was early designed that he should become a minister of the gospel, but that project was finally abandoned on account of an affection of the eyes which interfered with the pursuit of his JOHN BROWN. theological studies; whereupon he devoted himself to the dual calling of his father, farming and tanning, at the same time thor- oughly qualifying himself in the art of surveying.

June 21, 1820, then just twenty years of age, he was married to Miss Dianthe Lusk, of Hudson, by whom, during the twelve years of their married life, he had seven children, six sons and one daughter, Mrs. Brown dying on the 10th day of August, 1832.

585

JOHN BROWN'S BUSINESS LIFE.

About one year later, he was married to Miss Mary A. Day, of Crawford county, Pa., by whom he had thirteen children, seven sons and six daughters; thus being the progenitor of a grand total of twenty children, eight only of whom survived the tragic death of the father, as hereinafter alluded to, December 2, 1859.

FARMER, TANNER, ETC .- In addition to tanning and general farming and casual surveying, Brown became a great lover of cattle and sheep, and, like his brother Frederick, became an expert in the growing and handling of fine stock. Indeed, he was accounted to be the best judge of wool in the United States, if not in the world, being able to tell from the feel, the country, or section of country, where given samples of wool were grown; an anecdote being rela- ted of him that, while in England, as hereinafter related, thinking to puzzle him, among other samples submitted for his inspection, a soft tuft clipped from a snow-white poodle was handed him, when he instantly responded, "gentlemen, if you have any machinery that will work up dog's hair I would advise you to use it upon this."

Continuing the farming and tanning business in connection with his father, in Hudson, until about 1826, he removed to Rich- mond, Crawford county, Pa., where he was engaged in the same business, quite successfully, for about nine years.

REAL ESTATE SPECULATOR,-About the year 1835, Mr. Brown returned to Ohio, and in 1836, in connection with a Mr. Thompson, of Pennsylvania, bought what was known as as the Haymaker farm, of between one and two hundred acres, in the western por- tion of what is now the village of Kent, for the consideration of $7,000. Early in the Summer of 1838, this farm was surveyed and platted by ex-County Clerk, Capt. John A. Means (now living in Tallmadge), as the deputy county surveyor of Portage county, and put to record October 22, of that year, as "Brown and Thompson's addition to Franklin village."

It was the expectation of the proprietors that a large manu- facturing village would rapidly materialize at that point. Similar operations further up the river, by the Franklin Manufacturing Company, afterwards the Franklin Silk Company, together with the disastrous monetary and commercial revulsion of 1837-40, compelled the abandonment of the scheme, and an alienation of the lands in question, which were soon thereafter relegated to agricultural purposes, though in later years largely covered by the A. & G. W. R. R. shops, and quite a suburban population, of the now prosperous and enterprising village of Kent; the only relic of its projector now remaining being quite a large two-story frame building, on the southeast side of the river, opposite the lower mill, erected for a boarding house, and now pointed out with pride, to the visiting stranger, as the "John Brown House."

SHEEP HUSBANDMAN .- On the collapse of his village annexa- tion scheme, Mr. Brown, in 1839, took a drove of cattle over-land to New England, bringing back with him a small flock of choice sheep, as the nucleus of the immense business in that line, in which he afterwards embarked. In 1840, in connection with Capt. Heman Oviatt, a large land owner of Hudson and Richfield, he went quite extensively into the sheep and wool business, removing his family to Richfield in 1842, where he also established a tannery.

Subsequently, about 1844, he became associated with the late Col. Simon Perkins, stocking his large farm, overlooking Akron,

586

AKRON AND SUMMIT COUNTY.

on the west, with several thousand head of the very best fine- wooled sheep that could be obtained, Mr. Brown, with his fam- ily, residing in the same house now occupied by county surveyor, Charles E. Perkins, immediately south of the old Perkins home- stead.

It being difficult to always make favorable contracts for their yearly clips, so far from manufacturing centers, in 1846, Perkins & Brown established an extensive wool depot in Springfield, Mass., not only for the sale of their own product, but also for the storage and sale, on commission, of the product of most of the other fine- wool growers in Ohio and other states, with the object of thereby securing greater uniformity in prices, and consequently better profits, than could be realized from individual hap-hazard con- tracts with itinerant wool-buyers.

Brown was placed in charge of this enterprise, removing his family to Springfield, and the firm of Perkins & Brown soon became one of the best-known and most reliable fine-wool concerns in the United States.

A DISASTROUS PROJECT .- But at length differences began to arise between Brown and the manufacturers in regard to prices. Having practically a monopoly of the very finest grades of the product, Brown placed his figures higher than the manufacturers were willing to pay, and after holding his accumulations for a year or two without bringing the recalcitrant manufacturers to terms, Brown chartered a vessel at Boston, transported his wool (about 200,000 pounds), thither by rail, and shipped it to England. Here he found there was no especial demand for the extra-fine grades of wool of which his cargo was composed, and after paying storage on it for a considerable length of time, it was finally sold to the agents of the New England manufacturers, at prices which enabled them to re-ship and place it in their mills, at several cents per pound less than they had offered for it before shipment.

This misadventure involved a loss to the firm of from $30,000 to $40,000, falling principally, if not wholly, upon Col. Perkins, and the Springfield establishment was closed out and the firm dissolved.

REPEAL OF THE "MISSOURI COMPROMISE."

By this time the slave extension propaganda began to pro- mulgate the dogma that the provisions of the Fugitive Slave Law, authorizing the reclamation of fugitive slaves from the territories of the United States, had virtually repealed the Missouri Com- promise, so that slaves could not only be legally taken to, and held in, the territory north of 36° 30' but that such territory could be erected into slave states, should a majority of the inhabitants. so declare, on presenting themselves to Congress for admission.

This view was not only held by all the senators and represen- tatives of the slave states, both Whigs and Democrats, but also by some from the northern states. In January, 1854, Senator Stephen A. Douglas, of Illinois-with inordinate presidential aspirations- introduced a bill for opening to settlement all the territory north of Texas and west of Missouri, under the general name of Nebraska, to which, on the suggestion of Senator Dixon, of Kentucky, was attached a provision for the formal repeal of the- Missouri Compromise.

587

RESISTANCE TO "BORDER RUFFIANISM."

IN THE ADIRONDACKS .- In 1849 Brown retired from business and speculative life, to a tract of wild land presented to him by Gerritt Smith, in Essex county, in the northern part of the state of New York, a portion of which is now known as the "North Woods," or "Adirondacks," so popular as a cool retreat from the mid-Summer heats of the Eastern and Southern States.

Here, at North Elba, "the world forgetting and by the world forgot," for four or five years he quietly, but with characteristic energy, grubbed out from his rugged acres a comfortable living for his still rapidly increasing family -- his older children by first wife, being already in active business for themselves.

"SQUATTER SOVEREIGNTY."-In advocating his bill, Mr. Douglas invented the phrase "Popular Sovereignty," the theory being that the majority of the squatters upon the lands in question-whether pros or antis-should be allowed to settle the question for them- selves, thus stimulating rapid settlement from both sections, the section coming in ahead to be the best "fellow." The phrase "Popular Sovereignty" was soon changed to "Squatter Sover- eignty," in the fiery and exciting discussion which followed, the infamy finally being accomplished, an amendment having, mean- time, been adopted, designating the southern portion of the terri- tory in question as Kansas, and the northern portion as Ne- braska.

THE RACE FOR LIFE .-. Now, immediately commenced what may literally be termed "a race for life" between slavery and free- dom, Kansas being the arena. The border slave state of Missouri at once threw into the new territory an immense horde of what were very properly designated as "Border Ruffians," while all the other slave states contiguous to the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, and some of the more remote, shipped in thousands upon thousands of their "chivalrous sons," all armed to the teeth, and several regular military organizations-notably that of Major Buford, of South Carolina, inscribed upon his red flag, "South Carolina and State Rights"-for the purpose of intimidating free settlers and outvoting them, when conventions and elections were to be held, and of forcibly ejecting the free state men from the territory.

But the friends of freedem were by no means inactive, and thousands from the adjacent states of Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio, wended their way thither for peace- able and permanent settlement. In the Eastern States also, for the double purpose of aiding their surplus population to obtain independent homes, and to secure to the new territory the boon of freedom, Emigrant Aid Societies were organized and thousands of hardy, industrious and intelligent men were sent forward, sup- plied with the means to establish for themselves comfortable homes, and the endowment of schools, churches and adequate local government.

These peaceable immigrants met with the most determined and malignant opposition from the "border ruffians"-harrassed and murdered while passing through Missouri; their houses and vil- lages destroyed, and themselves killed or subjected to the mnost fearful indignities and outrages, accompanied by the most flagrant and brutal usurpations and frauds whenever and wherever elec- tions, either local or general, were to be held.

588

AKRON AND SUMMIT COUNTY.

These outrages soon taught the free-State men to meet force by force-in short to fight the pro-slavery devil with fire-and many very sanguinary battles ensued in various parts of the territory, so that the dark and bloody ground came to be appro- priately known as "Bleeding Kansas."

OLD OSSAWATOMIE.

Among others who had sought to better their physical and pecuniary condition, and at the same time aid the cause of free- dom, were several of the sons and sons-in-law. of John Brown. They were not only stalwart and energetic in the improvement of the lands upon which they had "squatted," but also vigilant and determined in the exercise of their civil and political rights as "Squatter Sovereigns." This subjected the Brown family to the most malignant hatred of the border ruffian element, their crops being destroyed, their buildings burned, and one of their number being most ruthlessly murdered, and another driven into insanity by cruel treatment while held as a prisoner.

These outrages upon the members of his own family, and the danger which menaced the cause of freedom itself, determined our whilom fellow-citizen, John Brown, to leave the seclusion of his Essex county home and fly to the rescue. By his coolness and bravery, he was soon accorded the leadership in repulsing the various attacks of the pro-slavery forces, and in making raids upon the camps and settlements of his blood-thirsty enemies, as well. The remarkable skill with which he, with a mere handful of men, routed a large force of "border ruffians" at the settlement of Ossawatomie, gave to him the sobriquet of "Old Ossawato- mie," by which name he is to this day better known than by any any other.

FREEDOM VICTORIOUS !

The struggle continued for some three or four years. The free-state settlers out-numbered the slave-state men at least two to one, but by incursions of armed bodies from Missouri at elections, and by the connivance of pro-slavery federal and territorial officers, the will of the majority was thwarted until 1859, when a delegate convention held at Wyandotte, adopted a free-state constitution, which was ratified by a vote of 10,421 to 5,530, though, by fillibus- tering tactics in Congress, it was not admitted to the Union until the withdrawal of the Southern senators to engage in the Slave- holders' Rebellion, in January, 1861.

In the height of the bloody conflict, John Brown visited Boston, Mass., where he had a conference with the prominent friends of freedom and members of the Emigrant Aid Society, from whom he received contributions of about $4,000 in money, and nearly twice that amount of arms and other warlike supplies. On his way back, in the Summer of 1856, he spent a few days among his old friends in Summit county for a similar purpose. At a small but enthusiastic meeting, to whom he gave a graphic account of the bloody struggle, a committee was appointed to can- vass the village in behalf of the good cause, of which committee it was the privilege, and the pleasure, of the writer to be a member.

589

THE HARPER'S FERRY EPISODE.

Rifles, shot-guns, revolvers, pistols, swords, butcher-knives, powder, lead, etc., with considerable contributions of money, were thus gathered in, while it was more than hinted that two cases of . arms of a former independent military company, stored in a barn in Tallmadge, and several similar packages of State arms, which had been gathered in from other parts of the county, and stored in the upper part of the jail, mysteriously disappeared about the same time. Middlebury, Cuyahoga Falls, Hudson, Tallmadge and perhaps other towns in Summit County, also made liberal contributions to the good work, all of which aided in freeing Kan- sas, Nebraska and contiguous territory from the curse of slavery, and, possibly, in precipitating that infinitely more bloody conflict which resulted in the overthrow of the accursed institution throughout the land.

HARPER'S FERRY-CAPTURING THE ARMORY.

By this time our old friend-always an ardent and conscien- tious anti-slavery man-had become so intensely embittered against the inhuman system, and the iniquities and atrocities of its supporters, that he determined to devote the balance of his life and energies for its extinction. Thus, for a time, he devoted him- self to the project of providing the human chattels of the border states-especially "Border Ruffian" Missouri-with the facilities of escape and safe transportation to the true land of freedom- Canada. In this way, for a year or two, much was done towards paying off the large indebtedness of himself and his family for the great indignities and wrongs that had been inflicted upon them, as above set forth.

But, to the prolific mind of John Brown, it soon became apparent that this mode of warfare against America's most gigan- tic curse, was puny in the extreme; that while it mnight annoy and inconvenience an occasional individual slaveholder, and se- cure limited freedom to an occasional captive, it would do very little towards accomplishing the great desire of his heart-univer- sal emancipation.

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Author: Lane, Samuel A. (Samuel Alanson), 1815-1905 Publication date: 1892 Publisher: Akron, Ohio : Beacon Job Department Number of Pages: 1228

Author: Lane, Samuel A. (Samuel Alanson), 1815-1905
Publication date: 1892
Publisher: Akron, Ohio : Beacon Job Department
Number of Pages: 1228