John Brown declared himself an Abolitionist in 1836. Just a few years later he moved to Richfield, Ohio. One reason he came was because his best friend from school, Mason Oviatt, lived here. And he had known Mason's father, Heman, all his life. But there were other perhaps even better reasons for coming to Richfield.
In the 1892 "History of Akron and Summit Co.", the author described 1840 Richfield as "one of the very snappiest inland points of Northern Ohio, not only stimulating the general prosperity of the township itself, but attracting a large amount of business from adjoining, and even more remote, localities." The township was known for "abounding in fertile and nicely cultivated farms, being especially adapted to the raising of fine stock." Richfield was also the home of "a well equipped academy" (in addition to the well-attended public schools), ..which was patronized by locals and pupils from abroad. And by far the most important church in Richfield was of a very outspoken abolitionist point of view. All of these factors made Richfield a very attractive town in which to locate. And for John Brown, having a lifelong interest and skill at horse, cattle and sheep raising, a desire to do business in a very favorable location, a beginning plan to help educate the free and soon to be free negroes of America, and being a stanch Abolitionist himself; Richfield must have been a very attractive location indeed.
John Brown went to work at "Lord" Farnam's estate (Farnam's son was married to Emily Oviatt, who was sister of Mason) as chief shearer for the upwards of 3000 sheep. Brown also worked as partner/manager of Heman Oviatt's large sheep farm, which originally spanned 4,000 acres. Of those days Oviatt said, "I have known him from boyhood through manhood, and he has always been distinguished for his truthfulness and integrity." In Brown's later years many authorities considered that John Brown may have been the best judge of wool in the world.
"As his good friend, Ralph Waldo Emerson, was to later write of him: "He had 3,000 sheep in Ohio, and would instantly detect a strange sheep in his flock. He always makes friends with his horse or mule (or with the deer that visit his Ohio farm); and when he sleeps on his horse as readily as on his bed, his horse does not start or endanger him."
John Brown also built and ran a tannery. It was located near his home, just north of the intersection of Brecksville Rd. & Streetsboro Rd. He had learned the trade from his father, when the family lived in Hudson, Ohio. Brown was to make good use of those hides during his time in Richfield. One of his apprentices in his tanyard at that time was to later bear testimony to the singular probity (the quality of having strong moral principles; honesty and decency) of John Brown's life.
Often folks tend to think of John Brown as a poor businessman, often based on his having to declare bankruptcy in 1842 while in Richfield. But when you look at what actually happened he was forced into bankruptcy because of his good hearted action of endorsing, -a note for a friend, -in the purchase by the friend, -of a farm for the friend. When the friend could not make the payments, John Brown was held liable. Just two years later John Brown had a very successful tanning business in Richfield, "that was pretty fairly behind, .." (because of so much business, and that we might have to consider giving up) "for want of regular (help) on whom to depend."
One other way in which some folks posit that Brown was poor at business, is by citing his bankrupcy records. There are very few items listed. -"He must have been poor because he had so little." But what they apparently fail to appreciate is that two factors contributed to the Brown's living very modestly.
-First, and perhaps most important, John Brown was deeply religious. He simply didn't believe in living fancy. It was not how he believed God would have us live. He believed enough is enough. And anything more was excess. The family purposely lived modestly.
-And secondly, and also enormously important, John Brown was an Abolitionist. Not in theory, but in "Action!" He and his family personally saw to the running of their part of the UGRR. It is well to remember that most often when a slave sought escape, that often meant taking nothing with them. They weren't "moving". They were on the run, and anything they carried slowed them down. That meant that every time one of the escaped came to an Abolitionist's door they needed to be fed, and sometimes clothed and given shoes. And sometimes given a little money to be able to continue on their way. This was very expensive. And a very good way for the Brown's to give an appearance of being poor, when instead they were simply committed to the welfare of so many. ~With their time, their hearts, their work, their lives, possibly their own freedom, ..and their pocket book. They only ever had just enough, so that others could have more.
There is simply nothing about living in the early 1800's in Ohio that can compare to today. You built a business by yourself. That included clearing the land, building the building, making a lot of the equipment, working really hard, doing it all by hand, foot or horse power. You heated your house and business with wood, every stick of which you cut yourself with an axe or hand saw. You grew a large percentage of the food you ate, tilling the gardens by hand or horse. Everywhere you went, you walked or hitched up a horse. You wanted to talk with someone, you went to see them. There were no phones. You needed light, make a candle. There was no entertainment, unless you liked choir singing, or could sing yourself. Quite a lot of doctoring was ~go pick an herb. Most of your clothes you made yourself. You want some meat for dinner, go butcher a sheep or hunt a deer. And more.
~~I mention all of this because that is what John Brown did in Richfield. He was in charge of shearing Farnum's 1,000+ sheep (a full time job). He was in charge of the care of Oviatt's many hundreds of sheep (a full time job). He had his own sheep (a nearly full time job). He ran a tannery (a full time job). And he shepherded hundreds of escaped to freedom (a more than full time job). He kept his family under roof, providing all their food, comfort, warmth, water, Spiritual Guidance, education, protection and more (more than most folks can do even with today's conveniences). And he was considered the best horse and cattle breeder and sheep and wool expert of his day. ~Good grief, how much more did he have to do for some folks these days to consider him a success?
While living in Richfield, John Brown attended the Congregational Church of Richfield, to which the Oviatt's belonged. The church, the third church established in the Western Reserve, was fully committed to the Abolitionist cause. And John Brown's already established Abolitionist views grew deeper and more committed. It was while he lived nearly next door to that church, just down the road from the Farnam Estate and a short distance from his friend Mason Oviatt's home, that John Brown was to hide slaves in his basement and in the dark of night sneak them out the basement door into Mason's false bottom wagon for transportation on the next stop of the Underground Railroad. (The full story of this event can be found on the page titled "Richfield Abolitionists".)
It was illegal to conceal or transport "runaway" slaves. There were heavy fines, the possibility of jail time, you could be beat, your life ruined; ~if you were caught actively participating in helping your fellow man to freedom. Even to the extent that if you gave so much as a crust of bread or a drink of water to even an escaped child, you were guilty of breaking the law. Because of this, John Brown and his fellow Abolitionists had to be extremely careful. In some communities even the local police were offered a bounty to turn in abolitionist law breakers.
It is simply not known for sure why John Brown left Richfield when he did. Most often, later (perhaps ill-informed) authors have written of those events suggesting he moved on because of his local failures in business. But we can guess he liked Richfield. He had a church here, good friends here, established residence, useful & monetarily rewarding work tanning hides and caring for sheep. Certainly the Underground Railroad was operating well. But one event not as often talked about was the Diphtheria Plague that ravaged Richfield when John lived here. He was to lose 4 children in rapid secession in those dark times. A question remains, how much did it effect his decision to leave?
We can't for sure ever have the answer to that question. But what we do know is that while in Richfield, John Brown had a profound effect on his chosen community. And Richfield had a profound effect on John Brown. His beliefs that all men and women must equally enjoy Freedom and Liberty deepened here. And his desire to put those beliefs into action only continued to grow.
In the book "Life and Letters of John Brown", pub. in 1885, the author F. B. Sandborn (a friend of John Brown) wrote the following of John Brown:
"In 1841 he kept the sheep of Captain Oviatt, a farmer and merchant in Richfield. After his (financial) reverses during the 'Panic of 1837' he had taken up the romantic life of a shepherd, --that, as he says, 'being a calling for which in early life he had a kind of enthusiastic longing.' At the age of 39, when he fully entered upon this "calling", he also had, as he says 'the idea that as a business it bid fair to afford him the means of carrying out his greatest and principled object.' This object was the liberation of the slaves."
In a letter to his son, John Jr., John Brown wrote of that period in Richfield: "I have been careful and troubled with so much serving, …" He goes on to talk about his Richfield business affairs, saying the Richfield sheep are sheared and hay is coming in and the hide tanning going about as usual. John Brown finished by writing, "..there are some persons in Richfield who would be middling fond of seeing you back once more, …" It was John Jr. who had (in Mason Oviatt's story of a night's visit to Brown's house) shepherded the escaped up the steps from the cellar of the Brown house and into the Oviatt wagon to begin their journey on to the next stop on the Railroad.
It is his writing of "being careful and troubled with so much serving" that in normal context would be more puzzling, especially as it comes first in his letter to his son, before writing about his businesses. But when coupled with his statement of those years that business, "bid fair to afford him the means to carry out his greatest object", that perhaps John Brown was making a very careful father to son reference to the activities he pursued so earnestly (as his Richfield friend Ebenezer Palmer later said of him) in Richfield, -the activities (which needed to so carefully concealed) of the Underground Railroad.
Just several years after coming to Richfield to pursue his "enthusiastic longing" of shepherding and desire to carry out his "greatest object", that disaster struck. Life was good, his businesses satisfying and his network of trusted friends established, when the Black Diphtheria swept thru Richfield. And four of John & Mary's children (ages 10, 5, 2, 1) died within two weeks. Three of them were buried on the same day in the same grave. As Sandborn wrote, "The loss of so many children in their early years was a sore trial to John Brown... ". In their illness he was a devoted nurse, and he had acquired much skill in the care of all invalids." Mrs. Thompson (wife of John's son, Watson Brown) later wrote of the death of her niece Ellen: "A little before noon he came home, and looked at her and said, 'She is almost gone.' She heard him speak, opened her little eyes, and put up her little wasted hands with such a pleading look for him to take her that he lifted her from the cradle, with the pillows she was lying on, and carried her until she died. He was very calm, closed her eyes, folded her hands, and laid her in her cradle. When she was buried, father broke down completely, and sobbed as a child. It was very affecting to see him so overcome, when all the time before his great tender heart had tried to comfort our weary, sorrowing mother, and all of us." It was late Sept. when they so quickly lost four children. Mary later remarked, "That was the time of my life when all my religion, all my philosophy, and all my faith in God's goodness was put to the test." John wrote to his son, John Jr., "This has been to us all a bitter cup indeed." And, "'They were all children towards whom perhaps we might have felt a little partial, but they all now lie in a little row together." John Jr. was to write about those times that it was, "..a calamity from which father never fully recovered."
In a letter, to a young abolitionist acquaintance (about the deaths of so many of his children at once) John wrote, "I felt for a number of years a steady, strong desire: to Die." But in the same letter, he also expressed his undying commitment to the destruction of slavery. "Certainly the cause is enough to live for... ". He wrote he would endure more "hardness" in the rest of his life, "But I expect to effect a mighty conquest."
The following Spring, when the weather permitted, perhaps in part because of so much Richfield tragedy, John moved the most of the remaining family to Akron. Two sons, Frederick and Jason, remained in Richfield to continue the Brown family business's there. Frederick caring for about 250 sheep and the family sheep dog and Jason the tannery.
From the 1892 History of Summit County: "After John Brown moved to Akron he kept up his involvement in the UGRR. He regularly hid fugitives in Akron and conducted them, sometimes 5 or 6 at a time, to stations north." ~~The next easiest stop on the UGRR north of his Perkins Farm home was Richfield. From his Akron residence it is a fairly level, straight run to Richfield, with very modest changes in terrain. (There's quite a long hill going down to, or returning from, the Cuyahoga Valley and the Canal or going to Hudson, making a much more difficult trip by horse and wagon.) And as previously noted, for some time after moving to Akron, two of the Brown sons remained in Richfield.
~(As a personal note: Four of this author's own eight children are presently 10, 5, 3 and newborn, almost the exact ages of the children John and Mary Brown lost. I can not begin to imagine what such a loss did to them. I am sure I would never recover.)
~~One other small connection to Richfield. John Brown's brother, Frederick, had a son Owen. Owen married Anna Rebecca Myers and they had several children. When Owen died in the Civil War, Anna remarried to Samuel Deater (himself a Civil War veteran, and a Lt. during Gen'l Sherman's March on Atlanta). Samuel raised two sons of Owen & Anna Rebecca Brown (grand nephews of John Brown) as his own. Samuel Deater was the Great Great Grandfather of the current (now oldest living) generation of Richfield Fry's. How John Brown's niece and our grandfather met, we do not know.
Copyright © Jim Fry 2018