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Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of this book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/cletails/cu31924028874852 
 
WITH JOHN BROWN IN KANSAS 
 
 THE BATTLE OF OSAWATOMIE 
 
 BY 
 
 Edward Payson Bridgman 
 
 AND 
 
 Luke Fisher Parsons 
 
 MADISON, WISCONSIN 
 
 J. N. DAVIDSON 
 
 1915 
 
An acquaintance formed in the Bible class of the 
 Pilgrim church Sunday-school, Madison, Wisconsin, led 
 to the publication of this booklet. It may, therefore, 
 justly be inscribed to that class and its faithful teacher, 
 Mr. Daniel Wight. To them, and to other readers, the 
 following passage from the Wisdom of Solomon, IV. 2 
 is commended : 
 
 For in the memory of virtue is immortality, because it iS 
 recognized both before God and before men ; when it is pres- 
 ent men imitate it, and they long after it when it is departed ; 
 and throughout all time it marcheth crowned in triumph, victo- 
 rious in the strife for the prizes that are undefiled. 
 
 Copyright, 1915, by J. N. Davidson 
 
WITH JOHN BROWN IN KANSAS 
 
 THE BATTLE OF OSAWATOMIE 
 
 BY 
 
 Edward Payson Bridgman 
 
 AND 
 
 Luke Fisher Parsons 
 
 MADISON, WISCONSIN 
 
 J. N. DAVIDSON 
 
 1915 
 
 UvC 
 
Still among the Hvinr/ are two meti, — and only two, 
 — who fought with John Brown at Omwatomle. Of him 
 and their experiences under his command they tell in tlie 
 narratives that folloiv. 
 
 Rare qualities that leader must have had for whom 
 there yet abide the regard and honor that young men's 
 hearts felt for him almost threescore years ago. 
 
 The Publisher. 
 
 Nineteen Fifteen, 
 
 March fourth. 
 
 ^ 
 
EXPERIENCES IN KANSAS UNDER JOHN BROWN. 
 
 By Edward Payson Bridgman, Senior. 
 
 My father was an intimate friend of William Lloyd 
 Garrison, Wendell Phillips and Frederick Douglass ; 
 they were often at our house, and it was due to their 
 influence that I became strongly interested in the anti- 
 slavery cause. 
 
 In the spring of 1856 I went from my home in west- 
 ern Massachusetts to Kansas to give my influence and 
 vote in behalf of the free-state cause. Kansas was then 
 a Territory but soon was to be admitted into the Union, 
 and it was a question whether it was to be a slave state 
 or free. The South was determined it should be a slave 
 state, for the broad acres of its territory were an invit- 
 ing field in which to perpetuate what Garrison called 
 "the sum of all villainies." The Ntfrth was equally 
 strenuous in its insistence that Kansas should be a free 
 state, and used every means to accomplish this purpose 
 by sending arms and men into the Territory. 
 
 At that time Kansas City had a population of only 
 3,000. Now the population is three-quarters of a mil- 
 lion. It is sixty miles from Osawatomie. Between the 
 two towns there was here and there a cabin or a dug- 
 out for a habitation where now exist towns and cities. 
 Osawatomie had then thirty houses, mostly built of logs, 
 for there was a skirting of timber on either side of the 
 river. Beyond was a broad prairie for miles in extent. 
 A Mr. Hocolm had gone from Massachusetts, and on 
 this account I too went there. Another man came, also 
 from Massachusetts, — Win Anthony, a brother of Susan 
 B. Anthony, and as we came from the same section it 
 was very natural that we should become close friends. 
 
It was in May that I arrived in Kansas, and at that 
 time there were many Border-Ruffians who made life in- 
 secure, and there was trouble on every hand. For weeks 
 I had to stand guard near our house, for the road from 
 Kansas City to Osawatomie ran past our house. Hence 
 it was necessary to see that the enemy should not be al- 
 lowed to come into the town unawares. 
 
 One afternoon in July we saw a posse of cavalry 
 mounted on horses coming toward our house. We 
 watched them with a good deal of interest, being very 
 suspicious of them. Hastily I put a few things into my 
 valise and hid it in a cornfield near by, and hurried into 
 the woods where we could see unobserved. But the ma- 
 rauders passed on over into the town without molesting 
 us, some half a mile away. Between us and the town 
 was the river, a couple of rods wide, called the Osage. 
 Near this point was the Pottawatomie, and from the 
 contraction of these two names we have the name of 
 Osawatomie. 
 
 The object of the marauders' visit to the town was 
 to find and destroy the printing-press that was about 
 ready to be set up to espouse the free-state cause. They 
 found it and threw it into the river, thus accomplishing 
 their purpose. Their only other depredations consisted 
 of seizing a demijohn of whisky and taking a ring off a 
 woman's finger. Then they made for a log house which 
 was the home of Rev. Mr. Adair, whose wife was a sister 
 of John Brown, and where he made his headquarters 
 when in Osawatomie. They entered this house and 
 broke the furniture into kindling wood. A few days 
 later when I passed the house I saw the ax they used. 
 
 The Border-Ruffians were satisfied with their work 
 and returned the way they came. 
 
 I took up a quarter-section of land and Anthony 
 took another quarter, each with the intention of mak- 
 ing a home. But the times were turbulent and the out- 
 look for peace dubious. The Border-RuflBans were deter- 
 
rained in their efforts. A price was on John Brown's 
 head dead or alive. He had a few men staunch and true. 
 It was better for a man not to cross their path unless he 
 was peaceably inclined. 
 
 Toward the last of August, 1856, there was a rumor 
 that a force of Border-Ruffians was coming to take John 
 Brown and destroy the town. On the 29th of August 
 John Brown came with his faithful band and camped in 
 the dooryard around our house. They comprised some 
 twenty to twenty-five men. They were a tired set of 
 men and, at the edge of the evening, without any sup- 
 per, they threw themselves on the ground and slept. I 
 know how tired they were, for I often went through a 
 hard, thirty-mile march on a hot summer day in the 
 war for the Union. In the morning, however, all the 
 little band were astir early. We were up before sun- 
 rise. Some of the boys got rails, some water and some 
 made a batter to fry into cakes. 
 
 During these preparations for the morning meal 
 John i3rown looked on. He was a stern -visaged man 
 but kindly spoken and approachable, of strong will and 
 determination, of indomitable purpose, and withal a 
 deeply religious man. To illustrate: When we all 
 turned in for the night he, as was his custom, read a 
 chapter in the Bible. He laid the book on the stairs. A 
 candle was left burning, and I had the curiosity, after he 
 had gone to bed, to look into the Bible. I noticed that 
 the margins were written over with h^s comments, and 
 lines were emphasized by interlineations, particularly 
 in the Gospels and Psalms. 
 
 The breakfast hour was passed in cheerful conver- 
 sation all around, each little dreaming that sorne of 
 their number, in less than an hour, would be among the 
 dead. On the evening before, Fred Brown, a son, went 
 over into the town to spend the night with his aunt. He, 
 unsuspecting, was called out of the house by a man of 
 the name of White, and was shot, being instantly killed. 
 
When we were through breakfast a man came run- 
 .ning toward us exclaiming, " The enemy are upon us ; 
 for God's sake, hurry up." 
 
 I saw John Brown strap his knapsack on his back 
 as he commanded his little band to " fall in," and hur- 
 riedly marched forward. Anthony and I waited only 
 long enough to take the dishes off the fire when we 
 each took a gun and followed on after. 
 
 The enemy numbered some four hundred, and 
 Brown's band about twenty- four. The odds were too 
 great for the battle to last more than about half an 
 hour. Brown placed his men in skirmish line and 
 walked behind them, giving directions. 
 
 On Brown's side two men were killed in the battle. 
 It was no use to keep up the uneven fight long, and we 
 all fled in every direction. Four were killed on the re- 
 treat, making six dead in the brief engagement, besides 
 the wounded. The enemy did not follow us up but re- 
 turned the way they came. 
 
 From the point where I stood i saw the town of 
 twenty-nine houses in flames, with only one exception; 
 This house contained a sick family of four persons un- 
 able to be taken out, and the Border-RufBans had the 
 humanity to spare it and its suffering occupants. 
 
 A few years ago the Woman's Relie'f Corps of Kan- 
 sas bought the ground whereon the battle was fought 
 fifty years before ; a site of twenty-seven acres, and de- 
 signed it for a park. Two years ago,— August 29, 1910, 
 — it was dedicated, the address of the day being by The- 
 odore Roosevelt. This speech has since been known as 
 "the 'famous Osawatomie speech," in which the ex-Pres- 
 ident expounded his new political principles of the 
 " New Nationalism." I was present on that occasion, 
 and it was of exceeding interest to me, after an inter- 
 val of fifty-four years, to come back and bring to mind 
 the stirring scenes of over half a century before. 
 
 Five years after this battle came the war of the re- 
 
bellion, for which I enlisted ; and for three years I en- 
 dured the privations, hardships and dangers incident to 
 army life. But in reality the first battle of the war was 
 fought at Osawatomie, and the war was begun on Au- 
 gust 30, 1856, with five years' intermission ; — the war 
 ending April 9, 1865, in which we had over two thou- 
 sand engagements. Among the more prominent of 
 these in which I participated, seventeen in number, 
 were Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Spottsylvania, 
 Gettysburg, the Wilderness, Cold Harbor, Petersburg, 
 Winchester, and up to Appomatox Court House at the 
 time of Lee's surrender. Then the cruel war was over, 
 and we returned to the peaceful pursuits of home and 
 civil life. 
 
 Madison, Wisconsin, 
 
 Nineteen Twelve, August fifth. 
 
 It iras John Wesleij irJio first called slavery " the sum 
 of all villainies." Hoiv much he was in advance of his time 
 is shown by the fact that the bishops of the church of Eng- 
 land voted against the bill to forbid the slave-trade, and 
 also against that providing for the emancipation of the 
 slaves in the British West Indies. 
 
 Wesley's characterization of slavery is one that Garri- 
 son used, no doubt, often and emphatically. 
 
 A brief sketch of Mr. Bridgman's life follows. Then 
 ■we have the narrative of one of the men tvhom he describes 
 as "stanch and true.'" 
 
Edward Payson Bridgman, son of Rev. Ansel and 
 Salome [Graves] Bridgman, was born at Huntsburg, 
 Ohio, March 7, 1834. His mother died in 1836 ; his father, 
 who was of the class of 1827, Williams College, died in 
 1838. A brother, Mr. John Bridgman of Northampton, 
 Massachusetts, 'adopted as a son his orphaned nephew. 
 
 About May 1st, 1856, young Edw^ard went to Kan- 
 sas, and there became closely associated in friendship 
 and otherwise with " Win " Anthony, a brother of the 
 famous Susan B. Anthony. The young men took up 
 adjoining claims about a mile distant from Osawatomie, 
 and very near the present site of the state hospital for 
 the insane. 
 
 After his baptism of fire young Bridgman returned 
 to his Massachusetts home, graduated at the Westfield 
 normal school and taught two seasons. In the war for 
 the Union he enlisted in August, 1862, in the 37th Mas- 
 sachusetts. His service was with the army of the Poto- 
 mac. He was in the battles of Fredericksburg, Chan- 
 cellorsville, Gettysburg, the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, 
 Cold Harbor, Petersburg, Winchester, and was present 
 at Appomatox when Lee surrendered. 
 
 Mr. Bridgman is an honored member and senior 
 deacon of Pilgrim church, Madison, Wisconsin, where 
 he lives at 1221 Spaight street. 
 
Edward Payson Bridgman 
 
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 Luke Fisher Parsons 
 
WITH JOHN BROWN IN KANSAS. 
 
 By Luke Fisher Parsons. 
 
 I arrived in Kansas May 1st, 1856. I went there to 
 make Kansas my home and to help make it a free state. 
 As soon as T could get my bearings I went out to hunt a 
 claim. I finally bought out one Macy, who had a good 
 claim only four miles from Lawrence, with a good log 
 house on it. I got it very cheap, for he said his wife 
 was sick and he must take her back to Massachusetts. 
 
 I stayed one night on the claim, then went to Law- 
 rence for provisions. When I returned there was a no- 
 tice on the door that read : " No Yankees wanted here ; 
 did not Macy tell you?" Then I knew why Macy's wife 
 was so sick. I took my blankets and shot-gun, and 
 slept in the woods. I soon saw what was before me. 
 
 The Territorial government was pro-slavery, and 
 was backed by the national government. The people 
 were three to one pro-slavery ; well organized and well 
 armed. Lawrence, Osawatomie and Topeka were the 
 Free-State towns. Topeka is so far from the Missouri 
 line that it was not in much danger. At Franklin, six 
 miles east of Lawrence, a Georgia company had a fort. 
 Nine miles west was Lecompton, where their governor 
 stayed with his United States troops. Colonel Titus 
 had a log fort only half a mile away. Ten" miles south- 
 west was Fort Sanders. Fort Scott, the trading-post ; 
 Westport, Kansas City, Leavenworth and Atchison ; all 
 Border-Ruffian towns. 
 
 An immigrant party of several families from the 
 East came on steamboats to Kansas City, but they were 
 not allowed to land and had to return to St. Louis. An- 
 other large immigrant party came by boat to Leaven- 
 
10 
 
 worth and had unloaded most of their goods, when they 
 were " rushed " back on the boat and compelled to leave 
 for St. Louis without their goods. They afterwards fit- 
 ted out a train in Illinois, and joined a train that James 
 H. Lane was bringing through Iowa and Nebraska. 
 
 The ■' bogus " court at Lecompton had indicted the 
 Free-State hotel and the two newspapers at Lawrence 
 as nuisances, and ordered the sheriff to abate the nui- 
 sances. On May 11th, the United States Deputy Mar- 
 shal Donaldson issued the proclamation calling on all 
 law-abiding citizens to assemble at Lecompton in num- 
 bers sufficient for the execution of the law. Immedi- 
 ately they came. About seven hundred and fifty com- 
 posed this swearing, whisky-drinking, ruffian horde. 
 
 " Each valley, each sequestered glen, 
 Mustered its little horde of men, 
 Till at the rendezvous they stood 
 By h undreds, prompt for blows of blood." 
 
 Atchison, Leavenworth, Kansas City, Westport 
 and Fort Scott all spewed out on timid Kansas their 
 ruffian gang, all eager to exterminate the abolitionists. 
 They came from different directions and, like a con- 
 quering army, pillaged and murdered all who made 
 resistance. On the morning of the 21st of May, they 
 appeared on Mount Oread, close to Lawrence. 
 
 The people of Lawrence had chosen a committee to 
 consult together and advise what was best to be done. 
 The committee was in session at the Free- State Hotel 
 until twelve o'clock the night of the 20th. John Brown, 
 Jr., came into town that evening and tendered the 
 services of himself and company ; also of his father 
 and his company to help protect the town. These men 
 were gathered from Osawatomie, Potawatomie Creek 
 and Southern Kansas ; about one hundred and fifty in all. 
 They were camped just outside of town. John Brown, 
 Jr., waited in the bar-room of the hotel until after 
 twelve o'clock, when Pomeroy carae down and said to 
 
11 
 
 Brown : " You can go home, and when we want you 
 we will send for you. We will make no resistance. 
 The federal government will have to pay for all pro- 
 perty destroyed." 
 
 Brown was very much disgusted. He said : " You 
 in Lawrence can do as you please, but I shall not lay 
 [lie] down and let them walk over me." He slammed 
 the door as he went out without saying good-night. 
 They left for home immediately. 
 
 About nine o'clock, a. m., the Border-RuflBans came 
 into town. The men were drawn up on Massachusetts 
 street in front of the Free-State Hotel. Marshal Don- 
 aldson then arrested George W. Deitzler, George W. 
 Smith, Gains Jenkins and Charles Robinson, charging 
 them with treason. Sheriff Jones then ordered Shaler 
 Eldridge, who had the hotel rented, to remove his 
 furniture, as he (the sheriff) would destroy the hotel. 
 Eldridge replied : " I will not move a thing." Then 
 Sheriff Jones ordered his men to carry out the furniture. 
 
 They soon got into the store-room where were 
 kept the liquors of all kinds. They could not resist the 
 temptation to " sample " them. The women and chil- 
 dren fled to the west of town, across the ravine, to get 
 out of danger. The men tried to batter the hotel down 
 with cannon and, after firing thirty-two shots, kindled 
 a fire in one corner with Eldridge's furniture, and when 
 the wood-work was burned out the walls fell in. Others 
 were busy with sledge-hammers, breaking the printing- 
 presses and throwing the type into the streets. 
 
 When thft walls fell in Sheriff Jones shouted : " I 
 have done it ; by God, I have done it. This is the hap- 
 piest moment of my life." Jones now demanded of S. 
 C. Pomeroy the cannon presented to the city by Horace 
 Greeley and others. Of course Pomeroy did not know 
 anything about it, but they showed him. They led him 
 to a hardware store and told him to remove the stone 
 
12 
 
 •underpinning, which, with their help, he proceeded to 
 do. They soon hauled out cannon, wheels, carriage and 
 all. It was turned over to Buf ord's Georgians, who took 
 it to Franklin. On their banners were inscribed the 
 words : " Southern Rights. South Carolina. Let Yan- 
 kees Tremble. Abolition Its Fall. We Give Southern 
 Rights to All." 
 
 The mob was now pretty drunk. The majesty of the 
 law had been upheld. The rabble was now^ dismissed 
 in the streets, and they promptly proceeded to plunder 
 the town, and wound up by burning the Robinson 
 house. They took all the horses and cattle they could 
 find on' their way to Missouri. The Free-State men 
 were like a flock of sheep pursued by hungry wolves. 
 
 The Browns, on their return after their hurried 
 march to reach Lawrence in time to aid in its defense, 
 lingered in their camps for rest, and to hear news from 
 Lawrence. While they were in camp a small party 
 came to John Brown and said : " We must have help on 
 the Potawatomie ; we have been ordered to leave in 
 three days or die. -Bondi's cabin was burned last night." 
 
 This Bondi whose house was burned is August Bon- 
 di, father of Mrs. Rose Bower and Mrs. Shulhofl: of Mat- 
 toon, Illinois ; and of Mrs. Minnie Steii'el and Mrs. Jo- 
 sephine Vehon of Salina, Kansas. He served during 
 the war in the Fifth Kansas cavalry, fell dead in St. 
 Louis, September 30th, 1907, and carried two rebel 
 bullets to his grave. 
 
 " Eight men came around, all armed, and ordered 
 us to leave or take the consequences." " Do you know 
 who they are?" asked Brown. "Yes, here are their 
 names," answered one of Brown's visitors, handing him 
 a slip of paper. After reading it Brown said, " I will 
 attend to them. Has it come to this that one party or 
 the other must leave their homes and the Territory or 
 .die? Well, I accept their challenge." 
 
13 
 
 That evening Brown selected his party as follows: 
 Theodore Weiner (an Austrian Jew), Henry Thomp- 
 son (Brown's son-in-law), and four of his own sons, 
 Owen, Frederick, Salmon and Oliver. 
 
 John Brown, Jr., and Jason had their families here, 
 and Brown said to them : " You had better go home to 
 your families ;" and to Bondi, " You had better have 
 proof of where you are for the next few nights." Then 
 with James Townley's team and wagon, and Townley 
 for driver, and with the cheers of their comrades in 
 their ears, they left camp. They went straight to the 
 Potawatomie river. 
 
 On the night of May 24th and morning of the 25th, 
 John Brown struck the first blow for the freedom of 
 Kansas. It was the beginning of the end. The next 
 morning mounted men were riding in every direction 
 spreading the news of the murder of five men on the 
 Potawatomie. Now to view this act in a peaceful time 
 like this, after fifty-eight years, it seems like a great 
 crime. But it is necessary to take into consideration 
 the state of affairs then existing in the Territory, and 
 its effect upon the two warring elements. By the Free- 
 State party it was generally approved. It put terror 
 into the hearts of our enemy. Senator J. J. Ingalls 
 said : " It vertebrated the Free-State party." Major 
 Sedgwick of the United States army said : " John 
 Brown was the only man who comprehended the situa- 
 tion, saw -the absolute necessity of such a blow, and had 
 the nerve to strike it." Charles Robinson said : " Brown 
 performed a justifiable act, [one] which saved their 
 homes from threatened raids of the pro-slavery party." 
 Senator Pomeroy said : " That one act struck terror 
 into the hearts of our enemy, and gave us the dawning 
 of success." 
 
 Those deaths, 1 have no doubt, saved a multitude 
 of lives, and were the cheapest sacrifice that could have 
 
14 
 
 been offered. Men who were astride the fence, now had 
 to get down on one side or the other. The whole coun- 
 try now became aroused. All over the Territory sprang 
 up captains who had never been heard of before, with 
 a following of from five to twenty-five. 
 
 United States marshals were sent out to arrest John 
 Brown and his men. Henry Clay Pate of Virginia, who 
 claimed to be a United States deputy marshal, started 
 out from Kansas City with his company of thirty Bor- 
 der RuflBans and camped in a ravine on the head of 
 Black creek. John Brown, Jr., and Jason had just been 
 arrested by another United States marshal, their houses 
 burned, and their families turned out on the prairie. 
 The men were shamefully treated, being compelled to 
 march in front of their horses, — to march with heavy 
 chains on their ankles till they were cut to the bone. 
 
 When Captain Brown heard where Pate was, he 
 collected what men he could and, with a few men, 
 attacked Pate. After fighting some three hours. Pate's 
 men began to mount their horses and escape, so Brown 
 demanded a surrender, which Pate finally decided to do. 
 Twenty-three men, two badly wounded, surrendered to 
 fifteen. Bondi was one of the fifteen. Brown had 
 three men wounded, Henry Thompson, his son-in-law, 
 severely. Colonel Sumner of the United States troops 
 was soon sent to release the prisoners. No resistance 
 was made to the United States troops. Captain Pate's 
 arms were returned, but the arms of the men and 
 their horses could not be found. Lieutenant J. E. B. 
 Stuart, later Confederate general, was with Sumner's 
 command. 
 
 Immediately after the sacking of Lawrence, James 
 H. Lane was sent East to raise men and money to aid the 
 Free-State cause. No better man could have been sent 
 on a lecture tour. He was the most eloquent off-hand 
 speaker I ever heard. He could control a mob. Illit- 
 
15 
 
 erate, profane, and an adept at the use of slang phrases, 
 he could make you weep or laugh at his pleasure. 
 Thomas Wentworth Higginson said of one of Lane^s 
 speeches : " Never did I hear such a sermon ; every 
 sentence like a pistol shot ; such delicacy and lightness 
 of touch, such natural art, such perfect adaptation, not 
 a word, not a gesture could be changed ; he had every 
 nerve in his audience at the end of his muscles. Not 
 another man in the United States could have done it. 
 And the perfect ease of it all, — not a glimpse of pre- 
 meditation or effort." 
 
 About August 1st, 1856, Lane arrived in Nebraska 
 City with his caravan, having picked up on his way 
 through Iowa several of the companies that had been 
 sent back down the Missouri river. By this time the 
 caravan comprised one hundred and twenty-five armed 
 single men ; and, all told, six hundred men, women and 
 children. Very soon after his arrival in Topeka, things 
 began to come our way. For, on August 12th, before 
 it was generally known that Lane had arrived, he led 
 a small party against the Georgia fort at Franklin. It 
 was a night attack. On the way down there Lane said : 
 " Boys, we will recapture that cannon to-night or die." 
 Major Buford put up a good fight a few hours ; then we 
 loaded a wagon with hay, fired the back end, and backed 
 it up against the door. As soon as the shingles began 
 to burn well, they shouted: "We give up." We pulled 
 the wagon away, and they all got out of two windows 
 on the dark side and escaped in the darkness. 
 
 We had seven killed and wounded. Four EufBans 
 were left wounded. We captured the cannon, seventy 
 stand of arms and a large quantity of provisions. Their 
 fort went up in smoke. 
 
 Major Buford wrote " The Mobile Tribune:" " Ev- 
 erything has been destroyed by the incendiary villains 
 
16 
 
 who hold sway. We are destitute of everything except 
 an undying determination to be avenged." 
 
 On this same day (August 12th), a young man by 
 the name of Hoyt, an agent of the New England Im- 
 migrant Aid Society, was killed by a party of Ruffians 
 whom he met in the public road. 
 
 It was found that Buford's men had fled to Fort 
 Sanders, on Washington creek. So on the 15th we 
 marched against Port Sanders, ten miles southeast of 
 Lawrence. But before we could surround the fort the 
 Ruffians fled. So we applied the torch. 
 
 The next morning at daybreak Captain Sam Walker 
 led about forty men against Fort Titus, another log fort 
 nine miles west of Lawrence and close to Lecompton, 
 the Ruffians' headquarters, where Major Sedgwick's 
 troops were guarding the treason prisoners, John Brown, 
 Jr., Jason Brown and others. Our friends the prisoners 
 both heard and saw the battle. 
 
 Titus made a desperate fight ; his men were in the 
 fort and we in the open. Captain Bickerton was present 
 with the cannon that we had recaptured at Lawrence a 
 few days before. He had cast balls for the cannon, — 
 balls made of the type that the women picked up in the 
 streets of Lawrence. 
 
 Bickerton was late in getting into action, and 
 Walker was too impetuous to wait on any one. On this 
 account he needlessly exposed his men. After several 
 hours of hard fighting, Bickerton opened up. With the 
 first shot fired he cried : " This is the second edition of 
 ' The Herald of Freedom.' How do you like it?" A 
 few shots in rapid succession, crashing through their 
 fort, brought down their dirty rag, and up went a white 
 flag. The firing ceased ; thirty-four prisoners came out 
 on the porch. One dead in the fort. Six wounded, 
 including Colonel Titus. Our side suffered worse ; 
 Captain Shonibre killed and twenty-seven wounded, 
 including Captain Walker and myself. 
 
17 
 
 Of the plunder there were four hundred guns, a 
 large number of pistols and knives, a good stock of 
 provisions, thirteen horses, saddles, et cetera. The fort 
 was burned and everything that we wanted removed to 
 Lawrence. 
 
 The prisoners were soen released by Governor 
 Shannon with United States troops. Titus went back 
 to Georgia and, in later years, went to Nicaragua with 
 the filibuster Walker, who styled himself "the gray- 
 eyed man of destiny." Here he was again captured, 
 taken out and shot. 
 
 The RuflBans were still after John Brown. Pate's 
 Virginians having proved a failure, they fitted out a 
 sure winner this time under John W. Eeid with four 
 hundred men who came to destroy the town of Osawat- 
 omie and arrest John Brown and his little band, charg- 
 ing them with treason. In fact they had used force to 
 protect themselves and friends from Border-RuflBan 
 persecution and outrage. Brown, through his spies and 
 scouts, knew they were coming, knew their strength 
 and purpose and, with his small band, could offer but 
 feeble resistance. For our safety he had but little con- 
 cern, for he knew we could scatter and hide in the 
 brush, like so many quail, and get together again when 
 the storm had passed. But for the innocent women 
 and children in the thirty houses of the town, each con- 
 taining at least one family, some two, he felt deep con- 
 cern. Brown expected that the Ruffians would come 
 from the east, therefore encamped east of town, but 
 had his pickets out both ways. Reid made a night 
 march and encircled the town, then came in from the 
 west. They killed two of our pickets in that direction 
 who were posted near the Adair house. This was about 
 daylight. Charles Adair, a boy of twelve years, was 
 sent on his little pony to arouse the town and tell John 
 Brown that the Border Ruffians were coming. 
 
18 
 
 We were camped near where the State Asylum now 
 stands and were just getting our breakfast when we saw 
 the little fellow coming up the hill, his pony under the 
 whip. Brown recognized his nephew and, knowing that 
 he had important news, stepped out to meet him. Char- 
 lie shouted: "The Border RuflSans are coming and have 
 killed Cousin Fred and Mr. Harrison." Brown simply 
 said: " Men, come on ; we must meet them before they 
 get to the town." I picked up my Sharp's rifle and 
 started immediately with Brown, The rest of the men 
 began to skirmish for coffee and something to eat. As 
 we hurried along Brown said : " We must save the wom- 
 en and children first ; then save ourselves, if we can. 
 We will attract their attention while the men get their 
 families out of danger. Were you ever under fire?" I 
 said : " No, but tell me what you want, and I will do it." 
 He said : " Take more pains to end life well than to live 
 long." Now most of the men had overtaken us ; we were 
 near the block-house. He said : "Parsons, take ten men 
 into this log fort and hold your position as long as you 
 can. The rest of us will aid you by going up the river 
 and annoy[iDg] them on the flank. I counted off the 
 first ten and turned them into the fort, and barred the 
 door on the inside. One of my men was a boy fourteen 
 years old, Spencer Brown ; no relation of John Brown. 
 
 Most of the men went up to the second story where 
 they could see out of the portholes and watch the ad- 
 vancing army. One of the men called out: "We must 
 get out of here ; they have cannon and will blow us to 
 pieces." An old man by the name of Austin said : 
 " Stay here, and let them blow us to hell and back 
 again." Austin and I went up to view the situation, 
 and the sight was truly appalling. They were slowly 
 advancing in two long lines, all mounted, with two 
 brass cannon in the center. Their swords and guns 
 glittered in the morning sun and, as nearly as I could 
 
19 
 
 estimate, there were four hundred. When we went 
 down we found the door open and all the men gone. 
 Then we two joined Brown who had just commenced 
 the attack. Brown conducted this battle coolly, cour- 
 ageously and well. He showed no fear whatever. His 
 unexpected attack, and his force's being hidden in the 
 timber (they had no means of telling its strength), 
 threw the Ruffians into confusion, and they were just 
 trying to change front to meet the flank attack. 
 
 They were in easy rifle range and on the open 
 prairie. Brown had placed his men in one long line 
 from twenty to forty feet apart. He told them to keep 
 behind tree-stumps and bushes. He said : " Lay down if 
 you can do no better, but keep out of sight. I do n't 
 want them to know my force." 
 
 There never was a better opportunity to shoot men. 
 They, in plain sight, mounted on green horses afraid of 
 a gun, trying to form a new line. We, secreted, stand- 
 ing still, could take steady aim, with a rest if we want- 
 ed to. We could see them fall all along the line, until 
 they got wise enough to dismount. Brown kept walk- 
 ing back and forth along the line, speaking to each man 
 as he came to him, assuring him that all was going well. 
 He would say : " Keep cool, take good aim, aim low, be 
 sure to see both sides of your gun," et cetera, et cetera. 
 
 Once as he came to me he said : " Do you see any- 
 thing on my back? Any blood? Are my clothes torn? 
 Something hit me an awful rap on that shoulder. Upon 
 being told that I saw nothing, he said : " Well, I de- 
 clare, I do n't intend to be shot in the back if can help 
 it." 
 
 Their cannon bothered them more than it did us, 
 for they fired too high. But their overwhelming num- 
 bers began to tell to their advantage. They pressed us 
 slowly back, we falling back one at a time, as it got too 
 hot for us. But we kept up the line well until we got 
 
20 
 
 to the river bank. Here we gave way altogether, to take 
 a new position in a log house on the other side. They 
 rushed up the bank and did a good deal of shooting while 
 our men were in the water. Charles Heiser was wound- 
 ed, and could not cross the river without help. Spencer 
 Brown tried to help him and both were captured. George 
 Partridge was killed in the water, and Dr. W. W. Upde- 
 graf wounded. I jumped down a steep bank and ran 
 along the water, followed by Austin. When we got to 
 the saw-mill the bank was low on our side and high on 
 the other, so we were easily seen. Austin dropped 
 behind a pile of logs, saying : " I won't run another step." 
 I said : " I can see the bottom here, and we will wade 
 across and get with Brown." While I was clambering 
 to get up the other bank, I heard voices saying : " Halt, 
 halt," and several shots tore up the ground right beside 
 me. As soon as I could get a footing I turned to shoot, 
 and saw two horsemen making off at full speed. A 
 horse with an empty saddle followed, and a man lay 
 kicking on the ground. Austin jumped up and came 
 over to me. He said all three fired at me, and I got one 
 at the same time. We went up the river and joined 
 Brown at the log house. The enemy was gone. Brown 
 said: "I do n't see why they don't follow us up; why 
 don't they turn their cannon on the house? They 
 have been severely punished ; I saw them fall, one by 
 one, all morning." Soon we saAv the smoke of the burn- 
 ing town. Brown said : " It must be nearly ten o'clock, 
 and the men have surely gotten away with their fami- 
 lies by this time. Men, I do n't think they want any 
 more to do with us. Every one of you has done nobly. 
 Now, Jason, my son, I must go and see about poor Fred 
 and Mr. Garrison. You hunt up the wounded and bring 
 them here first. Then the dead. We will be back as 
 soon as possible." 
 
21 
 
 The Ruffians scoured the country for teams and 
 wagons, and hauled off two dead and one wounded for 
 ever}' one that went into the brush with Brown. They 
 told people along the road that they had fifty abolition- 
 ists, but we knew all about that. They had just two, — 
 Charles Keiser and Spencer Brown. They camped at 
 Paola that night and buried their dead. The next morn- 
 ing they took Charles Keiser out and shot him. Then 
 Spencer thought that his time had come, but they said 
 to him : " You little Yankee brat, skip for home ; and 
 if we ever catch you with a gun in your hand we will 
 surely kill you." 
 
 The next day Brown took off his shirt and showed 
 me his back. There was a black and blue spot as large 
 as an egg, and swelled as high. A grape-shot had pro- 
 bably struck a tree and, glancing, struck his shoulder. 
 
 Our casualties on this occasion were six killed and 
 three wounded, and one prisoner. The killed were Fred 
 Brown, David Grarrison, George Partridge, T. P. Powers, 
 William Williams and Charles Keiser. The wounded 
 were George Cutter, W. W. Updegraff and Daniel W. 
 Collis ; prisoner, Spencer Browm. Ten in all, or one- 
 third of our number. 
 
 Senator John J. Ingalls years later wrote: "The 
 battle of Osawatomie was the most brilliant and impor- 
 tant episode in the Kansan war. It was the high divide 
 of the contest. It was our Thermopylae, and John 
 Brown was our Leonidas, with his Spartan band. It 
 was evident that some one was in earnest. But when 
 freedom recounts the sacrifices of her sons, she does not 
 ask the number or the rank of those who fell. Winkel- 
 reid is as dear to her as Washington, and Osawatomie is 
 as sacred as Bunker Hill." 
 
 Since Bondi's death, in 1907, I am the sole survivor 
 of the battle of Osawatomie in Kansas. 
 
 On September 10th Captain Harvey, with two hun- 
 dred men, attacked Hickory Point. After several hours 
 
22 
 
 the RuflBana fled,- leaving one dead and four wounded. 
 Harvey had five wounded. He burned the fort. 
 
 On September 14th two thousand seven hundred 
 men, under General Atchison, Eeid, HeinkeR, String- 
 fellow, Whitfield and other Missouri leaders, camped at 
 Franklin with the avowed intention of wiping Law- 
 rence off the map and hanging the abolitionists. 
 
 Governor Geary had just superseded acting Gover- 
 nor Woodson. Geary was a good governor. As soon as 
 he heard of this action of the Border-Rufiians, he came 
 to Lawrence with all of the United States troops that 
 he could command. The troops were commanded by 
 Joseph E. Johnston, the late distinguished Confederate 
 general. 
 
 John Brown was on hand, and many other Free- 
 State captains. They were digging rifle-pits and throw- 
 ing up breastworks on every street. Their advance 
 guard was now in sight across the prairie. Governor 
 Geary took a strong body-guard and rode to meet them. 
 
 He called their principal ofiicers together and told 
 them that he felt sure he could render even-handed 
 justice to both sides, at least they must give him a 
 chance. He told them that they must disband and go 
 home ; that he would surely use every soldier under his 
 command to protect Lawrence. They went back to 
 Franklin, and Geary came to Lawrence. On their way 
 home to Missouri they swept the country, east from 
 Lawrence, clean of all horses, cattle et cetera ; and shot 
 down every one they could find ; and burned many 
 houses. By nine o'clock that night women began to 
 come into town on horseback, crying, their hair stream- 
 ing down their backs, saying their men had been killed, 
 houses burned, and stock driven off. You could see 
 streaks of light in the eastern sky where the houses 
 were burning. 
 
 Governor Geary cried like a child. He was power- 
 less to prevent it, yet his firm stand had saved one des- 
 
23 
 
 perate struggle at least. Now for a time the Territory 
 was practically at peace, for Geary had the United 
 States troops busy arresting all armed companies on 
 either side. 
 
 On October 9th, S. C. Pomeroy and Shaler Eldridge 
 brought in a train of two hundred twenty-three armed 
 immigrants who were promptly taken in charge by the 
 troops. 
 
 The energy of Governor Geary and the approach of 
 winter prevented more fighting. An intelligent South 
 Carolina captain, who came in the interest of slavery, 
 wrote to his home town : " Why should I remain? The 
 governor will not let us fight, and whichever way the 
 Kansas question is decided it will dissolve the Union. 
 The abolitionists themselves say they will have Kansas 
 if it splits the Union into a thousand pieces." 
 
 Thus passed 1856. The year 1857 was compara- 
 tively quiet. Yet the political pot was boiling. 
 
 John Brown thought the question of slavery for 
 Kansas was about settled, so he determined to carry the 
 fight into Virginia. And in the fall of 1857, he selected 
 ten young men who had been tried by fire, and took 
 them to a quiet little town in Iowa, where was given 
 military instruction to fit us for captains. 
 
 In the spring of 1858 we went to Chatham, Canada, 
 thence to Cleveland, Ohio, on our way to Harper's Ferry, 
 Virginia. Brown failed to find the money to carry out 
 his plans, so the raid was declared off for one year. We 
 were told to keep in touch with each other, so we could 
 get together again on short notice, but must pay our 
 own way. Brown took three of the men back to Kansas. 
 
 On May 15th, 1858, one Charles A. Hamilton, of 
 Georgia, with a following of thirty men, crossed the 
 Missouri border near the trading-post in Linn county. 
 They captured Free-State men wherever they found 
 them ; — on their wagons, in their fields, in their shops 
 
24 
 
 or at their homes, until he had eleven. He lined them 
 up in a ravine in the timber, placing his men on the 
 bank above, and ordered his men to shoot the prisoners, 
 They fired a volley ; all fell. Some of his men then 
 went around and kicked the prostrate men. Those 
 who flinched were shot again in the head. Then the 
 Ruffians rode off again into Missouri. It proved that 
 five of the Free-State men were killed, five wounded 
 and one unharmed. ' 
 
 December 30th, 1858, Brown led a few men into 
 Missouri and brought out eleven slaves, several wagons, 
 yokes of cattle, clothing, provisions, arms et cetera. He 
 returned to Osawatomie, and on January 20th, 1859, 
 ;;tarted north with the slaves. On the 20th, he reached 
 Holton in a snowstorm. 
 
 On the next day when he came to Spring Creek he 
 found the creek too deep to ford and, while waiting for 
 the creek to run down, he discovered across the creek a 
 company of Atchison Ruffians, commanded by A. P. 
 Wood, which barred the way to liberty. They were 
 said to number eighty men. Brown, with twenty-two 
 men, black and white, crossed the stream above, slipped 
 down the timber, and burst, all unexpected, upon the 
 foe. They made off as fast as they could, with a loss of 
 one killed, three prisoners, four horses, pistols and guns 
 ct relcrn. Such was the terror of his name. The pris- 
 oners were taken about twenty miles away toward Ne- 
 braska City and turned loose, both wiser and sadder 
 men. They denounced their captain as a blusterer and 
 a coward. 
 
 ,1,,,,^ On February 1st, 1859, John Brown left Kansas, 
 neverTo return. 
 
 On the 12th of March, he delivered his twelve 
 slaves (one having been born since the company left 
 Missouri) safe into Canada. On March 28th he arrived 
 in Cleveland to rally his old company of ten men. But 
 they had been so neglected, and had become so scattered 
 
25 
 
 in their search for work to earn their living that he lost 
 several. On July 12th he moved to the Kennedy farm 
 near Harper's Ferry, Virginia. Soon after this he had 
 twenty-one men there. On Sunday the 16th of October, 
 the raid on Harper's Ferry began, and on the 18th it end- 
 ed. Brown was hung December 2nd. Of those ten 
 men whom Brown took from Kansas only one survives. 
 Those who were not killed at Harper's Ferry^ or hung at 
 Charlestown entered the Union army and went down in 
 the fray. 
 
 Now, to show you that the battle commenced by 
 Brown at Osawatomie for the freedom of Kansas and 
 the slaves was not ended until Appomattox was reached, 
 I have brought you to Harper's Ferry. The last of the 
 Harper's Ferry prisoners were executed March 16, 1860 
 Stevens and Hazlet ; — who will say their souls did not 
 go marching on? A South Carolina captain has already 
 said that the Kansas question would dissolve the Union. 
 
 In speaking of the death of John Brown and his 
 men, Horace Greeley of " The New- York Tribune "said : 
 " We will leave their epitaphs to be written in that not 
 distant day when no slaves will clank their chains by 
 the graves of Monticello or the shades of Mount Ver- 
 non." I] Then later Senator John J. Ingalls said : " A 
 nation seized Brown's standard of universal freedom, as 
 it fell from his dying hand upon the scaffold at Charles- 
 town, and bore it in triumph to Appomattox." 
 
 On April 11th, 1861, Beauregard fired on Fort Sum- 
 ter, South Carolina. " Hellish discord raised its fiery 
 crest, and poured its venom in its country's breast." 
 Major Anderson was compelled to evacuate the fort. 
 Then the immortal Lincoln came to enforce his coun- 
 try's rights, — called by her grateful voice to take the 
 helm and guide the ship of state aright. 
 
 " His word prophetic makes the promise sure. 
 The Union must, the nation shall endure.'' 
 
26 
 
 Henry Clay Pate's career, John Brown's and J. E. B. 
 Stuart's, were strangely interwoven. Pate and Brown 
 first met at Black Jack, Kansas, and encountered Lieu- 
 tenant J. E. B. Stuart there three days later, when 
 Pate's men were set free by Colonel Sumner. Lieuten- 
 ant Stuart and Brown next met at Harper's Ferry, 
 where Stuart was chosen by Colonel Lee to demand 
 Brown's surrender. Pate visited his old captor in jail 
 shortly after. They could not have foreseen that all 
 were to perish by violence within so short a time, and 
 in Virginia, not so far apart. 
 
 Pate died, colonel of the Fifth Virginia cavalry, in 
 command of the brigade, on the same day. May 11th, 
 1864, on which the brilliant Confederate general " Jeb " 
 Stuart was mortally wounded, and within one hundred 
 yards of the place, near Yellow Tavern, Virginia. 
 
 There could be no clearer illustration than this sec- 
 ond meeting of these three men gave of the direct rela- 
 tion of the Kansas struggle to Harper's Perry, and to 
 the national convulsion of '61 to '65. Kansas was the 
 prelude. What more natural than that some of the 
 actors who appeared in the prologue should hold the 
 center of the stage in the latter act of the greatest 
 drama of the nineteenth century. 
 
 Now, friends, do n't think for a moment that 1 have 
 told you all of the early history of our state. It would 
 fill a large volume. I have only briefly called your 
 attention to a few of the important events as I swiftly 
 passed along. I have already occupied too much of 
 your valuable time, and I thank you for your patient 
 attention. 
 
27 
 
 Important events those surely were in tvhich Mr. Par- 
 sons had so active a part. His narrative was read " hy 
 invitation, at Osawatomie, on the fiftieth anniversary of 
 the battle." 
 
 The narrative makes necessary some account of the 
 writer's life, and this we have in his own words. 
 
 Luke Fisher Parsons, of Salina, Kansas, was born 
 at Brookville, Massachusetts, June 28th, 1833. My 
 mother was Tryphena Fisher, of Westborough, Massa- 
 chusetts. My father was Luke Parsons. He had a 
 brother Ely, a bachelor ; and a brother Seth who raised 
 a large family at or near Springfield, Massachusetts. 
 
 In 1839, 1 moved with my folks in a covered wagon 
 to Byron, Illinois. Father died when I was fourteen 
 years old. At eighteen, I went to Mount Morris, learned 
 the wagon-making trade, went to school a short time, 
 then worked as a journeyman at my trade in Chicago, 
 at Peoria, and at Tremont, Tazewell county, Illinois, 
 returning to Byron in 1855. 
 
 In the spring of 1856 a mass meeting of the citi- 
 zens of Byron was called to devise ways and means to 
 aid " bleeding Kansas." Volunteers were called for, and 
 subscriptions of money. Six volunteered ; I among the 
 rest. We promised to help make Kansas free, and to 
 stay until Kansas was admitted a free state. To each 
 of us there was given about twenty-five dollars. We 
 arrived in Kansas 1856, May Ist. I am the only one 
 who stayed ; and, fifty-eight years later, I met the 
 people of Byron, by appointment, and" rendered an 
 account of my stewardship. 
 
 I was clerk of the Free-State hotel when, 1856, 
 May 21st, it was destroyed. 
 
28 
 
 I first met John Brown at the battle of Black Jack. 
 I fought with Jim Lane at Franklin ; with Captain Sam 
 Walker at Fort Titus, — was wounded there, — and with 
 John Brown at Osawatomie. 
 
 In the fall of 1857, 1 went with Brown to Spring- 
 dale in Cedar county, Iowa. Spent the winter in the 
 study of military tactics and drilling. 
 
 In the spring of 1858 I went with Brown to 
 Chatham, Canada. We attended a convention, formed 
 and signed a provisional constitution, and then crossed 
 Lake Erie to Cleveland on our way to Harper's Ferry. 
 At Cleveland Brown failed to find the money to finance 
 the expedition. So he declared the thing off for one 
 year, saying : ' You must care for yourselves for one 
 year. Try to keep in touch with each other so that we 
 can get together at short notice." 
 
 I went to my home at Byron, Illinois, and, the fol- 
 lowing winter, collected an outfit and started West for 
 the " Pike's Peak " gold-field. 
 
 Early in the sprijig of 1859, while waiting at 
 Council Bluffs, Iowa, for grass to grow on the plains, I 
 got letters from Brown and Kagi, saying : " You must 
 turn back. Sure go this time. We depend on you ; 
 come, do come." 
 
 I kept on. Soon we became convinced that there 
 was no gold at Pike's Peak. So we turned back via 
 Lawrence, Kansas. Here I sold my interest to one of 
 the boys, and I went to Osawatomie again and worked 
 in a mill. 
 
 That fall, 1859, was the attack on Harper's Ferry, 
 and the boys were all killed or in jail at Charlestown. 
 R. J. Hinton came to me at the mill and said that 
 James Montgomery was going to lead a party to liberate 
 the boys, and wanted me to be one. I said, " I will go." 
 Hinton said, " Go as soon as possible, as Montgomery 
 and the rest are now in Leavenworth getting ready to 
 start." He gave me fifteen dollars to last me till I 
 
29 
 
 eould get with Montgomery. I W6nt to Leavenworth 
 and hunted three days [for Montgomery]. Met several 
 who had seen him yesterday or the day before, but none 
 who knew where he was then. 
 
 1 returned to Lawrence. Went to see Colonel 
 Phillips who told me he had just heard that eighteen 
 inches of snow had fallen about Charlestown, Virginia, 
 and therefore the expedition had been declared ofi. 
 
 I then came to Salina, January 17th, 1860. Enlisted 
 in the army September, 1861, in Sixth Kansas cavalry. 
 Promoted to be first lieutenant, July 11th, 1862. Pro- 
 moted to be brigade inspector. Third brigade. Seventh 
 army corps. Army of the Frontier. Mustered out May 
 31st, at close of war. Served three years and nine 
 months. 
 
 Returned to Salina and went on to a claim. April 
 18th, 1867, married. Worked the farm thirty-three 
 years. Raised one boy and two girls. All married and 
 gone. All have children of their own. 
 
 Now I rent the farm and live comfortably in town. 
 Yours truly, 
 
 Luke Fishbe Paesons. 
 
 Froin a diary kejJt by Mr. Parsons and published in 
 " TIte Salina Dally Union," of Friday, April 9, 1915 : 
 
 Mr. Parsons is speaking of the settlers of Salina : 
 
 " I make no claim of being the first, or the most 
 ancient, only one of them, and date my advent Febru- 
 ary 16, 1860. * * On May 2, 1860, Reverend Messrs. 
 Hook and Helm organized the First Methodist church 
 in our carpenter shop. * * [Date not given.] While 
 on a buffalo hunt * * I found a cave. June 1st: Sen- 
 ator S. C. Pomeroy and wife are here. * Mrs. Pomeroy 
 made us keep the Sabbath day holy, so we dedicated the 
 cave this day. She had brought along some old sermons, 
 and Samuel had to read one aloud. * That day we had 
 elk fried, baked and boiled ; and for dessert we had figs, 
 currant jelly and lemonade." 
 
 From Mr. Bridgman's memory : 
 
 Pomeroy was from South Hampton, Massachusetts. 
 On ray way to Kansas, in 1856, 1 met him in St. Louis. 
 
30 
 
 In a letter to an inquirer Mr. Parsons adds these 
 statements: 
 
 Now about the occurrence on the Potawatomie 
 which a certain falsifier says was necessary in order to 
 steal " a large number of horses." Was it justifiable or 
 not? Let us see. What were the circumstances leading 
 up to it? It was not until May 25th, 1856. 
 
 In the fall of 1855 the Border-RufBans began their 
 killing by killing Samuel Collins, October 25th, and so 
 they followed on, one after another, until five were 
 killed. 
 
 Joseph Branson was arrested November 26th by the 
 pro-slavery sheriff of Westport, Missouri. A few days 
 later he was rescued by Sam Wood, but no one was 
 hurt. 
 
 Brigadier-General Lucien J. Eastin published in 
 " The Leavenworth Herald " the following appeal 
 through the border counties of Missouri : 
 
 " To arms ! To arms ! Every lover of Law and 
 Order will rally at Leavenworth on Saturday, Decem- 
 ber 1st, 1855, prepared to march at once to Douglas 
 county. XXX have forcibly, rescued a prisoner from 
 the Sheriff. Come one ! Come all ! x x x Every man 
 bring his rifle and ammunition." 
 
 Some of the weapons of this ruffianly horde were 
 proven before the Howard committee to have been 
 stolen from the United States arsenal at Liberty, Mis- 
 souri. Thdre were some twelve or fifteen hundred men 
 under arms when they reached the vicinity of Lawrence. 
 
 A compromise or treaty was made by the leading 
 Free-State men and the drunken Governor Shannon, 
 whereby he (Shannon) was to release S. C. Pomeroy, a 
 prisoner in their camp, and order the Missouri invaders 
 to quit the Territory without delay. This they did, but 
 robbed and plundered on their return. They murdered 
 Mr. Barber who objected to their methods. 
 
31 
 
 December 22nd : Mark W. Delohay's printing-press 
 was thrown into the river. 
 
 January 18th, 1856 : Reece P. Brown was killed. 
 
 January 24th, 1856, President Pierce sent a special 
 message to Congress in which he said the Free-State 
 men would become " treasonable insurrectionists " if 
 they resisted by force ; — a message proclaiming the 
 pro-slavery Shawnee legislature " legal." 
 
 On February 20, 1856, John Brown wrote Congress- 
 man J. R. Giddings of Ohio : " I confidently believe the 
 Administration will drive the people to submit to these 
 Infernal Enactments or assume what will be termed 
 treasonable grounds. 1 ask in the name of Almighty 
 Grod ; I ask in the name of our venerated forfathers ; I 
 ask in the name of all that good and true men ever 
 hold dear ; will Congress suffer us to be driven to such 
 dire extremities? Will anything be done? " 
 
 April 23rd : Sheriff Jones of Missouri, with the aid 
 of United States troops, arrested six citizens, charging 
 them with contempt of court. April 24th : J. N. Mace 
 shot. April 30th : Rev. Peardee Butler sent down the 
 Missouri river on a log ; was then tarred and cottoned 
 (for lack of feathers), and then told the next time he 
 returned to Atchison he would surely hang. May 19th : 
 John Jones and John Stewart killed. 
 
 During the second week in May, Judge Leoomp 
 charged the grand jury that all the laws passed by the 
 Shawnee legislature were of United States authority 
 and making ; that, therefore, all who resisted these 
 laws were guilty of high treason. At once, without 
 hearing any witnesses, the grand jury indicted Reader, 
 Robinson, Lane, Deitzler, Jenkins and Smith on charge 
 of treason. The grand jury also indicted two news- 
 papers and the Free-State Hotel as nuisances. 
 
 May 21st : These men were arrested by United 
 States Deputy-Marshal Fain. He then turned his mob 
 over to Sheriff Jones (of Missouri) who proceeded to 
 
32 
 
 destroy the presses and the hotel. Then Jones turned 
 the men, drunken, loose in the town to plunder it and 
 burn Robinson's house. 
 
 Now these are some of the things precedent to the 
 Potawatomie affair, yet Brown's &,ccuser says : " All 
 was serene : perfect peace prevailed under the Shan- 
 non Treaty." 
 
 It is true that, so far, the Free-State party had 
 made no resistance, except to rescue Branson without 
 firing a shot. They were without organization, timid ; 
 like a flock of sheep pursued by hungry wolves. 
 
 When John Brown was returning (from his trip to 
 help Lawrence), May 21st, some men came to his camp 
 and said : " We must have help on the Potawatomie. 
 We have been ordered to leave in three days or die. 
 Bondi's cabin is burned." Brown asked : " Do you 
 know who they are?" "Yes, here are their names." 
 Brown said : "Has it come to this? One party or the 
 other must leave their homes in three days? Well, I 
 will accept their challenge ;" and inside of three days 
 John Brown killed the threatening killers. This was the 
 beginning, Appomattox was the ending. 
 
 This was approved by the Free-State party at the 
 time. John J. Ingalls said: " It vertebrated the Free- 
 State party." John B. Maines said: "I am surprised 
 that any one should believe that the killing of these 
 men was without reasonable excuse." He asks whether 
 "the Free-State men were to abandon Kansas, or to fold 
 their armS and await martydom when the three days 
 of grace expired? Or were they to slay the would-be 
 murderers to save themselves? 
 
 Charles Robinson said : " Brown was the only man 
 who saw the absolute necessity of such a blow, and had 
 the nerve to strike it." Samuel C. Pomeroy said as late 
 as January 16th, 1860 : " From that hour the invaders 
 fled ; that one act struck terror into the hearts of our 
 enemies. * Those deaths * saved a multitude of lives ! " 
 
33 
 
 After the foregoing pages were in type it was the 
 fortune of the writer of these lines to meet Thomas Win- 
 ston, M. D., of Lawrence, Kansas, who, as a young man, 
 was a personal friend of Mr. Parsons when both lived at 
 Mount Morris, Illinois. Between them, in these later 
 years, there has been correspondence ; and Dr. Winston 
 believes . Mr. Parsons to be entirely trustworthy. Not 
 lightly to be set aside, in Dr. Winston's judgment, is the 
 plea made by Mr. Parsons that the killing of those five 
 dwellers on the Potawatomie comes tinder the primal law 
 that the mav, loho threatens death to others may himself 
 Justifiably be slain. The list of atrocities given by Mr. 
 Parsons shows that the killing of men had been begun 
 months before, and that the victims were of the Free-State 
 party. Moreover the penalty of death for those who 
 should malie xmsafe in Kansas the holding of slaves was 
 provided for in statutes passed by tlie Shaumee legisla- 
 ture-; — one of the "infernal enactments" of which John 
 Broivn wrote to Giddings. That these killings came to 
 be regarded on both sides as war rather than murder is 
 shown in part by the fact that Martin White who, in the 
 early morning, called Fred Brown to the door of his aunt's 
 house, — the home of Rev. S. L. Adair, — wherein he was 
 guest, and shot him dead, was a preacher of the Methodist 
 Episcopal church. South ; " a devout, rabid, shot-gun, pro- 
 slavery divine." This characterization is from Spring's 
 Kansas. Ministers of the Methodist Episcopal church had 
 been loarned, in resolutions passed in a public meeting, to 
 keep out of Kansas. 
 
 The bitterness that led Mrs. Robinson to hire the ser- 
 vice of an advocatus diaboli in the case of John Brown 
 is explained by Dr. Winston. Brown wished to destroy 
 slavery; Robinson to keep it out of Kansas. Their poli- 
 icies, therefore, became divergent No doubt Brown was a 
 trial to the more conservative men like Robinson and 
 Pomeroy. In Buchanan's administrcdion Robinson was 
 
34 
 
 afraid that Brovii's aggressiveness tvould bring the Fed- 
 eral government into action against the Free-State men as 
 had been the case under Pierce. In justice, however, to 
 the officers of the regular army it is to be said that some 
 of them, — Nathaniel Lyon, Edwin Vose Sumner and 
 others, — sympathized with the men icho irere trying to keep 
 slavery out of Kansas. 
 
 A story of Colonel Sumner, as heard and told by Dr. 
 Winston, is of the occasion when Pate and his company 
 were held by Brown as prisoners. To them the situation 
 must have been a most mortifying one. For Pate iras a 
 correspondent of the St. Louis Republican, a widely cir- 
 culated pro-slavery neivspaper, and his boastings weir irell 
 Jmoivn. On behalf of himself and his company he hail re- 
 ceived from ladies of Westport a banner. It is not probable 
 that the speeches of presentation and acceptance contained 
 any allusion to the admonition given in Scripture: "Let 
 not him that girdeth on his armor boast himself as lie that 
 taJceth it off." "Hon} do you come to be here. Captain Pate ? " 
 asked Sicm/ner when brought by Brown to the captive. As 
 Pate's many words contained no reply, he was compelled to 
 hear again and again the pitiless question : "Horo do yon 
 come to be here. Captain Pate ? To this there was probably 
 a double significance, for it is doubtful that Pate had legal 
 authority to arrest John Broxvn or anybody else. He want- 
 ed, to make a speech, but Sumner silenced him and left to 
 Broivn the duty of releasing the prisoners. That done 
 Pate wanted his horse rvhich, of conise, could not be found. 
 So our hero was obliged to n;alk nntil he could find friends. 
 Lieutenant-Colonel Haws of the One Hundred Forty-Ninth 
 Illinois told, Dr. Winston the story, and was understood to 
 speak from personal knowledge. 
 
 To John Broivn few things were necessities. If tliere 
 were not horses enough for all his men to ride, he took his 
 turn in walking. If there was nothing to eat but corn- 
 meal mush, — pardon us, shade of Joel Baiioir! — Broivn 
 
35 
 
 gave God thanks as devoidhj «.s- // tlu^re had been a feast. 
 He believed himself to have been predestined to do and to 
 suffer for righteousness' sake. " Whatever else may be laid 
 to his charge," — [ quote from Spring's Kansas,— " irhat- 
 ever rashness, umrisdom, equivocation, bloodiness, — no 
 faintest trace of self-seeking stains his Kansas life.''' Such 
 men receive love, but it Is lore mingled with awe ; and fheij 
 are objects of fear mingled ivith admiration. 
 
 It may be that a man of just this type icas needed 
 for the emergency. Brown thought that he was contending 
 against slavery ; he tvas contending against that which 
 produced slavery, and his opponents were tliemselves victims. 
 He teas contending against a primal sin in human nature, 
 — the p)-opcnsify of the strong to prey upon tlie weak. He 
 was contending against the legalism that led President 
 Buchanan to speak of " sacred rights of property " whew he 
 uHis silent about the sacred, rights of men. Moreover, John 
 Brown was contending against }'ace prejudice, and against 
 n^hat uvis then the ^'biggest business " in the United States : 
 the production of cotton. " Cotton is king ! " said Hammond 
 of South Carolina. But to that king Brmvn acknoioledged 
 no allegiance. For a Calvinist there is only one King. 
 
 The writer is impelled to express a certain measure 
 of sorrow for the " Borde)' Ruffians." They u-ere merely 
 tlie cutting edge of the sword of slavery, and struck 
 against a granite boulder that by u)i irresistible glacial 
 movement had been pushed as far south as Kansas. "No 
 weapon that is fo lined against thee shall prosper." This 
 promise to the "afflicted, tossed ivith tempest," was often 
 a comfort, no doubt, to John Brown, the Maeealxean hero 
 of his stormy time. 
 
 Thomas H. Gladstone, a kinsman of the famous states- 
 man, wrote from Kansas to The Times " The idterance of 
 even a syllable against the right of holding slaves is punish- 
 able by two years' imprisonment and hard labor on the public 
 roads, with a chain * and ball of iron attached to the ankle." 
 
36 
 
 Mi: Fio'sonn offers ilefeiiHe of othei'n : 
 
 An accuser says that " the confederates were Jacob 
 Benjamin, B. L. Cochran, John E. Cook and Charles 
 Lenhart, whose names are herein associated with this 
 crime for the first time in history." 
 
 It is falsifying history to do it now. Benjamin and 
 Cochran were settlers on the Potawatomie and would 
 not be likely to be caught with a dead neighbor's horse. 
 They could not have taken " them North to sell or trade 
 for fast running horses, or thorough-breds," for they 
 were both in the battle of Black Jack, June 2nd, only 
 seven days later. 
 
 Cook and Lenhart were in Lawrence at the time. 
 Cook and Bacon had a law office in Lawrence. Lenhart 
 and 1 used to lounge around there a great deal, and when 
 we wanted horses we hired them at the livery stable. 
 
 Cook never saw Brown until after the battle of 
 Black Jack. I was at the battle-ground in time to 
 guard the prisoners, and I remained there until the 
 prisoners were released by Colonel Cook's United States 
 cavalry and know that John Brown, Fred Brown and 
 Henry Thompson had no " running horses " at that time. 
 Pate and his men had some twenty or more horses and 
 mules which the men (perhaps some of the Browns) 
 rode to their homes ; leaving Brown, some few other 
 men, and myself to guard the prisoners. 
 
 The question might here be asked. Whose horses 
 were these ? 
 
 Pate's men came from all the Southern states ; were 
 mere adventurers. It is not at all likely that any one 
 of these horses was ever paid for. One was claimed by 
 a man living near. 
 
 Having revieived his own. testimony and that of Mr. 
 Parsons concerning John Brown Mr. Bridgman said : 
 
 I am glad to have it published because it is true, 
 and T wish to have justice done to John BroAvn. 
 
Conflicts are many ; in pitiless tread 
 
 Have arrrfaments strown all the years with their dead; 
 
 Yet single the world's endless strife 
 
 Whose banners in warred waste of life, 
 
 Stand, one for the struggle of right, 
 
 Often disguised, — almost hidden from sight. 
 
 The other for reign and the might 
 
 Of the tyrant, the prelate, the king and the knftve. 
 
 Who are the just that have seen the great light. 
 
 Who are wise in the fight 
 
 Age-long that is ending Oppression's dark night; 
 
 That a freeman hath ma^e of the serf or the slave 
 
 Or hath found him a grave ?