John Brown Museum The Civil War Traveler Interview
Interview with Grady Atwater of the John Brown Museum in Osawatomie, Kansas. Grady was an absolute wealth of knowledge. The video is long, but I could have listed to him for an hour more.
John Brown Museum State Historic Site
John Brown Museum State Historic Site in Osawatomie, Kansas
John Brown Cabin State Historic Site
Join me on a visit to the John Brown Museum State Historic Site!
“The John Brown Museum, also known as the John Brown Museum State Historic Site and John Brown Cabin, is located in Osawatomie, Kansas. The site is operated by the Kansas Historical Society, and includes the log cabin of Reverend Samuel Adair and his wife, Florella, who was the half-sister of the abolitionist John Brown. Brown lived in the cabin during the twenty months he spent in Kansas and conducted many of his abolitionist activities from there. The museum's displays tell the story of John Brown, the Adairs and local abolitionists, and include the original cabin, Adair family furnishings and belongings, and Civil War artifacts.”
This is a 3 part video..
00:01-7:05
A walk through the John Brown Memorial Park and Adair Cabin.
7:06-17:55
Adair Cabin Voices exhibit. “In these dramatic recordings some of the most intense experiences of the Adair family are related in their own words.”
17:56-24:36
My photos of the exhibits. I took the best photos I could so that you can learn the history of John Brown and his fight against slavery. If you just take the time to pause on the pictures and read, I’m sure you will find it to be very interesting!
John Brown history:
Bleeding Kansas:
Battle of Osawatomie:
40020 John Brown Hwy, Osawatomie, KS 66064
Welcome home to this beautiful 10 acre country home on blacktop in Miami County w easy access for commuting. Private setting with 1.5 story home with 5 bedrooms, 3 full bathrooms offering over 3700 sq ft. of living space. Zoned HVAC. Main floor master suite. Hardwood floors in main living areas, open floor plan, screened in porch, main floor laundry room all on blacktop. Huge walk up basement ready to be finished adding more room! 30x60 open sided outbuilding for storage or parking and 50x60 barn w lean-to and corrals.
Room for the family to roam both inside & out. Enjoy evenings around the fire pit, sip tea on the front porch or relax on the three season back porch. Natural spring on property. Fenced & x-fenced! Plenty of room for horses or livestock. Great hobby farm on blacktop perfect for family & friends!
Directions - From Kansas City, South on Hwy 169 to Osawatomie, West on John Brown Hwy, to property on North side. Or I-35 exit at Wellsville South on Hwy 33 to Hwy 68 West to Vermont, South on Vermont to John Brown Highway East to property on North Side.
Call Maggie for more information or to schedule your tour. (913) 908-6992
ThePropertyShopTeam.com
Around Kansas - Adair Cabin - December 9, 2015
(Frank) And we're back again. Now that we were outside we can kind of go inside. (Deb) That's right. Now, we can go get cozy now. And so this actually, the next place that we're going to talk about, the John Brown Cabin of Osawatomie is actually sitting in a park. So, if it's nice you can go walk around outside and there's a beautiful John Brown statue there. You can just walk around and enjoy the beautiful town of Osawatomie. Just walk down the sidewalks. It's such a pretty town. Or you can come inside the John Brown Cabin. Now, I'll have to tell you as a historian of course, this is obviously one of my favorite places. When I first came to Kansas, so many years ago, the historical society was still downtown in the G.A.R. Memorial Hall. So I researched in there and I really wanted to just go in and I wasn't working on anything specific. So, I'm like, well what do you want to see? And I'm like I want to see something connected to John Brown. And I was going through this file. And I get the diary of his sister, Florella Adair, who lived in this cabin. And so I sat in that old Memorial Hall and read her diary. And that was just amazing. Just amazing. (Frank) And what's interesting is, was he a hero or was he a villain? And historians debate that all the time. (Deb) There's no end. (Frank) Was he a hero? Was he a villain? Did his actions actually spark the Civil War? Most probably, because of Bleeding Kansas. (Deb) One of my friends, Jack Davis, who is a foremost Civil War author. He's written 50 books. He said, John Brown is a mountain in the path of American history, you cannot go around him. Let's take a look. When Samuel and Florella Brown Adair moved to the Kansas Territory from Ohio, it was with the dream of making a new home and stopping the spread of slavery. Florella's half brother was the abolitionist John Brown and five of his sons followed the Adairs to Kansas, bringing with them their families and expectations for a
better life in the new territory. After settling in the Osawatomie area, severe illness and the clouds of war closed in on the pioneers. John Brown came to the Territory to help his sons and found a place where he could act on his radical ideas. During the troubled times of Bleeding Kansas, Osawatomie was attacked and burned by pro-slavery forces in 1856, but the Adair Cabin, located some distance northwest of the town, survived. The Congregational meeting house built by Adair was dedicated in 1861 and still stands as well. The Civil War, when it came in 1861, separated the Adairs. Samuel served at Fort Leavenworth as military chaplain. Florella died in 1865. Following her death, Samuel returned to his church and cabin in Osawatomie. He helped establish the first insane asylum in Kansas, present-day Osawatomie State Hospital, giving his services voluntarily as chaplain for 11 years. Samuel died in 1898, leaving the cabin to his son, Charles. In 1910, President Theodore Roosevelt visited Osawatomie to dedicate a memorial at the John Brown Memorial Park. Shortly after the Adair cabin was dismantled and relocated to the memorial park. In 1928 the state of Kansas appropriated funds for a stone pergola to surround the cabin, protecting it from further deterioration. The Kansas Historical Society maintains the site in partnership with the city of Osawatomie. Grady Atwater is the site director. Visit their website for upcoming events and exhibits.
History 101 John Brown
Tour of the John Brown Museum in Osawatomie, KS given by Evan Holden and an eight and 11-year-old.
John Brown
Grady Atwater, site administrator from the John Brown Museum in Osawatomie, KS discusses John Brown and his efforts to end slavery. John Brown was an American abolitionist who believed armed insurrection was the only way to overthrow the institution of slavery in the United States. During the 1856 conflict in Kansas, Brown commanded forces at the Battle of Black Jack and the Battle of Osawatomie. In 1859, Brown led an unsuccessful raid on the federal armory at Harpers Ferry that ended with his capture.
Created Equal: America's Civil Rights Struggle is made possible through a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, as part of its Bridging Cultures initiative, in partnership with the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.
Around Kansas - African American Museum and History Trail in Kansas- May 17, 2017
(Frank) Here we're again. This is Around Kansas. (Deb) In case you just tuned in. (Frank) Yes. At first we do a lot of nonsense. But then we really get into some pretty cool stories. (Deb) Yes. Kicking and screaming we’re dragged in to some pretty good stories to get away from all the nonsense. This is a really great one, African American History Trail in Kansas. And, of course, being a historian this is one that’s very close to my heart. Because, Kansas was founded in the very heart of the matter whether or not we’re going to be a free state or a slave state.; at the time when whether or not slavery would be expanded into the western part of the country. Of course, that ripped the nation in two. Kansas is right at the heart of that. But, it’s not just at the heart of the controversy. It’s at the heart of black people finding a home in the midst of that and then after the war. And so the Exodusters - it’s a very famous story and all of freed slaves coming out of the south; the First Kansas Colored, the Buffalo Soldiers, we’ve got all that early history. But then it goes on and on and on. This is about bringing together of all those eras and all those different stories. Yes, I love the story. The Kansas African American Museum, formerly the venerable Calvary Baptist Church, was once the cornerstone of Wichita’s vibrant black community. It was built in 1917 when the congregation’s leaders worked nights and weekends, separate and apart from their jobs, to finish the church. That community featured restaurants, businesses and homes. It hosted jazz artists, Negro League Baseball stars, and was the home of America’s first African American Academy Award winner and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s lawyer among others. Its newest project is the African American Kansas History Trail. As recipients of the Institute of Museum and Library Services Grant, the museum will collaborate with partner sites to distinguish and tell the story of the African American contributions to Kansas at its various historical sites, chronicling the people, places, and events that created this rich history. The sites and the stories they tell are varied in location, era of time and cultural influences. It truly encompasses the entire state. The sites include Nicodemus, African American Township; The Buffalo Soldiers who were stationed at Ft. Leavenworth, Ft. Riley and active in Ft. Scott and Baxter Springs; The Richard Allen Museum and Cultural Center, Leavenworth; brown vs. Board National Historic Site; home of Langston Hughes, Lawrence; home of Gordon Parks, Ft. Scott; several sites on the Underground Railroad including the John and Mary Jane Ritchie House in Topeka; the John Brown Memorial Park in Osawatomie; the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum; George Washington Carver exhibits in Minneapolis and many others. It is the intent of the partnership to form an alliance to support and sustain the sites along the Trail, to elevate public awareness, to develop educational programs and to celebrate and share this history throughout the nation. Visit the Museum’s website for more information on this exciting partnership.
Around Kansas - Lincoln's Visit to KS Territory in 1859 - January 27, 2016
(Deb) So Frank you don't really remember when Lincoln visited Kansas, right? (Frank) No, it was, it was....yea. (Deb) I don't either. Michael's sitting over there, I know he thinks we both do, yea... (Frank) Well you know the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe. You know the railroads opened up the west in America and Lincoln did travel here. (Deb) He did. He came. Took the railroad as far as St. Joe and then the railroad had not yet reached Kansas. Didn't until after the war. But of course, the railroad was big business. And Lincoln was a railroad lawyer. We don't think of him, you know you and I were talking earlier about his being folksy and the storyteller. He was also a corporate lawyer. And we don't think of him quite that way. But he was. And so part of his visit to Kansas obviously involved the expansion of the railroad. That was everything. Nineteenth century, everything is about expanding the railroad and crossing the country. And he was smack dab in the middle of that too. (Frank) Yea. Well, and he did say and you'll see that in this story, if I moved west, I'd move to Kansas. (Deb) He obviously was impressed with it when he was here. (Frank) Yes, he was. (Deb) He really was. I think that's nice for us to remember. It's a nice legacy for Kansas, that he was actually here and made some important speeches here. And had such a fondness for the state and fondness for the troops from Kansas. And yea, so that's a pretty good endorsement. (Frank) Yea, so let's take a look. It was not big news when the folksy attorney Abraham Lincoln visited the Kansas Territory in 1859. There were no trains in KT and Lincoln crossed the Missouri River at St. Joseph by ferry and arrived in Elwood on November 30. The thriving community was home to the Great Western Hotel where Lincoln spoke that evening. His topic was not new. The Lincoln and Douglas Debates just months before had made national headlines, and the press exposure was helpful to Lincoln. At that time, he was not nearly as well known as his
famously short rival, Senator Stephen Douglas. The pair had taken different sides on the slavery issue and Lincoln continued his condemnation of the evil institution while visiting the Kansas Territory. Lincoln would speak in Doniphan, Atchison, Leavenworth, and Troy. Ironically, his stage in Leavenworth at Stockton Hall would be visited only a couple of years later by famed Shakespearean actor, John Wilkes Booth. It was bitterly cold during Lincoln's visit. Mary did not accompany him. While in Leavenworth, Lincoln stayed with cousins, the Delahays. Artifacts from that visit are on display at the Frontier Army Museum at Fort Leavenworth. Cousin Julia Delahay would go on to marry Thomas Osborn. Perhaps it was this family connection that helped Osborn obtain a presidential appointment. In 1863, Cousin Lincoln would appoint Osborn to be U.S. Marshal in Topeka. Years later, Osborn was elected governor, making Lincoln's cousin, Julia, first lady of Kansas. December 2, 1859, John Brown, Old Osawatomie, was hanged in Virginia following the raid on Harper's Ferry. News of the execution reached Lincoln and he commented to the press that Brown had shown great courage, rare unselfishness,” but did not sanction his actions. “Old John Brown has just been executed for treason against the state. We cannot object,” Lincoln said, “even though he agreed with us in thinking slavery wrong. That cannot excuse violence, bloodshed, and treason. It could avail him nothing that he might think himself right.” The story of Kansas and Lincoln is so entwined. It was February 22, 1861, as President-elect that Lincoln was on his way to Washington. He stopped in Philadelphia and raised the first flag with the 34th star for Kansas in front of Independence Hall. As the flag was hoisted, it unfurled in the wind, a beautiful site. Lincoln hoped it was a good omen -- for him, for Kansas, for the nation.
John Brown Country
John Brown Country historic marker in Osawatomie, Kansas.
It reads..
“
Kansas Historical Marker
John Brown Country
Osawatomie ~~ the name derives from a combination of Osage and Pottawatomie ~~ was settled in 1864 by Free-State families from the Ohio Valley and New England. John Brown, soon to become famous for his militant abolitionism, joined five of his sons at their homes near the new town in October, 1855. By the spring of 1856, local defiance of Proslavery laws and officials was so notorious that 170 Missourians “punished” the area by looting Osawatomie. Two months later Free-State men destroyed a nearby Proslavery camp. On August 30 occurred the second battle of Osawatomie, in which a Proslavery force of 400 drove out the defenders, 40 men led by John Brown, and then plundered and burned the town. Among those killed that day was Brown’s son Frederick.
At the John Brown Memorial Park in Osawatomie is the cabin of the Rev. Samual Adair, Brown’s Brother-in-law with whom he often stayed. The Republican party of Kansas was organized at Osawatomie in May, 1859, with Horace Greeley, famous editor of the New York Tribune, as the conventions principal speaker.
Erected by Kansas Historical Society and State Highway Commission. “
John Brown:
Osawatomie, Kansas:
Star 34. Part 3
The Kansas Industrial Development Commission produced this film promoting the history and cultural of the state of Kansas. The film highlights the State capitol in Topeka; the John Steuart Curry murals; John Brown's cabin in Osawatomie; Boot Hill cemetery in Dodge City; rodeos; American Indians; sod houses; Council Oak and Post Office Oak in Council Grove; Spirit (Waconda) Springs in Cawker City; the Home on the Range (Brewster Higley) cabin in Athol, Smith County; Pony Express stations; the Beecher bible and rifle church near Wamego; the First Territorial Capitol in Pawnee; the wheat industry; the oil and gas industries; coal and salt mining; the aviation industry in Wichita; the Eisenhower Presidential Library in Abilene; Lost Canyon (including Cobra Rock, Sphinx Rock, Castle Rock, Towering Cliffs, and Monument Rock) near Quinter; lakes; the state fair; cattle and livestock; buffalo; the geographic center of the contiguous United States monument near Lebanon; and Coronado Heights near Lindsborg.
Osawatomie State Hospital Asylum Bridge & Cemetery
Osawatomie State Hospital The first territorial legislature in 1855 passed an act providing for the appointment of guardians for persons of unsound mind, and in 1859 the provisions of the law were extended to include habitual drunkards. The first building was erected in 1860. It was a small two-story frame structure and cost about $500. Toward the latter part of the year the institution was opened for the reception of patients. This is one of the older buildings still standing, but no longer in use.
The Cemetery. Approximately 350 headstones can be found in the Osawatomie State Hospital Cemetery but only one bears a name. The rest have only numbers.
Asylum Bridge is a Reverse Parker through truss bridge over Marais Des Cygnes River on 1st Street in Osawatomie. It is closed to all traffic and was built in 1905 by the Kansas City Bridge Co. The length of the largest span is 121 ft. Total length is 219.1 ft, deck width is 16 ft., and vertical clearance above the deck is 15.5 ft.
The Life and Times of John Brown
Was John Brown a hero or terrorist? The answer is not so simple. In this documentary, Mr. Beat examines the life and times of the most (in)famous abolitionist in history.
Check out the book John Brown, Abolitionist: The Man Who Killed Slavery, Sparked the Civil War, and Seeded Civil Rights
A special thanks to Grady Atwater for letting me interview him. I'd argue Atwater is one the world's leading experts on John Brown. Also, a special thanks to John Crow, a student of mine who colored the opening picture of Brown.
Have an idea for a video Mr. Beat should do? Your idea gets picked when you donate on Patreon:
Donate on Paypal:
Buy Mr. Beat T-shirts, coffee mugs, etc.:
Reddit:
Mr. Beat's band:
Mr. Beat on Twitter:
Mr. Beat on Facebook:
Mr. Beat on Instagram:
Mr. Beat's Discord server:
Produced by Matt Beat. All images by Matt Beat, found in the public domain, or used under fair use guidelines. Music: New Moon by Bad Snacks and The Fires by Otis McDonald.
Photo credits/creative commons:
Mobilus In Mobili
Lcm1863
Tony Fischer
Mwanner | Talk
Sources/further reading:
Fire From the Midst of You: A Religious Life of John Brown by Louis A. DeCaro (2002)
Brown, Justus Newton (September–October 1916). Lovejoy's Influence on John Brown. Magazine of History with Notes and Queries. 23 (3–4). pp. 97–102.
Great video about the Battle of Black Jack:
John Brown was born in Torrington, Connecticut on May 9, 1800. His parents, Owen and Ruth Brown. He was the fourth one born of their eight kids.
No, he didn’t look like that when he was a baby. No one knows what he looked like when he was a baby, silly.
Brown’s family moved around a lot when he was a kid, but he spent most of his youth in Ohio. He had a very religious upbringing. Owen and Ruth also raised John to absolutely hate slavery. At 16 years old, he left his family and went to Plainfield, Massachusetts, where he studied to become a Congregationalist minister. Ultimately, though, Brown went into the same business as his dad. He raised cattle and worked as a tanner. You know, making leather from animal skins. At one point he was also a surveyor. You know, checking out the land and stuff.
In 1820, he married Dianthe Lusk. The couple eventually had 7 children together, and ended up settling in New Richmond, Pennsylvania. This is what’s left of the tannery John Brown ran while living there. Between 1825 and 1835, the tannery was an important stop on the Underground Railroad. No it wasn’t an actual railroad, you silly goose. The Underground Railroad was just what they called the secret network of routes and safe houses used to aid runaway slaves. It’s estimated that Brown helped more than 2,500 slaves at that tannery.
The 1830s didn’t begin so well for Brown. In 1831, his 4-year old son Frederick died. Brown himself got really sick and his businesses struggled, causing him to get in big debt. The next year, Dianthe died while giving birth to an unnamed son who also died shortly afterward. Clearly, this was a low point in Brown’s life, but he soon met someone new...Mary Ann Day. She was 16. He was 32. They married on June 14, 1833. Eventually, they had 13 more kids together, although only six of them made it to adulthood.
In 1836, the Browns moved to what is now Kent, Ohio. The next year, after a pro-slavery mob murdered the influential abolitionist Elijah Parish Lovejoy, Brown stood up in the back of a church and said “Here, before God, in the presence of these witnesses, from this time, I consecrate my life to the destruction of slavery.”
Meanwhile, in Ohio he had attempted again to operate a tannery, but struggled to make money from it. By 1839, he was again heavily in debt, and ended up losing his farm and getting arrested when he refused to give it up to its new owner. A federal court declared him bankrupt on September 28, 1842. The next year, four of his kids died of dysentery.
#johnbrown #apush #americanhistory
Battlefield Tour: John Brown - The Battle of Black Jack
Come along with us on MWS' first battlefield investigation! The twisted tale of a monster known as John Brown... Anti and Pro abolitionist left their mark on these lonely haunted woods in the first battle of the American Civil War.
Hey help us out and buy a tshirt or coffee mug!
This video has it all. You want horrible editing and cheesy b list ghost action? I made the drone sequences long enough? Doesn't matter. We're out here chasing aliens and having a GREAT TIME!
Please LIKE and SUBSCRIBE! What are you waiting for? Hit the bell! Slide us some sweet PAYPAL money or Patreon! Support this project!
- SAVE THE SIBERIAN WALRUSES!-
Paypal:
Patreon:
Do you have a ghost story? Would you welcome an investigation?
Music by Magnus Music Machine
Twitter & Facebook: @MidwestShadows
All Inquiries: midwestshadows@gmail.com
The Story of Mary Buster & the John Brown Cabin
The Story of Mary Buster & the John Brown Cabin
You Asked About Topeka. Part 1
This film promotes Topeka, Kansas, as a prosperous government, business, and cultural center, and encourages viewers to move to Topeka. The film highlights many aspects of the community including government and public services, business and industry, agriculture, education, hospitals, churches and entertainment. It showcases the Westboro neighborhood; Kansas Avenue; Gage Park; the State Capitol and the legislature; Cyrus Holiday and the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad; Goodyear Tire Co.; Dupont; Forbes Air Force base; Lake Shawnee; Washburn University; the Topeka Public Library; the Kansas History Museum; Topeka and Topeka West high schools; the Veterans Hospital; Karl Menninger and the Menninger Foundation; and the State Hospital among other aspects of the city.
Mine Creek Battlefield Lincoln’s War. Jeffrey Daugherty
Jeffrey Daugherty takes you on a tour of the most bloody Lincoln's War (Civil War) battle in the state of Kansas.
The Legend of John Brown: Biography, History, Facts, Quotes, Abolitionist (2002)
John Brown (May 9, 1800 – December 2, 1859) was a white American abolitionist who believed armed insurrection was the only way to overthrow the institution of slavery in the United States. About the book:
During the 1856 conflict in Kansas, Brown commanded forces at the Battle of Black Jack and the Battle of Osawatomie. Brown's followers killed five slavery supporters at Pottawatomie. In 1859, Brown led an unsuccessful raid on the federal armory at Harpers Ferry that ended with the multi-racial group's capture. Brown's trial resulted in his conviction and a sentence of death by hanging.
Brown's attempt in 1859 to start a liberation movement among enslaved African Americans in Harpers Ferry, Virginia (later part of West Virginia), electrified the nation. He was tried for treason against the Commonwealth of Virginia, the murder of five men and inciting a slave insurrection. He was found guilty on all counts and was hanged. Southerners alleged that his rebellion was the tip of the abolitionist iceberg and represented the wishes of the Republican Party to end slavery. Historians agree that the Harpers Ferry raid in 1859 escalated tensions that, a year later, led to secession and the American Civil War.
Brown first gained attention when he led small groups of volunteers during the Bleeding Kansas crisis. Unlike most other Northerners, who advocated peaceful resistance to the pro-slavery faction, Brown believed that peaceful resistance was shown to be ineffective and that the only way to defeat the oppressive system of slavery was through violent insurrection. He believed he was the instrument of God's wrath in punishing men for the sin of owning slaves.[2]
Dissatisfied with the pacifism encouraged by the organized abolitionist movement, he said, These men are all talk. What we need is action—action![3] During the Kansas campaign, he and his supporters killed five pro-slavery supporters in what became known as the Pottawatomie massacre in May 1856 in response to the sacking of Lawrence, Kansas by pro-slavery forces.
In 1859 he led a raid on the federal armory at Harpers Ferry. During the raid, he seized the armory; seven people were killed, and ten or more were injured. He intended to arm slaves with weapons from the arsenal, but the attack failed. Within 36 hours, Brown's men had fled or been killed or captured by local pro-slavery farmers, militiamen, and U.S. Marines led by Robert E. Lee. Brown's subsequent capture by federal forces seized the nation's attention, as Southerners feared it was just the first of many Northern plots to cause a slave rebellion that might endanger their lives, while Republicans dismissed the notion and claimed they would not interfere with slavery in the South.[4]
Historians agree John Brown played a major role in the start of the Civil War. Historian David Potter has said the emotional effect of Brown's raid was greater than the philosophical effect of the Lincoln–Douglas debates, and that his raid revealed a deep division between North and South.[5] Some writers, including Bruce Olds, describe him as a monomaniacal zealot; others, such as Stephen B. Oates, regard him as one of the most perceptive human beings of his generation. David S. Reynolds hails the man who killed slavery, sparked the civil war, and seeded civil rights and Richard Owen Boyer emphasizes that Brown was an American who gave his life that millions of other Americans might be free.[6] The song John Brown's Body made him a martyr and was a popular Union marching song during the Civil War.
Brown's actions prior to the Civil War as an abolitionist, and the tactics he chose, still make him a controversial figure today. He is sometimes memorialized as a heroic martyr and a visionary and sometimes vilified as a madman and a terrorist.[7] Historians are divided on whether it is accurate to refer to Brown as America's first domestic terrorist.
Marais des Cygnes Massacre State Historic Site
Marais des Cygnes Massacre State Historic Site near Trading Post, Kansas