Saving History Saturday: Owen Brown’s Gravestone Restored In California
Yes, it’s THAT Owen Brown! The son of John Brown. Did you know that he died in 1889 and is buried in Altadena, California?
Following his father’s 1859 raid on Harpers Ferry, Owen Brown became a wanted fugitive with a $25,000 bounty on his head. After two decades of running and hiding, Brown arrived in Southern California in early 1880’s and settled into community near Altadena, living near like-minded Unionists, temperance leaders, and former abolitionists.
Over the past decades, his grave marker has disappeared and been restored at various times. New interest in the community’s ties to Civil War history and abolitionism has prompted recent preservation efforts and the hope that Owen Brown’s gravesite will be preserved, designated a historic site, and marked with historic interpretation.
Read more in this article from Pasadena Now
A man who, along with his monomaniacal father and brothers, hacks to death unarmed civilians in the presence of their family, is not worthy of veneration. Did he ever repent that act, or serve time for it?! No. The cause of liberation had better servants.
I agree John Pryor. Time does not redeem him.
Agree. Unfortunately, venerating dead criminals and murderers seems
to be pretty popular these days.
I can never make up my mind on this. The better angels of my nature are abhorred by what he did in Kansas, but I am inclined to forgive him for Harper’s Ferry. Usually it depends on what I am reading. I agree with Grego–too many criminals and murderers get glorified no matter what side they fought on.
Meg, what I said about Brown applies equally for Quantrill.