For sale: Hanging site of John Brown in Charles Town, W.Va.

John Brown was hanged in what now is the yard of this Victorian mansion in Charles Town, W.Va.

                Click on image for full-screen interactive panorama of Brown hanging site.

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A "gentle haze" hung in the air at high noon Dec. 2, 1859, as roughly 1,500 people, mostly military men and cadets, gathered in a large, vacant field in Charles Town, Va. 

VMI professor Thomas J. Jackson, who two years later would be better known as Confederate General "Stonewall" Jackson, stood among the crowd. So did famous actor John Wilkes Booth. Six years later, he would become infamous for shooting the president in the back of the head with a Deringer pistol. John Brown, the fiery 59-year-old abolitionist leader, attended the event, too, but not of his own volition.

John Brown, about 1856.

One month after his conviction for treason for an ill-fated raid on the Federal arsensal at Harpers Ferry, Va., Brown appeared for his execution by hanging.

Jackson wrote that Brown wore carpet slippers, white socks, black pants, a black frock coat and vest and a black slouch hat and "behaved with unflinching firmness." His hands tied behind him, Brown ascended the gallows with "apparent cheerfulness," according to the professor, who was "much impressed with the thought that before me stood a man, in the full vigor of health, who must in a few minutes be in eternity." 

Another witness, John L. Preston, a founder of Virginia Military Institute, described the somber scene as well as the final moments of the Connecticut-born Brown's life after his body dropped from the gallows:

"There was profound stillness during the time his struggles continued, growing feebler and feebler at each abortive attempt to breathe. He knees were scarcely bent, his arms were drawn up to a right angle at the elbow, with the hands clenched; but there was no writhing of the body, no violent heaving of the chest. At each feebler effort at respiration his arms sank lower, and his legs hung more relaxed, until at last, straight and lank he dangled, swayed to and fro by the wind.

"It was a moment of deep solemnity, and suggestive of thoughts that make the bosom swell. The field of execution was a rising ground, and commanded the outstretching valley from mountain to mountain, and their still grandeur gave sublimity to the outline, while it so chanced that white clouds resting upon them, gave them the appearance that reminded more than one of us of the snow peaks of the Alps."

Today, the execution site looks nothing like it did in 1859. Impressive, old houses dominate the tree-lined street, blocks from the still-active Jefferson County Courthouse where a court passed judgment on Brown. The site of the gallows where a crowd watched Brown stand "upright as a soldier in position" before his execution is in the yard of a 7,000-square foot Victorian mansion that's on the market. Asking price: $749,000.

John Gibson built the five-bedroom, 6 1/2-bath home at 515 South Samuel in 1891. Thirty-two years earlier, he had commanded troops who battled Brown and his band of escaped slaves and renegades at Harpers Ferry. 

The red-brick house features Tiffany windows, Waterford chandeliers, French-laid fireplaces, a gourmet kitchen, a roof deck, a 9-foot claw foot tub and rooms with 19-foot ceilings. It's listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The one-acre property also includes an ornamental wrought-iron fence, a barn, in-ground pool and a gazebo.

There's no mention in the listing if the ghost of John Brown, whose body the wind blew to and fro after his hanging, lingers on the property.

A section of  the ornamental fence that surrounds the area where Brown was hanged.

Abolitionist leader John Brown was convicted of treason at Jefferson County Courthouse in
Charles Town, Va.  (now West Virginia) on Nov. 2, 1859. The courthouse is still in use.

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John Brown's birthplace: Interactive panoramas, photos

                                  Click on images for full-screen interactive panorama.

John Brown, about 1856.

"Move along, there's not much to see here," the little voice in my head said as I shot the interactive panoramas above this afternoon at the site of abolitionist leader John Brown's birthplace in Torrington, Conn. Well, Little Voice was correct.

Aside from a pile of rocks forming the outline of the house Brown was born in in 1800 and the remains of the foundation of an outbuilding, there definitely isn't much to see of  the former home of one of the most polarizing figures in American history. Nearly two decades ago, there apparently was some sentiment to restore Brown's birthplace, which was destroyed by a chimney fire in 1918, but the effort never got off the ground.

"There's nothing to admire in John Brown,'' former John Brown Association president John Brooks, 96, told the Hartford Courant in 1995. "I wouldn't honor him. That guy got us into the Civil War. John Brown was born here, but that isn't anything we should be proud of. That scoundrel took the law into his own hands.'' The ruins of the house lay in a clearing off John Brown Road on the outskirts of Torrington.

John Brown was baptized in this church in
Torrington, Conn.

If you remember from your high school textbooks -- and for those too young to know about a textbook, it is two pieces of thick cardboard-like material with lots of paper and printed material in between -- Brown led an armed insurrection in Harpers Ferry, Va., in 1859. His aim was to overthrow the institution of slavery, but his failed effort was one of the sparks that led to a Civil War in which at least 750,000 Americans died. Before he was hanged on Nov. 2, 1859, Brown said:  "If it is deemed necessary that I should forfeit my life for the furtherance of the ends of justice, and mingle my blood further with the blood of my children and with the blood of millions in this slave country whose rights are disregarded by wicked, cruel, and unjust enactments -- I submit; so let it be done."

Tough talk from the fiery leader whose proclamation that he was "quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land can never be purged away but with blood" proved to be prophetic. While his 1859 effort may have been noble, Brown did indeed have a lot of scoundrel in him -- and a lot of blood on his hands. He and his band of merry men murdered five men with pro-slavery ties in Kansas in 1856. 

Brown's birthplace is just one of many remnants of the abolitionist's life within a short distance of our house here in the miniature state of Connecticut. In Collinsville, Brown arranged to by pikes with which he hoped to incite the slave rebellion in Harpers Ferry. One of the pikes is on display at the Unionville (Conn.) Museum, a little more than a mile from our house. The Torrington church in which Brown was baptized still exists, although it was moved to its present location well after that blessed event.

A marker at the site includes an illustration of Brown's birthplace before it burned to the ground.
CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE.

This granite marker was placed at Brown's birthplace in 1932.
CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE.

Ruins of an outbuilding at Brown's birthplace in Torrington, Conn.
CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE.

A flower blooms near the ruins of  Brown's birthplace.
CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE.

Civil War under my nose: John Brown birthplace

The house where John Brown was born burned down in 1918.

The man who helped spark the Civil War was born in 1800 in a house on a scenic hill outside Torrington, Conn.

John Brown, about 1856.

With the exception of a large stone marker and the remains of the foundation of the main house and an outbuilding, I didn't find much left this afternoon of  John Brown's birthplace. The house, built in 1785 and restored in the early 20th century, was destroyed by a chimney fire in 1918. (1) The remains are located in a clearing just north of John Brown Road, about four miles from downtown Torrington off Route 4 and 30 miles from Hartford. Several plots of land are for sale in the immediate vicintity, so I don't expect the area to remain so rural for long.

Brown, of course, was one of the most polarizing figures in the country in the years just before the Civil War. An ardent abolitionist, he hoped to incite a rebellion of slaves when he and his followers raided the government armory and arsenal in Harpers Ferry, Va., on Oct. 16, 1859. His plans were crushed by miltia led by Robert E. Lee, and Brown was captured, tried, convicted of treason and finally hanged on Dec. 2, 1859, in Charles Town, Va. Brown became a martyr in the North, and his death put the nation on the course for the Civil War.

(1) Torrington Historical Society website 





Stone marker for Brown's birthplace in Torrington, Conn.



An illustration of the Brown house, which burned down in 1918.



These stones are all that remain of an outbuilding on the Brown property.