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 money, which, in two or three cases, he found it hard to repay. In 1840 he went to Virginia—the portion of it on the Ohio River, now in West Virginia—to survey some lands belonging to Oberlin College, and fell completely in love with the country. From there he wrote to his family, "I have seen the spot where, if it be the will of Providence, I hope one day to live with my family." These Virginia hills exercised upon Brown a fascination which made it easier, no doubt, for him to associate with them his subsequent revolutionary schemes.

In 1844 he formed, with a substantial wool-grower and dealer, Simon Perkins, of Akron, Ohio, a partnership which continued for some years. Long after Brown's death, Perkins summed up his business qualifications thus: "He had little judgment, always followed his own will, and lost much money. I had no controversy with John Brown, for it