Page:The life and letters of John Brown (Sanborn).djvu/39

1856.] The house in which John Brown was born, as mentioned in this autobiography, still stands in Torrington, Conn., in the western part of the town, three miles from Wolcottville, six from Litchfield, and ten from Winsted, on a by-road. It much resembles the old farm-house in Concord in which Thoreau was born, and the engraving of one might easily pass for that of the other. The log-house of Owen Brown, in Hudson, Ohio, stood on what is now the public square in that town; and in a little valley near by, not far from the railroad, was the tannery where John Brown learned his father's trade. His childhood was passed in Hudson and its vicinity in the manner above described. He read the Bible, the "Fables of Æsop," the "Life of Franklin," the hymns of Dr. Watts, "Pilgrim's Progress," and a few more books; but his school education was very scanty.

Although in order of time the following correspondence belongs in a later chapter, I introduce it here to show what were the relations throughout life of John Brown and his father. The latter lived till within four years of John Brown's execution, dying May 8, 1856, at the age of eighty-five. Only six weeks before his death he wrote as follows to his son in Kansas,—verbatim et literatim:—

, March 27, '56.

,—I received yours of 13th on the 25th, and was very glad to larnlearn [sic] that all your FamelysFamilies [sic] were so well, and that you had not been distourbeddisturbed [sic] by the enemy. Your letters come very regular, and we look carfulycarefully [sic] after them. I have been faithfullfaithful [sic] to answer