FISHERIES, GAME AND FORESTS. 487 



lowly wilderness home he went out with his stalwart sons and other kindred who 

 implicitly believed in and blindly followed him, to destroy with fire and sword those 

 whom he deemed the enemies of God and man. Through the aid and co-operation 

 of prominent abolitionists in central New York, he was instrumental in assisting many 

 a fugitive slave through this wild wilderness country on his way to freedom in Canada. 



From the fact of his residence here in the Adirondacks, many supposed that 

 Osawatomie Brown was the owner of the famous John Brown's Tract, and the mistake 

 is yet very common. In 1798, John Brown, of Providence, R. I., became the owner 

 of 2 10,000 acres of land on the Macomb Purchase, in what is now the counties of 

 Herkimer, Lewis and Hamilton. P"or years he made strenuous efforts and spent large 

 amounts of money to encourage settlement and develop that tract, which took his 

 name. He built houses for settlers and gave away considerable land to induce and 

 promote settlement, but to no avail. Finding the land and location unsuited to 

 agriculture and too remote from market for lumbering, he undertook to develop 

 mining, building in the depths of the great wilderness the famous old forge at the 

 foot of the Fulton Chain, which is said to have produced a few pounds of iron ore 

 costing more than an equal number of pounds of gold. 



His operations, though unsuccessful, gave prominence to the locality and great 

 notoriety to his name, and the whole Adirondack region became better known as 

 "John Brown's Tract " than by any other title; but the John Brown of this great 

 forest region and pioneer reputation died in 1803 at the age of seventy-three, or when 

 Osawatomie was but three years of age 



Another common error fixes his home and burial-place in Kansas. The flag we 

 raise here to-day will help correct these mistakes and will become a guiding beacon 

 to the patriotic pilgrims who seek this shrine, as well as a certificate to the world that 

 here lived and here lies Osawatomie Brown. 



He was restless and eager to do all that he could to accomplish his ultimate object; 

 and abandoning the farm to his wife and children, he takes the field, determined to 

 find or speedily make the opportunity which is to give him victory. As you can see 

 for yourselves, it could produce no great income, but it made a pleasant, economical 

 home and safe retreat for his family while he was absent pursuing his schemes and 

 carrying on his campaigns, and a haven of rest to which he could come when wearied 

 and worn. 



In 185 I he organized, in Springfield, Mass., a band of colored people which he 

 called the " Gileadites," who were to forcibly resist the capture and return of fugitive 

 slaves, no matter by what authority claimed. He gave them written instructions and 

 articles for their guidance, which contained some features not in the Ten Command- 

 ments, although covered perhaps by the Golden Rule and Declaration of Independ- 



