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Cabin Near Rantoul Was Only One
Built In Area By John Brown. ["Ottawa Herald," 29 Apr 1961, page 4, column 3] Those cabins in Osawatomie and Lane reported to have been built and lived in by John Brown were not built by him. This is what an account by Miss Fannie Seymour says. Miss Seymour wrote in a letter to the Herald recently that the only house John Brown built was one near Rantoul for an easterner named Orson Day, Esq. This one cabin was torn down in 1923, she wrote. So claims of other houses built by Brown are false. A two-page story in the Evening Herald of 1886 documents the fact that Brown did build that cabin for Day. It also reflects a John Brown personality of a homesteader and settler. The log cabin built in 1856 for Day, the brother-in-law of Brown, was located one mile south and three quarters of a mile west of Rantoul. In payment for the construction, Miss Seymour wrote, Day sent a draft for $146.38 to the Springfield, Mass., Arms Co. This firm then shipped Brown guns and amunition instead of cash. The Evening Herald story reprinted letters between Brown and Day to show for sure that Brown was building the house. One letter from Brown's Station, Kansas Territory, Dec. 14, 1855, to Day in New York included the following: "As I wrote you a few days since, we have secured a good claim for you and shall be preparing to build on it for you as fast as we can. "As we have no access to a saw mill as yet for any lumber, I think you and Mrs. Day had better leave the planning of the house to Mr. Thompson (another homesteader in Kansas) and myself. "Land warrants will be as good as gold in payment for land as soon as lands are in readiness for market: and you will be safe in improving on a claim while you keep a warrant ready to pay for it with." Brown also indicated that he would accept payment for his work in the form of firearms. He suggested that his brother-in-law deal with a Chicopee Falls, Mass., arms firm. But apparently Day preferred to or had to choose a firearms company other than the one Brown suggested. Brown's letters also reflected his concern for Day's comfort and convenience in making the trip to the wild Kansas territory. In a letter printed in the Evening Herald and dated Jan. 23, 1856 from Brown's Station, John Brown Jr., wrote for his father. The son stated he was repeating what his father had told him: "You can come to St. Louis, Mo., in the spring either by Rail R'd or by river from Pittsburgh, Pa., . . . From dear experience I would advise you to not take a boat from St. Louis to Kansas. The Missouri river does ont rise in season for early navigation; at a low stage of water, snags, sand bars, extortion and cholera wait those who take that route from st. Louis. The price of passage from St. Louis to Kansas city by stage, after the opening of the Missouri river navigation is the same as by boat. Of course board would be in extra cost, but do not take a boat from St. Louis unless there should be on your arriveing there a good stage of water in the Missouri river." In another letter Brown wrote he was "more than pleased with this country and with the prospect of my friends here." he said also the health of his family in Kansas was improving and that most of them were in fine health. |
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