John Brown House, Akron, OH

The John Brown house found at 514 Diagonal Road, Akron, Ohio 44320 was built around 1830 by Benjamin O. Greene and Salmon Hoisington.[1] This house had a Portage path running in front of it and a stagecoach route running right beside it. The Portage Path was a path that was used to settle in Ohio between the Ohio River and Lake Erie, but it also served as a marker where the end of the United States was due to treaties with the Native American tribes.[2] This house was important to Akron because John Brown’s family rented the home starting in 1844 for $30 year. Born on May 9, 1800, John Brown was a prominent abolitionist who is remembered for his radical abolitionist work before the Civil War. Brown was not always a successful businessman and in 1842, he declared bankruptcy. Brown was married twice, and he had a total of twenty children, nine of whom died in early childhood.[3] John Brown had a history of being a breeder and a sheep herder. Brown was famous for raising Saxony Merino sheep and he helped start a wool business in Akron. Brown was upset by prices of the wool industry in Akron, so he asked his partner, Colonel Perkins if he could open a wool distribution office in Springfield Massachusetts. Fredrick Douglas once remarked that John Brown’s home was one of the poorest homes he had ever been in, this was due to the fact the Brown was not always successful in the wool industry. What Brown lacked in business smarts, he made up for in passion and earned a name for being crazy because of his aggressive beliefs. John Brown was most notably known for his Raid of Harper’s Ferry in 1859 which ultimately led to his death, but he was not remembered for his welcoming of the idea of equality.[4]

It was said that the Brown House had “dark faces on this side of the fence,” implying that he welcomed African Americans both free and runaway slaves into his home to eat at his table. The John Brown House stands in Akron to this day as a reminder to the community of a man who spent most of his life in Ohio and in the end, died for his ideas of bringing about equality through violent means. [5]

Images

Madison Swartzentruber