Kennedy Farmhouse

Nope... Sorry... Not a post about John F Kennedy's house....  Maybe someday...

This about about some unknown guy named Kennedy and his farmhouse.  I don't know who Kennedy is... and quite frankly I don't care.  Because this really isn't about the man Kennedy. It is about his house.  More importantly who OCCUPIED his house the months prior to Oct 16th 1859.   That man would be John Brown.   This is the farmhouse he rented prior to the raid on Harper's Ferry.  I have previously posted about Harper's Ferry and the raid so I won't bore you again.  I can't really describe what being on this property felt like to me.  I have been in Harper's Ferry many many times.  And although in my mind I know it is a historical town I don't get that feeling inside me.   The town itself is busy with people, busy with cars, busy with commercialism, busy with ice cream cones.   With all of that my body just can't comprehend what the place was like in 1859, but this place.. this farm house was different.  The farmhouse was secluded and quiet.  I could easily picture people coming and going and no one really knowing or caring.  I could easily even see drunken parties, maybe shot guns going off.  We didn't get to go inside and the gates to the yard were locked so we didn't even get to peek in the windows.  Actually when we were there I don't think we even knew there was anything inside. But I was reading some information on the place and found out there is actually stuff to see inside.   Definitely check this website out.  http://johnbrown.org/toc.htm  The house has been restored extensively.  The website shows pictures of the restoration. 

On July 3, 1859, infamous abolitionist John Brown, sons, Owen and Oliver and Brown's trusty Lieutenant, Jeremiah Anderson arrived by train at Sandy Hook, Maryland.--a small village about one mile beyond Harpers Ferry on the Maryland side of the Potomac River. At this point in his life Brown was a "wanted man" with a large price on his head for his activities in the Kansas Territory.
The four men presented themselves as Issac Smith & Sons, cattlemen from New York. They sought a small farm to serve as a feeding lot for the cattle they intended to purchase and fatten--in fact they were searching for a "staging area" for their intended raid on the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. John Unseld, a resident of the neighborhood, suggested the old Kennedy farm. Doctor Kennedy had died earlier that spring and the farmhouse was vacant and unfurnished.

Brown and his followers went to the farm and liking what they saw leased the place for $35 in gold for nine months to come.
Following the occupation of the house, "Issac Smith" sent home for Mrs. "Smith" to come down to give the appearance of a family at the Kennedy Farm. She was much too busy at home-blessed what he was about to do and sent daughter-in-law Martha, Oliver's 17 year old wife and her 16 year old daughter Annie Brown.
Annie and Martha served as the cook and housekeepers for the Provisional Army of the United States as they arrived, one or two at a time throughout the summer months. By the end of summer there were twenty-one members of the army hidden in the attic loft and the girls were sent home.
As the October raid became eminent the army now thoroughly trained and armed by Anderson was prepared to attack the Harpers Ferry arsenal. Brown and his followers spent some 3 1/2 months at Kennedy Farm in the summer of 1859.

 

The Kennedy Farm house is about 7 miles from Harpers Ferry.