By Pete Chiodo
Meadville Tribune
“ ‘His soul is marching on,’ like they say in the song.”
That’s Donna Coburn who, along with her husband, Gary, owns the Crawford County farm where abolitionist hero John Brown once lived and worked.
She’s quoting the old battle hymn, “John Brown’s Body.” And while the tune has the contentious historical figure “a-moldering in his grave,” the ideals that Brown fought and died for, and the era that witnessed it, will once again come to life during the John Brown Spirit of Freedom Weekend.
The event is Saturday and Sunday at the John Brown Farm and Museum on Route 77 in New Richmond, beginning around 10 a.m. both days and running until sundown on Saturday and approximately 5 p.m. on Sunday.
“It’s a celebration of his life and his spirit,” said Coburn. “Actually, (Brown’s) great-great-granddaughter, Eleanor Blangstead, named it. She lives in California and I got to fly out and meet her in 2002 and she came up with the name.”
Coburn and her husband have been hosting an annual event in Brown’s honor since 2001. It was formerly called the John Brown Picnic, but they recently gave it a new title.
“People thought they had to bring food,” Coburn said. “So we called it the Spirit of Freedom Weekend.”
New Richmond Methodist Church will once again be selling food at the event — so, no need to bring the picnic baskets.
The event will also feature the 150th Bucktails Regiment, the Civil War re-enactors named in honor of the actual Pennsylvania regiment that fought in the war. They’ll be setting up camp and running drills all weekend long at the farm.
The 150th will be joined by Cushing’s/Taylor’s Battery, an artillery unit out of Union City that will bring down their cannon, adding a little thunder to the event.
Meanwhile, the women of the 150th will get those in attendance into the spirit of the 1860s .
“The guys will be doing drills throughout the days,” said 150th member Penny Dallas. “But we’ll be doing different stuff in camp; a fashion show, music, a church service on Sunday morning. We’ll dress somebody up, show people all the different layers. Do toys and games with the kids, and the adults too.”
Live music will also be on the itinerary.
“There will be music,” said Donna Coburn. “And anybody who wants to play music, who wants to bring their guitars or mandolins is welcome. People will just set up under the trees and play.”
This year’s celebration commemorates the 150th year of Brown’s death. He was hanged on Dec. 2, 1859, for leading a raid on an armory in Harper’s Ferry, Va., in hopes of instigating a slave revolt in the state.
About a year after the raid, which was unsuccessful, the country plunged into the Civil War and Brown was hailed as a hero by the Union.
Yet, well before Brown’s name entered into legend he spent nearly a decade in Crawford County, establishing a farm and a tannery on the New Richmond property.
The stone walls of the tannery still stand today and will act as an architectural centerpiece for this weekend’s festivities.
“There’s also a small museum there that you can walk through,” said Ed Edinger, secretary and treasurer for the John Brown Heritage Association.
“That’s all on the John Brown farm. It’s a couple hundred acres, an old site where John Brown’s home was. ... We have two very large interpretive markers that talk about the things he did in Crawford County and the activities of the rest of his life. There’s a small graveyard on the farm that can be visited. It has the graves of his first wife and two of his children.”
The John Brown festival used to be held in the first week of May, to coincide with his May 9 birthday.
“Normally, yes,” said Mike Dallas, captain of the 150th Bucktails. “But the last few years we did it, it was cold, miserable and wet. So we decided to move it to the first week in June.
“Hopefully we’ll get some people out there, which would be nice for the sake of the tannery and the museum and everything.”
Pete Chiodo can be reached at 724-6370 ext. 275 or by e-mail at pchiodo@meadvilletribune.com.
