Below is part of chapter. The chapter in whole will be on the Iowa History site. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Making of Iowa Chapter XXXI Old John Brown While Iowa was aflame with slavery agitation, and Kansas was reddened with the blood flowing in civil war between "Border Ruffians" and "Abolitionists", or "Free State Men"; while squad after squad of emigrants hastened across the Iowa prairies to Tabor, where they lay under arms waiting a favorable opportunity to slip onto the disputed grounds; while slavery supporters were using their best efforts to secure Kansas for the South, and hints were abroad that Kansas having been made a slave State, Iowa's turn would come next, there appeared in Iowa John Brown - Osawatomie Brown, he was called. To-day he is better known by the simple title, "Old John Brown." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Brown party numbered eleven. One in it was a negro. The company was an interesting one, and quite a boon to the village. John Henrie Kagi was a journalist and a stenographer; Aaron D. Stephens - enlisted as C. Whipple - had been in the army, and had resisted an officer who was brutally beating a soldier; Richard Realf was a poet; John Edwin Cook was not only a poet, and handsome, but was a deadly shot. All the men were brave as could be. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Debbie Clough Gerischer Iowa Gen Web, Assistant CC, Scott County http://www.celticcousins.net/scott/ IAGENWEB: Special History Project: http://iagenweb.org/history/index.htm Gerischer Family Web Site: http://gerischer.rootsweb.com/