I was just going to send this to persons who had previously listed John Brown, but found too many in the archives and decided the list was easiest. Wealthy, daughter of Charles and Maria (Beach) Hotchkiss, was born in Gustavus in 1829. While a school girl at the famous and now time-honored school of Austinburg, she met John Brown, Jr., son of "Ossawatomie" Brown, of Kansas fame, and afterward the martyr of Harper's Ferry. These young people united their names and fortunes for weal or woe, in Vernon, then her father's home. They went to Kansas in time to have part in the conflict between the advocates of slavery and of liberty over the extension of slave territory. The life of the Browns there was part of the history of "Bleeding Kansas." After the hopeless conflict at Harper's Ferry, when John Brown, Jr., was suspected of being in that conspiracy and his arrest was decided upon, bravely she stayed by him in their fortified cabin (in Dorset, we believe), and shoulder to shoulder was ready to help defend it. When the United States Marshal came as near as Jefferson with his small posse he was assured that one thousand men could not take John Brown, Jr., out of Ashtabula county, and he retired. Finally a quiet retreat was found at Put-in-Bay, where Wealthy Hotchkiss Brown still resides. p. 375-376, Pioneer Women of The Western Reserve, Gustavus, Trumbull County published July, 1896 Sandy Roche Schroeder (SamiWV) slschroe@intrepid.net Volunteer for Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness http://www.rootsweb.com/~tnraogk/index.htm