05/06/2026
John Brown's Men series continued.
Watson Brown
Born: October 7, 1835 in Franklin Mills, Ohio (today’s Kent, Ohio)
Married: September 1858
Died: October 19, 1859 at age 24
Buried: October, 1882, North Elba, Essex County, New York
Spouse: Isabell “Belle” Thompson
Watson was born on October 7, 1835, the second child born to John and Mary Day Brown. He married Isabell “Belle” Thompson and had one son, Frederick W.
Frederick died of diphtheria at the age of 4 and is buried at the North Elba home of Watson’s parents.
Watson chose not to come to Kansas with his brothers and sister. He was in Iowa in 1856.
Watson stayed at the Kennedy farm in Maryland that his father had rented under the name of Isaac Smith. He wrote home to Belle as he was able. He then took part in the Harper’s Ferry, Virginia raid by John Brown and his followers. As he exited the fire house carrying a white flag at 10AM on October 17th, he was shot by a townsperson. Since no one came to his aid, he lay in agony until he died about noon on the 19th. While in the fire house, he wrote this writing that was found on the fire house floor. “Fight on, fight ever, you Hell Hown (sic) of the Lower Regions! Your day has come. Lower your black flag, shoot your Dogs you Devils. Hell and Furies! Go in for Death.”
Watson’s body, along with many other victims, was taken by students and faculty of the Wi******er Medical College, Wi******er, Virginia. It was preserved and used as a medical exhibit and not dissected for anatomy study as many others were. They had found papers in his pocket identifying him as John Brown’s son but did not know which one. His exhibit was labeled “John Brown’s son-thus always with Abolitionists”.
During the Civil War, the college closed and was used as a hospital. However, it was evacuated when the Confederate troops withdrew as the Union troops came into Wi******er. When the management of the hospital was turned over to Dr. Jarvis Johnson, he was told of the body of John Brown’s son. He had it shipped to his own home in Martinsville, Indiana. In 1882, Johnson read that Mary Brown was searching for her sons’ bodies. He contacted her. John Jr. and John Collett, Indiana State Geologist, determined that the body was that of Watson. John Jr. took Watson’s body to his home in Put-In-Bay, Ohio and later had it moved to the family farm in North Elba, New York to be buried next to his father in October of 1882, 23 years after his death.
