Lake Placid, N. Y., May 9. - A six-ton bronze memorial to John brown, famed Abolitionist of 1859, depicting him with his arms around the shoulders of a Negro boy, was unveiled here today.

The huge statue, more than eight feet tall, shows the Negro lad seeming to pull backward as if at first frightened, his face upraised to Brown's.

More than 1,500 people, many of them Negro pilgrims to the last resting place of John Brown, crowded about the statue.

The statue was unveiled by Lyman Eppes, eighty-seven years old, a member of one of the Negro families of North Elba, near here, and who was present at the funeral of Brown in 1859. He was assisted by Mrs. Anna Franklin, president of the Lake Placid Chapter of the John Brown Memorial Association.

Dr. J. Max Barber, of Philadelphia, who today was elected president of the association for the ninth consecutive year, said in his dedicatory address:

"After John Brown's death, there could be no peace with slavery in the land."

The granite for the pedestal was taken from the mountains near Ausable Forks, approximately twenty-five miles away from the site of the memorial, which today appeared to take its place among the many picturesque peaks of the surrounding Adirondack Mountains.

Statue Accepted by State.

Accepting the statue on the part of New York State, Conservation Commissioner Lithgow Osborne extended the greetings of Governor Herbert H. Lehman and said: "The State of New York accepts the monument with pride that its soil nurtured such a stalwart body, such a rugged, unflinching soul, accepts it with gratitude that the admirers of John Brown have seen fit to erect it here; accepts it with happiness in the state's pledged faith to care for and cherish it as it merits."

The John Brown Memorial Association, an or[g]anization of Negroes, worked ten years to raise funds for the erection of this memorial to Brown, who, next to Abraham Lincoln, is their greatest hero. The heroic bronze unveiled today was modeled by Joseph P. Pollia, New York sculptor.

Osawatomie, Kan., May 9 (AP). - Descendants of John Brown, Abolition leader, who sought to use force to free the Southern slaves and was hanged for his efforts, heard him eulogized today as Osawatomie unveiled and dedicated his statue.

In the crowd of more than 5,000 persons attending the ceremonies were many related to the man who led a tempestuous life in the early days when men fought to determine whether Kansas should be free or slave territory.

The statue, erected through efforts of the Women's Relief corps of Kansas, was sculptured by George Fite Waters. It was placed in John Brown Memorial Park, dedicated in 1910 by Theodore Roosevelt. It bears the inscription:

"John Brown of Kansas; he dared to begin: he lost, but losing, won.

John Brown, whose body "lies a'mouldering in the grave," at Lake Placid, N. Y., was hanged at Charlestown, Va., December 2, 1859, as a traitor for his attack on a government arsenal at Harpers Ferry.

Source: clipping in John Brown Scrapbook, compiled by Boyd Stutler, folder 1, Boyd B. Stutler Collection, West Virginia State Archives.

Chapter Fourteen: His Soul Goes Marching On