The gravesite of Owen Brown, son of abolitionist John Brown, for more than a century a place of pilgrimage for abolitionists and a monument to the Civil War, appears to have been spared by the Eaton Fire.
AJ Lester of the Los Angeles Fire Department, and public information officer for Eaton Fire, reports the area around the gravesite is still under evacuation order. But staff from a fire station nearby observed that a home directly below the site has been spared, raising hopes the gravesite also survived the fire.
“We think it’s good, although we can’t be 100 percent sure, since a lot of the homes below didn’t burn,” Lester said Wednesday. No personnel were available to complete the steep, 20 minutes hike to the site itself.
A commemorative stone slab and smaller stones following the presumed outline of Brown’s body mark the site on a hilltop called Little Round Top at the northern end of El Prieto Road in Altadena. Benches and an interpretive sign pointing to the grave appears to be unscathed Wednesday, said Michele Zack, historian, author and member of the committee pivotal to the site’s preservation.
“Even if fire reached the peak at Little Round Top, most of what is there is stone and concrete,” said Eric Mulfinger of the Altadena Historical Society.
Just last month, Supervisor Kathryn Barger led a ceremony recognizing the site as a Los Angeles County Historical Landmark.
The landmark designation in December ended a decades-long process begun by the Owen Brown Gravesite Committee, Zack said. Zack lost her home in the Eaton Fire, as did members of the two other groups involved in the landmark process, Altadena Heritage and the Altadena Town Council.
News of the gravesite’s likely survival was welcomed by both group’s members, many of whom remain displaced.
Barger said the site is a powerful reminder of people’s commitment to justice and equality and a chance for future generations to pay homage to Brown’s life work.
“His fight against slavery and unwavering commitment to treating all human beings with dignity and respect reflects his courage and vision,” Barger said when announcing the landmark designation.
She also praised the community members who worked for 35 years to preserve the gravesite and safeguard a unique piece of American history.
Attorney John Burton, vice chair of the Owen Brown Gravesite Committee, lives in Altadena Meadows, from which the gravesite normally can be accessed by a 15-minute hike.
“The site is essential to the history of our community,” Burton said. “The nation was deeply divided in the aftermath of the Civil War, as it is now. Much of Southern California sympathized with the Confederacy, but Pasadena was founded by strong Unionists. They welcomed John Brown’s children, especially Owen, a participant in Harper’s Ferry, because of their role in the ultimate abolition of slavery. His gravesite commemorates his family’s sacrifices and those of so many others, who have fought and died in the struggle for equality.”
Owen Brown, born on Nov. 4, 1824 in Hudson, Ohio, was one of 20 children of the white abolitionist. Living as a fugitive after he survived the failure of his father’s 1859 raid on Harpers Ferry in Virginia, he joined his brother Jason in Pasadena in the early 1880s. He’d hoped to find refuge in the Golden State, Zack said.
“He came looking for a safe space to be left alone, but Pasadenans were looking for meaning after a terrible war and sought him out.”
They trekked to the cabin Brown and his brother Jason built in Altadena. They threw him an impromptu parade, Zack said.
“Perhaps they were seeking a sense that the fight had been worth it. Probably his long beard and resemblance to his father John Brown reminded people of his father’s rectitude and willingness to sacrifice everything to rid America of what he called ‘the blood sin of slavery.’ That’s what we are memorializing by preserving Owen’s gravesite.”
Owen Brown died of pneumonia on Jan. 8, 1889. He was 64.
More than 2,000 people attended his funeral, marching up the Altadena hillside from Pasadena, according to the Pasadena Standard in 1889. A granite headstone replaced the wooden tablet that marked Brown’s grave in 1898.
“This local history connects us to the Union side of Civil War; this monument helps redress the balance of so many place names dedicated to Confederates in California, which has more such sites than any state outside of the Confederacy,” Zack said.
Its survival after the Eaton Fire is a bit of good news in a week where most news has been anything but, said Janet Whaley, program chairwoman for the Pasadena Civil War Round Table.
“So must has been lost that is important to honor,” she said.
For Zack, who faces the loss of her home, so much of her hometown, and many historical resources, the Eaton Fire has paused work she and other committee members have planned. A professional development program for teachers, created in partnership with the Pasadena Unified School District, including a film titled “Owen Brown’s Body,” was supposed to premier this month. But because so many principals in the project have lost their homes, that is on hold.
“It’s heartbreaking, but we want to be part of helping Altadena rise from the ashes,” Zack said.