What became of the bodies of John Browns sons, Watson and Oliver, after they were killed at Harpers Ferry?
A. Watson and Oliver were eventually buried at North Elba. Olivers body, along with those of other raiders, arrived for burial in 1899. Watsons arrived in 1882 by a much more circuitous route. After his death, his body was donated to a medical college in Winchester, Virginia, carefully preserved, and used as an anatomical specimen. During the Civil War, a Union army officer stationed in Winchester discovered Watsons body at the medical college, realizing that this was the body of John Browns son. He removed it north where he gave it to a lodge he belonged to. For years, the lodge used the body for its secret rituals. But upon hearing that Mary Brown, who then resided in California, would be traveling through his area in 1882, the officer moved the body to a doctors office and arranged for Mrs. Browns son, John Jr., to identify it. This done, Mary took Watsons body to North Elba for burial.
