Transcribed from volume I of Kansas: a cyclopedia of state history, embracing events, institutions, industries, counties, cities, towns, prominent persons, etc. ... / with a supplementary volume devoted to selected personal history and reminiscence. Standard Pub. Co. Chicago : 1912. 3 v. in 4. : front., ill., ports.; 28 cm. Vols. I-II edited by Frank W. Blackmar.

Brown, Mary A., second wife of John Brown, was born in Washington county, N. Y., April 1, 1816. Her maiden name was Mary A. Day. At the age of sixteen years she became the wife of Brown and assumed the care and management of his five motherless children. After the execution of her husband she retired to the Adirondack region of New York, where she lived in seclusion until 1862, when, accompanied by her family, she removed to Iowa. In 1864 she went to California and was not again east of the Rocky mountains until 1882. In that year she visited Chicago at the request of the John Brown Memorial Association, and on Nov. 11, 1882, she arrived in Topeka, where she was the guest of T. D. Thacher. This was her first visit to Kansas, as she remained in New York when her husband and his sons came to the territory in the '50s. A reception was given Mrs. Brown in the senate chamber on the evening of the 15th. She then visited Lawrence and Osawatomie and returned to California. She died on Feb. 29, 1884.

Page 244 from volume I of Kansas: a cyclopedia of state history, embracing events, institutions, industries, counties, cities, towns, prominent persons, etc. ... / with a supplementary volume devoted to selected personal history and reminiscence. Standard Pub. Co. Chicago : 1912. 3 v. in 4. : front., ill., ports.; 28 cm. Vols. I-II edited by Frank W. Blackmar. Transcribed May 2002 by Carolyn Ward.