Old Jail And John Brown House in Chambersburg, PA
The Franklin County Jail is a wonderful sight to see. It not only shows the jail but it also includes a lot of the history of the town.
Across the street and a few houses down is Mary Ritter’s Boarding House. Before John Brown went to Harpers Ferry to raid it in October 1859, he and his friends stayed at her house for a considerable amount of time planning the raid of the US Arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia (Now West Virginia).
To see both of them at cost me $7 it was a very enjoyable 2 hours. Each tour last about an hour. You can do both or just one. Ask for Tony he was great tour guide with lots of information and just a really sweet guy.
Old Franklin County Jail
The Franklin County jail tour includes not only the jail but the history of the county. As you walk in the door, look back and look at that lock it’s incredible it is still being used today as it was the original lock which was built in 1818. Plus an addition in 1880.
As you go through the tour you will get to see where the warden and his family lived, the intake room, the infirmary, the 1st jail cells, the prisoners courtyard, the additional jail cells, then down to the dungeon, and up to the children’s Ward.
This is just a great tour as it goes through the history a Franklin County with each room having a piece of that history assigned to it and a piece of history of the jail.
And don’t forget to stop at the gift stop. I got an informal history book about the jail and I’m very excited to read it.
Brief history
In 1784, Franklin County came into existence. When they needed somebody to be in jail they would just throw them in to John Jack’s cellar underneath his tavern which is downtown about 3 blocks away from the Jail. But within a few years another jail was found to house prisoners waiting for trail or short term stays.
About 1797, a new jail was completed as the county needed more space to house the undesirables. The jail would remain in operation until December 1970. With a major increase in cells in 1880.
The jail also has a history of being a stop on the under ground railroad which is surprising as the next store neighbor was a slave catcher. His house is now the church pictured above. The history of this jail goes from the beginning of our nation all the way through just before I was born. It is an incredible impressive history for one building.
John Brown House
John Brown house actually is Mary Ritter’s Boarding House. John Brown and his friends plan the raid on Harper’s Ferry Arsenal from this house during the summer of 1859, which makes it a great historical stop.
After the raid on Harpers Ferry, questions arose about Mary Ritter involvement in the planning. The question is still open today, if she know or just had boarders. But her house was also a stop on the underground railroad. Would she have taken the chance to be involved? But history will never know.
The house itself is just an average house of the time with an extra ordinary women running the place. Mary Ritter was taking in boarders as her husband had died and as a widow with three young girls, she needed the money.
But it is also a house of it’s time. It is a step back in history with a look at how so little (size) and much (indoor plumbing) has actually changed with how houses are built and organized for family life today. This house it the perfect example of upper middle class life in the 1800’s.
Brief History
In the middle of October 1859, John Brown with 15 white men, 5 free black men, 1 freed slave, and 1 fugitive slave raided the Harpers Ferry arsenal. John Brown’s plan was to use the arsenal to give to slaves for a revolt against Southern Slave Owners. He believed that the Slaves in the area would come out as soon as he opened the arsenal to attack Slave owners throughout the South.
During the planing of the raid, Brown asked Frederick Douglass to join him during a meeting in Chambersburg. Douglass declined believing that the plan would fail. Douglass was right, the plan failed.
Brown and his men cut telegraph wires, seized a Baltimore & Ohio train that was passing by but then allowed it to leave after chatting with those on the train, and captured the federal armory. But the slaves that he felt would come out of the woodwork never showed up. The townspeople began to fight back before the until the U.S. Marines showed up.
Colonel Robert E. Lee would be the overall commander of the operation to retake the arsenal. During the raid, two of Brown sons and eight other men were killed. By March 1860, Brown and seven other men would be captured and hanged and/or executed.
As the Harpers Ferry Raid has been called the Tragic Prelude to the Civil War, other will know characters of the Civil War period where around during this time. Stonewall Jackson and Jeb Stuart would be part of the troops ordered to guard Brown before he was hanged. While John Wilkes Booth was said to be a spectator as John Brown was hanged.
But five of his men would escape and never be captured. All five would serve during the US Civil War for the Union Army. Only two men who would be alive after the Civil War were Osborne Perry Anderson and Owen Brown.
Anderson, an African American, would write a book, A Voice from Harper’s Ferry, on the raid and his experiences during the raid. But the last surviving male member of the raiding party was Owen Brown, Brown’s son. He lived until 1889. But a special note, he actually died in Pasadena, California which I spent several years of my life in. But Annie Brown Adams, Brown’s daughter, would outlive them all was believed to have been a part of the raiding party.