"Ken McCutchan is a life-long resident of Vanderburgh County, Indiana, descended from pioneer families that entered the area in the early 1800s. He is veteran of WWII, having served with Army Corps of Engineers in both North Africa and Europe. He holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in English Composition and Modern Language from the University of Evansville, a certificate in French Language and Culture from the Sorbonne in Paris, and an Honorary Doctor of Letters Degree from the University of Southern Indiana. His other books include: The Adventures of Isaac Knight, From then Til Now, Saundersville, An English Settlement, At The Bend in the River, and Dearest Lizzie. Mr. McCutchan's books may be purchased at Willard Library in Evansville, IN.

Uncle Tom and John Brown's Ghosts    - History

by Kenneth McCutchan

"John Brown's body lies amouldering in the grave, but his soul goes marching on." That song stirred the souls of both North and South, almost as much as Harriet Beecher Stowe's famous book Uncle Tom's Cabin. It is a curious fact that both Uncle Tom and John Brown were associated with Western Kentucky.

Mrs. Stowe's book was based on the life of Josiah Henson, a slave who escaped from the Amos Riley plantation near Owensboro, Kentucky, in September 1830 and fled across the Ohio River near Rockport, Indiana. After traveling for about six weeks, he finally managed to reach Canada and freedom.

It was there at Dresden, Ontario, that Mrs. Stowe discovered him and used his story as the inspiration for her famous book.

As for Brown, some six or eight years before the radical abolitionist met his fate at Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, he frequently passed through Western Kentucky disguised as a peddler, or so legend has it.

Driving a mule hitched to a dilapidated wagon, he sold all sorts of trinkets. This was just a guise; his wagon had a false bottom under which he hid slaves and helped them across the river on their way to freedom.

One time he was arrested and lodged for a crime in the old jail at Morganfield, Kentucky. The charge was that he had kidnapped some Negroes belonging to John Rice of Waverly. Kentucky. However, the charge could not be proved, so after a few days he was set free.

How long he worked in Western Kentucky is not known, but soon after the Morganfield incident, he turned up in Kansas and became famous in the struggle for free statehood.

Three years later he turned up in Virginia and attempted a coup at Harpers Ferry that resulted in his capture and execution.

Hard-shell abolitionists made a martyr of him as they sung their rallying song His Soul Goes Marching On. And maybe it does.

In 1970 a tour guide at Harper Ferry National Historic Park in West Virginia reported that a strange man had appeared there whom she had never seen before.

He was dressed in all black and bore a striking resemblence to photographs of Browm.

He did not engage in conversation with anyone, but agreed to pose for pictures in front of the structure known as John Brown's Fort.

Several tourists took pictures of him. However, later, when they had their vacation films developed, they had good pictures of the buildings but there was no image of the stranger on any of them