The Railroad Depot and Freight House (VT Route 22A)

We begin retracing the route of this historic event at the former Rutland and Burlington Railroad depot and freight house, c.1850 Italianate style, located at the north end of the city of Vergennes. It is here that Mary Brown disembarked as she accompanied her husband's body on his final trip home to North Elba. An employee of the Steven's House, Christopher Yattow, met the train carrying the funeral cortege. Driving a two-horse sleigh, Yattow transported the party down Main Street toward the Stevens House where citizens gathered to pay their respects to John Brown. It is said that the original rail builders bypassed the city center because the local merchants did not help with financing the line. Trains began to run on the rails in 1849, the same year that John Brown arrived in the North Country.

The Vergennes depot and freight house are the oldest known surviving wood-frame buildings in Vermont. Sited to the rear of an active lumberyard, the passenger depot sits empty adjacent to the old freight house. Both structures retain much of their original period details.

The Stevens House (VT Route 22A)

The Stevens House, originally built as a tavern on the green in 1793, was known as Painter's Tavern until it was purchased by C.T. and C.O. Stevens. It was expanded in the Greek Revival style in 1848 and it was here that John Brown stayed on earlier trips to Vergennes. Later additions in the 1870s and subsequent restoration contribute to its appearance today.

On the day of Brown's funeral cortege through Vergennes, there was a large spontaneous upwelling of sympathy for the mourners. Even though Mrs. Brown expressed her desire that no public expressions of sympathy should be held along the route, it was obvious that the public did not agree. Church bells tolled and teams of men at the local stables volunteered their services to carry the party the six miles to the ferry at Arnold's Bay on Lake Champlain. As one writer observed "... John Brown was no longer a man but a cause." Many citizens of Vergennes followed the cortege and formed a procession down the hill and over the bridge at the falls on the Otter Creek. Christopher Yattow was still driving when the team headed for Arnold's Bay.

Leaving the Stevens House, the party passed several of the earliest commercial blocks in Vergennes. The Vergennes Bank was a major financial institution for much of the industrial and farm development throughout the Champlain Valley.

The Village Green (VT Route 22A)

Many of the same stores, houses, public places, and roads surrounding the Village Green and along Main Street seen by the funeral cortege in 1859 still exist. Though altered over the years, many of these buildings have undergone recent restoration. The Court House, churches, post office, and Stevens Hotel formed the center of a bustling town that was built to take advantage of a powerful waterfall at Otter Creek. A Vergennes news note states that John Brown stopped at the store of G.&W.T. Parker and bought seventy-five feet of five ounce manila rope while on one of his early trips through Vergennes.

Otter Creek Basin (VT Route 22A)

This is where a number of small, local, steam-powered ferry boats left for Westport, New York during the navigation season. John Brown was known to have used one of these ferries called the Nonparil. (On the Westport side, this same ferry was referred to as the Dodger because of its erratic schedules.) James A. Allen, owner of the ferry wharf in Westport remembered receiving the old gravestone of Brown's grandfather and storing it at the landing until someone came from North Elba to retrieve it. Allen remembered speaking with Brown about raising sheep and cattle when he was waiting for the steam ferry. None of the large ferries were running in December 1859, so the funeral party had to use the old scow ferry at Adams Ferry Landing also known as Arnold Bay.

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