This is Annie Brown's page.  At age 16 she joined her father's
army in Maryland, across the Potomac River from Harpers
Ferry.  Her story has been used in bits and pieces by many
historians and novelists:  it is now her descendants' turn to
bring Annie's special relevance to the John Brown story.   
from left to right:  Beatrice Keesey, granddaughter of Annie Brown Adams.   
troubles"   at her home in Sunnyvale, California, December 2, 1976.
Alice Keesey at age 16, granddaughter of Beatrice Cook Keesey,  

Alice Keesey Mecoy at age 48     Photographed in Allen, Texas, on her way
to Kirke Mechem's opera about John Brown in Kansas City, May 3, 2008.   

Alice Cook Hunt, at age 92.  Mrs. Hunt is the closest descendant of John and
Mary Brown in lineage alive today--granddaughter of Annie Brown Adams

Alice Keesey Mecoy
Daughter of Paul Keesey
Son of Beatrice Cook
Daughter of Bertha Adams
Daughter of Annie Brown
Daughter of John Brown,     
                      Abolitionist

"People call him a saint, a
hero, a murderer and a
terrorist, or a martyr.
But I am glad to call him
family."

           
Alice Keesey Mecoy
The Kennedy Farm in Washington County,
Maryland -- John Brown's headquarters.

Annie Brown spent her sixteenth summer in 1859
as lookout for her father and his growing army of
black and white men.  Her job was to warn of
neighbors curiosity.  "Invisibles" she called them, as
they would rise from a meal, taking "vittles, utensils
and all" with them out of sight.  

South Lynn, owner and preserver of the Kennedy
Farm is pictured here by John Frye, archivist.

  • Americana Magazine, February 1983
  •   click on farmhouse to enter                                                  
    Captain Lynn's domain
My name is Alice Louise Hunt. I am the
great granddaughter of John Brown.  I
suppose I am the oldest living
descendant of his having  celebrated
my 92nd birthday Mar.27 this year
(2007).   I am the youngest child  of
Bertha and George Cook.  My mother
being Anne Brown Adams daughter. I
have many memories of Grandma
Anne.  She came to live in a house just
down the block that my parents rented
for her.  This was about the time I was
ready to start school. This was in
Holmes Flats,  Humboldt County, CA.  
The expense war to much for my folks
so they  rented a farm at Shively, CA. It
had a small house on the property that
became Annes home. Since I was the
youngest and smallest of my parents
nine children it was my job to button
Grandma Annes shoes and also assist
her in any way she required including
carrying in her meals that were
prepared in our home.  I was about ten
when Grandma died of cancer.  She
had a horrible passing.  We buried her
at  Rohnerville, CA.  I remember taking
my mom to her grave site years later.  
We found the site flooded and the
grave marker slab in bad shape.  My
husband Melvin and I went to the
cemetery association and arranged for
the needed repairs.  Many years have
passed but I think of those times
frequently. I still have the small tintype
picture of Grandma Annie. My mother
gave it to me in November 1937.

Mrs. Hunt donated the tintype of
her grandmother, Annie Brown
Adams, to the Saratoga Historical
Museum in March, 2009.  
Annie's grave at the Old Pioneer Cemetery in
Rohnerville is now restored, personally by Alice
Hunt.  Photos by her friend Don Bumgarner in
February and March, 2011

History note:  Mrs. Alice Louise Cook Hunt is the
closest descendant to John Brown living today.  
She is the granddaughter of Annie Brown Adams.
 This photograph was taken at her 95th birthday
on March 27, 2011.

Alice Keesey Mecoy brings flowers to the    
grave of her g-g-g-great grandmother,
Mary  Brown, on March 8, 2009.
Mary, her only surviving son Salmon and three daughters (Annie, Sarah, Ellen) moved to California by the
Overland Trail in 1863 - 1864.

Annie Brown settled in Rohnerville, marrying carriage-maker Sam Adams there in 1870.     Mother Mary
Brown came from Red Bluff to Rohernville with younger daughters Sarah and Ellen.  After Ellen married
schoolteacher James Fablinger, all except Annie and Sam Adams moved to the San Francisco Bay area,
settling finally in Santa Clara County.   

Annie lived the longest of any of the children of John Brown, dying in Petrolia in 1926.   She was born in
Akron, Ohio, in 1843.  Annie helped many biographers, historians, and collectors with her memories and
experiences throughout the years.   One of her descendants, Alice Cook Hunt remembers the family caring
for her in her final days.  

photo by Bonnie Laughlin-Schultz, biographer, in 2007.
quilt patch designed and
stiched by Beatrice Keesey for
a bicentennial quilt made in
Sunnyvale, California, in 1976.

See
Patchwork History by
Connie Young Yu, 2010
ISBN 978-098255770-9
at the
Saratoga Historical Museum
    Annie's obituaries

researched and
published by
Alice Keesey Mecoy

  October 2011