Produced by Bryan Ness, Richard J. Shiffer and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was produced from scanned images of public domain material from the Google Print project.) [Transcriber's Note: Every effort has been made to replicate this text as faithfully as possible, including obsolete and variant spellings and other inconsistencies.] COLONEL JOHN BROWN _OF PITTSFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS_ THE BRAVE ACCUSER OF BENEDICT ARNOLD An Address DELIVERED BEFORE THE FORT RENSSELAER CHAPTER OF THE D.A.R. AND OTHERS BY ARCHIBALD M. HOWE AT THE VILLAGE OF PALATINE BRIDGE, NEW YORK SEPTEMBER 29, 1908. W. B. CLARKE COMPANY 26 AND 28 TREMONT STREET BOSTON 1908 GEO. H. ELLIS CO., PRINTERS, 272 CONGRESS ST., BOSTON. This address was delivered for the purpose of calling attention to the present condition of the marble monument erected at Stone Arabia, N.Y., to the memory of Colonel Brown in 1836, now insecure because the cemetery in the rear of Stone Arabia church is not properly maintained. The form of the address is slightly changed, but the writer will never forget the kindness of the Canajoharie and Palatine friends who greeted him and the wonderful beauty of Stone Arabia, a plateau north of the Mohawk at Palatine where our ancestors maintained a strong outpost against Indians and other adversaries. THE BRAVE ACCUSER OF BENEDICT ARNOLD. John Brown, of Pittsfield, Mass., now almost forgotten, was a patriot in our Revolution of 1775 whose career has been described more than once by men in New York and in Berkshire County, but, as it is now time to give more impartial views of the controversy, perhaps another sketch of the life of this leader may encourage others to search for clearer views of the ways by which our ancestors established the institutions which we hope are to endure. Daniel Brown, the father of Colonel John Brown, came from Haverhill, Mass., to the western part of the Commonwealth in 1752, when his son John was eight years old. He seems to have been first in the beautiful town of Sandisfield to take part in its local government, both secular and ecclesiastical. "Deacon Brown" is called prosperous when this new town on the banks of the Farmington River, east of the hills of the Housatonic, bade fair to equal Pittsfield as a trading-place. "The Deacon" was a local magistrate under the king, when laymen served as judges. John, his youngest son, is described as tall and powerful, an athlete able to kick a football over the elm-tree on the college green at New Haven when he entered at twenty-three years of age, older in years than most college students of the year 1767. It is believed that he prepared for college with some citizen of the neighborhood, and it is known that he married before graduating in 1771.