The John Brown Tannery Site

A historic place

Tucked away along an unpaved country road in the village of New Richmond, Crawford County, Pennsylvania, is the historic John Brown Tannery Site. This is the place where abolitionist John Brown built and ran a tannery for producing leather. Much later, having sold his business and moved away, Brown would become a notable figure in the territorial conflict to keep slavery out of Kansas. He then captured the nation’s attention by raiding the U.S. armory and arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia), in a daring but failed plot to rally, arm and organize slave liberation in the states of the South.

The half-acre site contains the remaining stone foundation walls of John Brown’s tannery, dating to 1826. The site is under the trusteeship and care of the John Brown Heritage Association, a private nonprofit group organized in the 1970s and based in Meadville, Pennsylvania. The site, open year round and free for the public to visit, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The site lies about 12 miles east of Meadville, just off State Route 77, on John Brown Road in Richmond Township. Two State Historical Markers of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania — one on Route 77, the other on John Brown Road — point passersby to the site. Framing it at both ends along the township road are sections of a stone perimeter fence wall erected in 1935 by a forerunner organization to the Heritage Association and aided with funding from the federal Works Progress Administration. The gated structure deteriorated over time and was removed in 1978 to allow a more open view of the tannery site. The corner sections of the wall fencing were left intact in tribute to those who built it during the Great Depression era.

Visitors can see, learn about and reflect on John Brown’s legacy at the tannery site. An off-road parking area and a concrete entrance plaza, which were added by the Heritage Association, provide easy access to view the tree-shaded ancient-looking ruins of the tannery. Walkways from the plaza lead to a pair of illustrated all-weather interpretive display panels, 4 feet by 4 feet, that the Association developed for visitor education at the site. One of the panels is about Brown’s tannery and additional contributions to the early New Richmond community. The other panel tells of his later abolitionist crusades in Kansas and at Harpers Ferry. A bronze plaque on the site bears an image of Brown and prompts thoughts about his role in the struggle against slavery that ended with the American Civil War.

John Brown with his wife, Dianthe, and their three boys came to New Richmond, Pennsylvania, from Hudson, Ohio, in May 1826. Brown’s purpose in moving was to start a leather-tanning trade. The initial 200 acres of wooded land he bought in New Richmond (originally called Randolph) had ample oak and hemlock whose bark could provide tannic acid for processing animal hides into leather. By October, Brown had built a two-story tannery measuring 27 feet by 52 feet. The lower level was composed of thick native-stone foundation walls rising eight feet above ground. The upper level was of wood framing. Brown at times employed as many as 15 men at the tannery. He also formed a business relationship with Seth Thompson of Hartford, Trumbull County, Ohio, just across the Pennsylvania border, whereby Brown would receive animal hides from Thompson and in turn send him finished leather to market. For the frontier settlement of New Richmond, the size and nature of Brown’s tannery operation must have seemed impressive. Brown also had a reputation for high standards. James Foreman, one of the tannery workers, said Brown would refuse to sell any leather unless it was perfectly free of dampness.

Brown operated his tannery until May 1835, when he and his family moved back to the Western Reserve region of Ohio. He decided to return after being offered a tannery partnership there with businessman Zenas Kent and also because of financial difficulties that Brown was having in New Richmond.

Ownership of the tannery changed hands several times over the years that followed. It’s believed the building may have ceased being a tannery in 1858. It then saw a series of different uses that included being a cheese and jelly factory as well as a cider and grist mill. The upper level was made into a residence in the late 1800s. A fire in 1907 destroyed the entire second story and any wood construction in the building.

The surviving stone foundation of the tannery and a half-acre of the grounds came into the possession of Guy Heath of Corry, Pennsylvania, in 1916. He and his heirs held the site as trustees in cooperation with a John Brown Memorial Association that was formed. Dr. Charles Olsen then maintained preservation of the tannery site after purchasing it in 1949. His heirs appointed trusteeship of the site to the present-day John Brown Heritage Association in 1975.

The tannery received some repairs in 1935 through the original Memorial Association. Its efforts at the time included construction of the roadside perimeter wall; the plaque with Brown’s image, mounted on a boulder near the tannery ruins; and a bronze tablet embedded in the stone foundation to commemorate its origins. Some masonry maintenance also was done in 1980 and 2016 through the successor Heritage Association.

In addition to maintaining the tannery foundation and grounds, the Heritage Association has done excavations at the site in cooperation with the French Creek Archaeological Society and others. Excavations in recent years have determined that the foundation walls of the tannery rest about 2½ feet in the ground on a gravel base. The excavations also confirmed that Brown had 18 tanning vats, as traditionally believed, and that 10 evidently were in the “front yard” of the building and eight in the interior. Digs of “test” vats revealed the pits to be 4 feet wide, 8 feet long and 2 feet deep, and that they had wood framing and clay packing to retain tanning fluids. The archaeology work also uncovered an animal hide; a vat hook used to lift leather in and out of the pits; a rubble stone ramp or “apron” at the rear of the tannery; bricks from what is believed to have been a chimney that Brown built for the structure; and charred wood from the 1907 second-floor fire. The excavations also found nails, buttons, pottery shards, furniture knobs, eyeglasses, pipe stems and other relics from the 19th-century era.

The distinctive tannery walls peacefully stand, the most tangible reminder of John Brown’s enterprising decade of residence in Pennsylvania.  With its bygone appearance on the modern landscape, the tannery site exudes an intriguing sense of the past, beckoning visitors to learn more about John Brown and his significance in local and national history.