Spencer Kellogg Brown

Spencer was the son of New York abolitionist Orville C.  “Osawatomie” Brown, who had established the town of Osawatomie in 1854, coining the name from the nearby Osage and Pottawatomie creeks.  The name “Osawatomie Brown”  was more often ascribed to the more radical abolitionist John Brown after the Battle of Osawatomie where he led about forty “free state” men in the defense of the town when 250 to 300 pro-slavery “border ruffians” attacked the town and burned it in 1856. Pro-slavery advocates believed the two Browns to be related, though they were not, which resulted in confusion and misunderstanding  for the O. C. Brown family.  In the attack on Osawatomie, where the O. C. Brown home was burned, Spencer was kidnapped by Missourians who thought him the son of John Brown.  Later, in Saint Louis, a “Mr. Cozzens” was under the impression that  Spencer’s mother was “Captain Brown’s” wife (the only Osawatomie Brown he had any knowledge of).