Owen Brown, son of John Brown, protected by the Black Strings, a secret society of over 1000 armed men, here described the Battle of Harper's Ferry, Va. the night after his father was hung at Charleston. Owen Brown, Barclay Coppic, Francis Merriam, Orsborn Anderson, refugees, and James Redpath came to this section for protection. Capt. John Brown Jr. of the Kansas Border warfare then lived on the Dorset Road. Dangerfield P. Newby of Dorset was killed at Harper's Ferry. Several of Brown's men left this county in 1859 directly for the Maryland rendezvous. The Federal government made little effort to arrest any person in Ashtabula County as a conspirator or witness for fear of invoking Civil War.