To say that abolitionist icon John Brown's iron will had an indelible impact on U.S. history at the outset of the Civil War would be to reiterate a truism. His raid on the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, in what is now West Virginia, has been called one of the igniting events of that conflict. To say that this same iron will had an impact on everyday life in Saratoga almost 50 years later would seem pretty much of a reach, but a case can be made for such a claim.

It has to do with heredity. When he wasn't working to free slaves, or herding sheep, or tanning leather, or engaged in any of several other pursuits, John Brown was fathering children—20 in all, by his two wives. As was described in my last column, his second wife, Mary Ann Day Brown, whom he married when she was 17 and he was 33, is buried here in Madronia Cemetery, along with several descendants.

At this point I should credit my sources of information on the family. As I mentioned last time, The Browns of Madronia, a 1996 book by a San José State University professor, the late Damon G. Nalty, is invaluable for anyone wishing to delve into the story of this fascinating family. Another source is a small volume, After Harpers Ferry, compiled by Florence Cunningham and published by the Saratoga Historical Foundation in 1964.

From these sources, I gather that John Brown's greatest influence on life in Saratoga came about through his daughter, Sarah Brown, born in 1846. She was the second of that name, the first Sarah, born in 1834, having died of dysentery at the age of 9. The second Sarah was 13 when her father was hanged for the Harpers Ferry disaster, and this event could not have had other than a profound emotional effect on the teenager.

Because of their father's dedication to the cause of abolition of slavery, Sarah and her siblings had entrée to the homes of many distinguished people of the day who shared his views. So it was that Sarah and her sister Annie spent time with the family of Ralph Waldo Emerson in Concord, Mass., where Sarah attended school. Later, Sarah boarded with the Amos Bronson Alcotts, where she recalled daughter Louisa May, author of Little Women, as one who "spent a good deal of time in her room writing, except at supper, when she seemed to care very little what she ate or whether she ate at all, and would keep the rest continually laughing at her witty remarks and stories."

There is a detailed account in Nalty's book about the migration of Brown family members across the continent to Northern California and, ultimately, to Saratoga, where it apparently was Sarah who selected the mountaintop property at the end of what is now Bohlman Road. The family stayed there only two years, moving down to property on Saratoga Avenue in 1883. Mary Ann Day Brown, the mother, died in 1884.

Sarah Brown had gone to San Francisco to take a job in the U.S. Mint, but since it was a political appointment, she was let go after Democrat Grover Cleveland won the election of 1884. She returned to Saratoga, but for the next several years traveled extensively, spending only intervals at home. In 1897 she returned to Saratoga to stay. So, what was this woman like and why should she be thought to have in some way shared the mantle of her father? I doubt whether she ever thought of herself in that context.

Although she hardly could have been described as beautiful, her pictures show a woman with attractive features compatible with a strong character. One newspaper writer described her in this way: "To those familiar with the portrait of John Brown in his younger years, Miss Brown's resemblance to her father is very striking. Her delicate but strongly marked aquiline features and the classic lines of her head seem but a feminine version of that strong prototype ... Miss Brown is a lady of the old New England type, reserved and quiet-mannered, while full of kindliness and force ... "

She was a gifted artist who taught many pupils, and the Saratoga Historical Museum is fortunate to have some specimens of her work. She was active in the community and belonged to the Congregational Church and Saratoga Rebekah Lodge, as well as the Women's Relief Corps in Los Gatos.

In 1906, she embarked on a project that one might say put her in the same realm as her father when it came to helping the downtrodden. It had to do with the Japanese laborers who were being brought here to work in the fruit harvests. In my next column I will describe her efforts in that regard.