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The Marais de Cygne Massacre is one of many historical events that occurred in Linn County. These events helped shape Kansas and our country...
"The
ravine in which the massacre was committed is one-half mile from the
State line, one mile
west of "Spy Mound," in Missouri, and three fourths
of a mile north of "Hay Stack Mound," in Kansas. It is on the northwest
quarter of Fractional Section 26, Township 20, Range 25 east. This
fractional quarter section is now owned by C. C. Hadsall, who bought it
of Capt. Eli Snyder and Capt. John Brown, paying therefore $550 in cash.
The bill of sale was written by John Brown, dated about July 25, 1858,
and reserved to Cap. Brown the right to occupy the claim for "military
purposes," as long as he desired. The right to military occupancy
appears to have been the only claim Old John Brown had upon the land,
the right to the property vesting in Capt. Snyder.
It was here that John Brown built a cabin for himself, during the summer of 1858, after the massacre. It stood near the Snyder's blacksmith shop, in which he was attacked by Capt. Hamilton. The cabin was a two-story one, with a flat roof, 14x18 feet in size, of hewed hickory and pecan logs, about six inches in diameter, banked up with rocks and dirt to the height of four feet, as a defense against small arms, and with a stream of water running through it from a spring."
Excerpted from William G. Cutler's History of the State of Kansas, published in 1883 by A. T. Andreas, Chicago, Illinois.
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