John Brown Memorial - Akron, Ohio - Citizen Memorials on Waymarking.com

This is a memorial to the famed abolitionist, John Brown – an Akron resident in the 1840s. The area is not far from Brown's former home, on Diagonal Road, where he lived and raised sheep for Col. Simon Perkins, of Akron's founding family.

The German-American Alliance erected the pillar in 1910 on land that would later become Perkins Woods Park . The memorial's centerpiece is a 20-foot sandstone column salvaged from the portico of the original Summit County Courthouse that was razed in 1905. Long gone is the bronze eagle that perched on the sphere that sits atop the pillar.

In 1938, a group called the Negro 25 Year Club added a 30-foot-diameter stone bench surrounding the pillar, a paved flagstone interior and a 6-foot high stone slab with a medallion bearing the likeness of Brown, by local artist Stephen Gladwin. The marker declares, "He died to set his brothers free. His soul goes marching on."

The memorial was restored and rededicated in 1975 – Akron’s sesquicentennial year. Since then, the adjacent Akron Zoo has expanded and incorporated the memorial within its boundary. This part of the zoo is undeveloped and wooded – no indication is made of the memorial’s existence.

Location: park area of zoo Website with more information on either the memorial or the person(s) it is dedicated to: Not listed

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Date Logged Log User Rating   01/04/2011 buffalohiker visited it