Join us at 6:30 PM, July 26, at Jack’s Restaurant & Bar, located at the Northwest corner of the Westgate Shopping Mall in San Jose, near Campbell (1502 Saratoga Ave, San Jose, CA 95129) and via ZOOM. This month’s topic is
Tonya McQuade on “Mary Brown, the Wife of John Brown”
What is a wife to do after her husband is hanged for treason?
Much has been written about the abolitionist John Brown—his role in the “Bleeding Kansas” border wars and his ill-fated raid on Harpers Ferry. His prophetic dying words foretold the bloodshed of the Civil War, and his hanging outside Charles Town, Virginia, followed by his burial in North Elba, New York, made national headlines and drew large crowds.
Far less attention has been given to John Brown’s wife, Mary, and how she and their surviving children rebuilt their lives in the years after his death. How many people know, for example, that Mary and several of her children moved to California in 1864 and eventually settled in Saratoga, on the western edge of Santa Clara County?
It was in Saratoga that Mary Brown spent the final years of her life. She now rests with sixteen other family members at Madronia Cemetery—thousands of miles from where her husband’s body “lies a-mouldering” in North Elba, New York.
Join us to learn more about Mary Brown’s later life, her California connections, and her family’s West Coast legacy.
Tonya McQuade is an author, educator, speaker, and retired high school English teacher. She is a passionate lover of history, travel, and nature. She and her husband frequently visit museums, state and national parks, and historical sites, and she enjoys reading historical texts and primary source documents.
Often, her reading of historical fiction sparks a deeper dive into the real people and events behind the stories, leading her to new discoveries and areas of interest.
After acquiring 50 family Civil War letters, Tonya began intensive research into the American Civil War in Missouri. She blogs about her writing journey and has written multiple articles for the Emerging Civil War website, including two that focus on Mary Brown and her family’s move to California.
Her book, A State Divided: The Civil War Letters of James Calaway Hale and Benjamin Petree of Andrew County, Missouri (2024), weaves together those family letters with historical commentary. It also explores John Brown’s role in the “Bleeding Kansas” border wars and his prophetic words about the coming Civil War before his execution for treason following the raid on the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry.
Tonya is a member of the South Bay Civil War Round Table, South Bay Writers, Poetry Center San Jose, and the National League of American Pen Women. She earned B.A. degrees in English and Communication Studies, along with her Single Subject Teaching Credential in English, from the University of California, Santa Barbara. She later received her M.A. in Educational Leadership from San Jose State University.
You can learn more about Tonya on her website: tonyagrahammcquade.com, including a full listing of her Emerging Civil War articles.
