john brown came to the village near the end of june. in 1856, brown had led a massacre of his own, the pottawatomie massacre, against five pro-slavery men and boys. he built a log blockhouse two stories high with a spring inside for water. the blacksmith, eli snider, owned the land. he later sold it to charles c. hadsall, a friend of brown's. brown and his men stayed in the fort until the end of summer. then they left it to hadsall to keep manned.