John Brown had two wives in his lifetime. The first was Dianthe Lusk, who died soon after childbirth in Pennsylvania in 1832. There were five growing children at the tannery in Randolph, near Meadville. Brown's second wife was Mary Anne Day, who came to help at the house after Dianthe died. They married in 1833. Mary Anne Day Brown came to Virginia to meet her husband in prison on December 1, 1859, the day before he was hanged. She traveled for a month to get there from their farm in the New York Adirondack Mountains. She stayed at the homes of black and white abolitionists in Philadelphia before receiving safe passage from the governor of Virginia to come to retrieve her husband's body. The governor promised she could collect those of her two dead sons as well, but that was not kept. In 1863, Mary decided to come to California with her only surviving son and his family and her three young daughters, Annie (age 20), Sarah (age 17) and Ellen (age 8). I am making a documentary film called "Mary Brown and Her Daughters" with the sponsorship of local historical societies in California. Mary and two daughters, plus many grandchildren and their families, are buried at Madronia Cemetery in Saratoga, California. More people visit this grave than any other at the cemetery, including school classes. Mary Anne Day Brown died in February, 1884. Her headstone reads: "Mary A. wife of John Brown of Harpers Ferry."