OSAWATOMIE, KANSAS—The foundation of Adair Cabin, home to abolitionists Samuel and Florella Adair, half-sister of John Brown, is being excavated in eastern Kansas. The cabin was built in 1854, the year that Kansas was opened as a territory. John Brown and his sons occasionally stayed with the Adairs and helped them to build additions to the log structure. So far the team has learned that what had been thought to be the cabin’s front door was actually its back door. They also found a trap door in what would have been the kitchen. The recovered artifacts include a silver fork, a double-edged ax, hand-forged nails, animal bones, bullets, rifle cartridges, and pieces of dishes. “John Brown got all the attention. He was out there and dramatic. But the Adair family does not get enough credit for having the tenacity to stay out here when neighbors on either side of a divisive issue are killing one another,” crew chief Melanie Maden told The Wichita Eagle.
