News of the Arroyo
Title: | Remembering the Dream |
Subtitle: | Trails group celebrates victory with King Day commemoration |
Date: | 2006-01-16 |
Summary: | January 16, 2006 - It was a double celebration Sunday as trails and civil rights activists met on top of a hill above Altadena on the eastern edge of the Arroyo Seco Watershed. They joyfully celebrated Martin Luther Day and a recent trail access victory by singing "The Battle Hymn of the Republic." |
Author: | Molly R. Okeon, Staff Writer |
Publication: | Pasadena Star News |
Content: | ALTADENA - Cool winds whipped hair against the faces of many of the 80 people who sang \"The Battle Hymn of the Republic\" atop an Altadena knoll known as the burial site of Owen Brown, son of abolitionist John Brown, to commemorate Martin Luther King Jr.\'s birthday Sunday morning. People from the area hiked about a half-mile up to what is known as Little Round Top to hear a history talk from author Michele Zack, who wrote the prize-winning book \"Altadena: Between Wilderness and City,\" and to celebrate a recent court victory for the group Save the Altadena Trails. In early December, Pasadena Superior Court Judge C. Edward Simpson ruled in favor of the trails group in the case brought against Michael Cichy, owner of the knoll where Brown was buried in 1889. Since the land was purchased by Cichy in January 2002, he has been cited for county violations and allegedly yelled at hikers and posted \"No Trespassing\" signs to discourage visitors from using the path across his land. Cichy, who represented himself in court, could not be reached for comment. The trails group\'s staff attorney, Paul Ayers, who won the recent case, presided over Sunday morning\'s gathering. \"This is the first of many occasions to reconsecrate this grave site,\" Ayers said, saying he hopes the King Day celebration will be an annual affair from now on. Zack likened the trails group to Martin Luther King Jr., saying both used nonviolent methods to achieve their goals, a thought that drew applause from the crowd. She told stories of a former slave named Robert Owens, who bought his own freedom and moved to the area, later buying his family\'s freedom. She also spoke of the Giddings family, who were famous abolitionists from Iowa who also moved to the region. But her primary focus was on Owen Brown, who, unlike his father, was a \"quieter and gentler sort.\" He was the last survivor of his family - his father and brothers were either killed in the raid at Harper\'s Ferry, W.Va, in October 1859, or later caught and hanged. The only surviving son of the man known as \"The Liberator\" was considered enough of an accomplice to the raid that he was a fugitive for the next 25 years, Zack said. He came to the Pasadena area in 1885. Owen Brown died . Hundreds of people of all races came to his funeral, in 1889, which Zack noted was \"remarkable.\" The gravestone mysteriously disappeared in 2002 and has yet to be recovered. Save the Altadena Trails president Jane Szabo said it was never registered as a historical landmark despite consideration in the 1970s. Szabo said she was glad that Sunday\'s event was \"relatively uneventful,\" despite some nearby residents who were seen taping hikers going up and down the knoll. \"We don\'t want to sue the neighbors, but they put up illegal fences,\" she said. \"Everybody who bought homes here, they bought the houses because they could hike.\" while trying to build a monument to his father molly.okeon@sgvn.com (626) 578-6300, Ext. 4496 |
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