Osawatomie

Town in Miami County, eastern-central Kansas, on the Marais des Cygnes River, 75 km/47 mi southwest of Kansas City; population (1990) 4,600. It is a rail distribution point for grain and fruit. Founded in 1855 by the New England Emigrant Aid Company, it was a temporary home to the abolitionist John Brown, and a station on the Underground Railroad, providing sanctuary and assistance for escaped black slaves before the American Civil War. In 1856 it was the site of the Battle of Osawatomie, a bloody clash between Brown and his antislavery forces and proslavery Kansans.