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"Well, I'll be John Brown." "Dadgummit." "Dead as a door nail."

These are all phrases that my grandma has used. I never knew where they came from and then when we were visiting Lake Placid, NY and do you wanna guess who is buried there? John Brown.

And today I read this. And it made me want to look up the other stuff.

So here it is.

I found my John Brown answer here. And it said this:

John Brown (May 9, 1800 - December 2, 1859) was an American abolitionist who advocated and practiced armed insurrection as a means to abolish all slavery. ... he was hanged for revolt and treason. It is even said in the Caribbean...... usually as "I'll be John Browned"
Source(s):
Cassell's Dictionary of Slang: A Major New Edition of the Market-Leading ... - Page 763 by Jonathon Green - Reference - 2006 - 1565 pages [1930s] (US Black) an excl. of surprise: "Well I'll be hanged".

And, dad gum it I found here. And it says this:

It's what's known as a "euphemism" which is a mild or toned down expression that takes the place of profanity or a harsh expression.Dad gum it is a form of "doggone it", which in turn is a euphemism for "G-- Da-n it" (you get the idea)

And, dead as a door nail I found here. And it says this:

Etymology
Probably from William Shakespeare's play Henry VI, Act 5, Sc.10, l.40-1 John Cade: "...and if I do not leave you all as dead as a door-nail, I pray God I may never eat grass more." Although there is some evidence that the phrase was in use before this time.
When doors were built using only wood boards and hand forged nails, the nails were long enough to dead nail the (vertical) wooden panels and (horizontal) stretcher boards securely together, so they would not easily pull apart. This was done by pounding the protruding point of the nail over and down into the wood. A nail that was bent in this fashion (and thus not easily pulled out) was said to be dead. Thus the expression - dead as a doornail.

[edit] Adjective
dead as a doornail
(idiomatic, similes) Unquestionably dead. Used for both inanimate objects and once living beings.
I picked up the phone, but the line was dead as a doornail.
We finally found John's cat run over in the next road. It was as dead as a doornail.
1843, Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol in Prose, Being a Ghost Story of Christmas, stave 1,
Old Marley was as dead as a door–nail.
Mind! I don’t mean to say that I know, of my own knowledge, what there is particularly dead about a door–nail. I might have been inclined, myself, to regard a coffin–nail as the deadest piece of ironmongery in the trade. But the wisdom of our ancestors is in the simile; and my unhallowed hands shall not disturb it, or the Country’s done for. You will therefore permit me to repeat, emphatically, that Marley was as dead as a door–nail.