| What makes it historical? |
Margaret Tobin was born in 1867 in Hannibal, Missouri and first came to Colorado in 1885 with her sister, Mary. Once there, she started work in the carpets and draperies department of Daniels and Fisher Mercantile in Leadville. That’s where she met and married J.J. Brown, and had their two children, Lawrence Palmer and Catherine Ellen!
Mrs. Brown was an activist in Colorado’s early feminist movement, founding the Colorado chapter of the National American Women’s Suffrage Association and the Denver Woman’s Club! One of the first women to run for political office, before women could even vote, Mrs. Brown also helped lay the groundwork for America’s juvenile court system!
Mrs. Brown was the caregiver for her three grandchildren, and when she heard one of them was sick while she was in France, she booked passage to New York on the earliest possible ship: the Titanic. After the infamous iceberg struck the hull, Mrs. Brown helped evacuate passengers into the lifeboats and kept morale up as they drifted through the icy sea! She then went on to establish the Survivor’s Committee, fundraise for survivors, and help erect a Titanic Memorial in Washington, DC!
Acclaimed as a hero, Mrs. Brown, who was never really known as “Molly,” used her newfound fame to push for labor rights, women’s rights, childhood education, and historic preservation! She worked with the American Committee for Devastated France during World War I to help rebuild areas that had been destroyed by fighting and received the French Legion of Honor for her work! |
