In 1997, James Cameron’s Titanic made audiences feel alive as Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet experienced an epic love bound to end with one monumental disaster, the sinking of the Titanic.
One of the many unforgettable characters depicted in the movie is none other than the Unsinkable Molly Brown. Born in Hannibal, Missouri, to Irish immigrants in 1871, Brown attended school until the age of 13, when she began working in a factory.
By the early 1880s, Brown and her brother moved to Leadville, Colorado, where she worked at a local department store. During her time in Leadville, Brown met mining engineer J.J. Brown, a meeting that would change the course of history.
In late September 1886, the couple married and moved east of Leadville to the now ghost town of Stumptown to be closer to the mine Mr. Brown worked. Amid the town’s Silver Crash, Mr. Brown discovered gold in the Little Johnny Mine, turning the Browns into millionaires.
The money allowed them to purchase a home in Denver, where Brown would join reformers to install public baths in the courthouse and advocate for more public parks and other city improvements.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the Browns began to travel through Ireland, France, Russia, India, Japan, and many other places. While abroad, Brown wrote about her experiences and the state of India’s social hierarchy for Denver papers.
Twenty-three years after their wedding day, the Browns separated. Though, they never legally divorced. Brown continued traveling as an independent female. Sometime during her 1912 trip to Egypt, Rome, and Paris, Brown received news of her ill grandson.
She booked passage on the first available ship back to the states. After the Titanic crashed into the iceberg, Brown took a seat on Lifeboat #6 with 21 other women, two men, and one young boy.
Upon being rescued by the Carpathia, Brown inspired the first-class passengers to donate money to help less fortunate passengers, raising $10,000 before the Carpathia reached New York. It was this selfless act that made Brown famous.
The Newport Herald was the first to publish Brown’s heroic story, turning it into a sensation. According to Newport Herald editors, Polly Pry’s weekly Denver gossip columnist was annoyed at not being one of the first to print Brown’s story, consequently referring to her as ‘the unsinkable Mrs. Brown.”
In 1914, the state of Colorado called upon Brown’s leadership to aid in the strike between miners and a company that was part of the Rockefeller corporation. Sadly, 20 men, women, and children were killed during the conflict, resulting in the Ludlow Massacre.
After the tragic event, Brown moved to Rhode Island, returning to Colorado less frequently. She spent the rest of her years in the National Women’s Trade Union League, the Conference of Great Women, the American Committee for Devastated France, and even taking to the stage as an actress.
In 1932, Margaret Molly Brown passed away in her sleep, leaving behind the legacy of a woman who lived a life no other way than on her terms and with an ambitious heart. She may no longer be alive, but the impact her story has had is irrefutably unsinkable.
The Molly Brown House Museum is located at 1340 Pennsylvania Street, Denver.
You can find more information at https://mollybrown.org/ or give them a call at 303-832-4092.
