 She was born in Hannibal, Mo. Her parents, John and Johanna, were
Irish immigrants. Margaret would later become known by her nickname
-- a nickname that was given to her after she died.
Growing up relatively poor, Margaret went to work at age 13 to
help support her family. At 19, she followed her half sister to
Leadville, Colo., in 1886. Later that year she married James Brown
(no, not that James Brown), whom she met at a Catholic church
picnic, and she became Margaret Brown. James and Margaret would have
a son and a daughter together.
She had originally planned to marry for money rather than love.
James did not have much money, but Margaret fell in love with him
and chose to marry for love instead. Their fate changed seven years
later when James, while working as a superintendent for the Ibex
Mining Co., created a way to reduce the number of cave-ins in the
mines by using baled hay and timbers.
His method allowed miners to reach gold at the bottom of the
mine, and James was awarded 12.5 percent of the company stock and a
seat on the board of directors. When the mine produced a huge
quantity of gold, the Browns became wealthy overnight. The discovery
was considered to be the world's richest gold strike at the time.
They moved to Denver the following year.
Margaret Brown was known as a socialite, philanthropist and
activist. She was a champion of human rights. One of her
achievements was to help women win suffrage, which sounds like a bad
thing but is actually a good thing. Working with a local judge, she
helped establish the first juvenile court in the United States. She
was also one of the first women to run for Congress when she ran for
the Senate in 1814, which was eight years before women had the right
to vote.
Let's see ... what else can I tell you about Margaret Tobin Brown
without giving away her identity?
[to top of second column]
 |
Oh, there was one other thing that I almost forgot. She survived a
deadly accident on a ship in 1912 in the Atlantic Ocean. Part of
her nickname is based on the fact that she survived. The other part
of her nickname was given to her by playwright Richard Morris in
1960 for a Broadway musical. She was never called by this nickname
during her life.
And that disastrous accident in 1912 in the Atlantic Ocean? Well,
that was the sinking of the Titanic. Margaret Tobin Brown was "The
Unsinkable Molly Brown."
But you knew that all along, didn't you?
Her strong, independent personality was evident during the
Titanic disaster when she helped other passengers into her lifeboat.
When there were only two men available on her lifeboat to row it
away from the Titanic -- and one of the men was full of despair --
she realized that it could get caught up in the suction effect
caused by the sinking of the Titanic. So she took charge and grabbed
a set of oars and helped row the passengers to safety.
Altogether, there were 23 passengers with her that she helped
rescue. While roughly 20 percent of all the passengers who escaped
the sinking Titanic would later die from exposure to the cold,
everyone on Margaret "Molly" Brown's boat survived.
[By
PAUL NIEMANN]
Paul Niemann's column has appeared in
more than 80 newspapers and counting. He is the author of the
"Invention Mysteries" series of books and can be reached at
niemann7@aol.com.
Copyright Paul Niemann 2009
(Other
columns)
 |
