Ken Marks - Molly Brown from Hannibal, Missouri: Her Life in the Gilded Age

Published by The History Press

Charleston, SC 29403

www.historypress.net

Copyright 2013 by Ken Marks and Lisa Marks

All rights reserved

Front cover: Courtesy of Steve Chou. The portrait of Molly Brown is from History Colorado.

First published 2013

e-book edition 2013

Manufactured in the United States

ISBN 978.1.61423.924.6

Library of Congress CIP data applied for.

print edition ISBN 978.1.60949.871.9

Notice: The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. It is offered without guarantee on the part of the author or The History Press. The author and The History Press disclaim all liability in connection with the use of this book.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form whatsoever without prior written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

To Ella and Mary Kathryn,

whose indelible Irish spirit lives on

and whose Irish eyes still smile

in the memory of those who loved them best

Contents

Preface

She was born into a midwestern family with Irish roots and little money. She died an internationally known personality who had lived a life of fame and fortune that few would ever experience. In between, she fought for womens rights, juvenile justice and eight-hour workdays. She helped build a cathedral and saved a poets cottage. She helped secure the right for women to vote and ran for the U.S. Senate. She was lauded by the French and attended the coronation of an English king. This was the incomparable Margaret Tobin Brown.

In April 2012, we were asked to make a presentation to children in the gifted program at Veterans Elementary School in Hannibal, Missouri, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the sinking of Titanic. We knew a good deal about Molly Brown from visiting her birthplace in Hannibal, now open as a museum, and from the biography written in 1999 by Dr. Kristen Iversen, Molly Brown: Unraveling the Myth. But after sharing a brief summation of Margarets life with the schoolchildren, we began to realize that hers was a story that needed to be told. So many of her accomplishments were unremembered, hidden by the long shadow cast by Titanic.

We began to sponsor events at the Hannibal History Museum to educate visitors about the amazing accomplishments of Margaret Tobin Brown. Remarkably, one of the first things people would say is, What does Molly Brown have to do with Hannibal? Most people didnt realize that she was born and raised in Hannibalor that she was even from Missouri, for that matter. The common notion was that she was from Colorado.

It quickly occurred to us that the recollection that most people have of Molly Browns story comes from the 1964 MGM musical starring Debbie Reynolds, The Unsinkable Molly Brown. Our younger guests only knew the story of Molly Brown from the 1997 movie Titanic, written and directed by James Cameron. We knew the movie well, but it had been years since wed seen the musical, so we bought a copy of the DVD to see how they depicted her childhood in Hannibal. The movie musical begins with a shot of an infant, maybe nine months old, floating down the Colorado River in a wooden cradle. The fictional back story was that this child had survived a flood that had taken the lives of her mother and father, leaving her orphaned. A mountain man plucked the infant from the cradle to safety (proving that shes unsinkable) and raised her as his own daughter in the frontier woods of the Rocky Mountains. Missouri was not even mentioned!

As we continued to share Margarets true life story, we were always surprised at how enthusiastic our guests were about the tale and how many questions they had, eager to learn more. They would tell us that they had no idea how remarkable her accomplishments were and how surprised they were to hear how much more there was to her life story than just the sinking of Titanic. They were surprised that she had never been called Molly during her lifetime (the term molly is simply a euphemism for a young Irish lass and was not assigned to Margaret until after her death). And, of course, they were surprised that she was born and raised in Hannibal.

Margaret is certainly not the only famous person from Hannibal, Missouri. In the Hannibal History Museum, there is an exhibit of Prominent Hannibalians that celebrates other important personalities. Theres a fellow named Mark Twain, who spent his boyhood in Hannibal and made the town famous in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn; Cliff Edwards, star of stage and screen and best known as the voice of Jiminy Cricket singing When You Wish Upon a Star in the 1940 Disney film Pinocchio; Bill Lear, who cofounded a company named Motorola and invented the car radio, eight-track cassette and the Learjet; impressionist painter James Carroll Beckwith; Hall of Fame baseball player Jake Beckley; and many more.

During tours and lectures, we joke that there is something in the muddy water of the mighty Mississippi River that must contribute to these larger-than-life personalities, and certainly none was larger than Margaret Tobin Brown. But when you think of it, what was it about her childhood in Hannibal that prepared her for the amazing journey her life would take? What was the culture of Hannibal like during her years here that would shape her personal values and beliefs, the foundation built during her formative years that would spur her on to champion human rights and civil liberties throughout her life?

What follows is an attempt to not only tell the real story of Hannibals own Margaret Tobin Brown but also examine the circumstances that occurred during her childhood that give us a greater understanding of what motivated her to rise from humble beginnings along the banks of the Mississippi to the highest echelons of society. When put into the historical context of her life and times, her escapades are even more remarkable; today, it is difficult to imagine the obstacles she would have had to overcome to pursue her ambitious goals, let alone to accomplish her extraordinary achievements.

This book will not serve as a complete, exhaustive biography of Margaret, but we hope that it will shed some new light and encourage the reader to learn more about this remarkable woman. Her humor, her down-to-earthiness, her common-sense approach and her courage and calm under duress would have been learned while living in the three-room house on Denklers Alley. It was Hannibal that Margaret returned to year after year to reconnect with her roots, and she never forgot nor apologized for where she was from.

For you see, she may have lived in Denver, Colorado. She may have lived in Newport, Rhode Island, and Paris, France. But she was from Hannibal, Missouri!

Acknowledgements

This book would not have been possible without the generous contributions of so many who work tirelessly to preserve history. Bits and pieces of information regarding the remarkable history of Margaret Tobin Browns life have been gathered, verified and preserved over the years by countless collectors, researchers and historians, and it is because of their generosity in sharing this information that we are able to tell the story that follows. We are inspired by their dedication.

We are so grateful for the love and support of our family: our sons, Jordan and Shea; our parents, Terry and Alice; and our uncle, Frank. Thank you for understanding what it means to us to be able to pursue our dreams and for giving us the support to help make them come true. To Buster and Lily Pearl, thank you for the warmth, humor and unconditional love you provide on a daily basis.