Margaret Tobin's The Unsinkable Molly Brown

The ‘Unsinkable’ Molly Brown

Although the world refers to her as Molly Brown, those who really knew her called her “Maggie”. Margaret ‘Maggie’ Tobin Brown became well known around the world for her actions during the Titanic tragedy when the press first dubbed her the “Unsinkable Molly Brown”. Margaret’s other achievements in her life a lot of times go unnoticed, but this woman led a very accomplished life. Margaret was born in Hannibal, Missouri to Irish immigrants John and Johanna Tobin in July of 1867. The Tobin’s had strong progressive views that valued education, so Margaret went to school until she was 13 years old when she began work in a factory stripping tobacco leaves at Garth’s Tobacco Company in Hannibal.

Margaret was 18 when she and her brother Daniel followed their dreams of moving west by accompanying their sister Mary Ann Landrigan, and her new husband Jack, to Leadville, Colorado. Margaret and Daniel shared a cabin in Leadville. Daniel went to work in the mines eventually becoming a successful mine promoter, while Margaret began work in a department store. In the summer of 1886, Margaret met JJ Brown, a mining engineer with respectable means of income but no fortune. After a summer courtship, they were married on September 1, 1886, in Annunciation Church in Leadville when she was barely 19 and JJ was 31 years old. Margaret moved to JJ’s cabin in the mainly Irish community of Stumptown, which was closer to where JJ worked. The Browns had two children: Lawrence Palmer born in 1887 and Catherine Ellen ‘Helen’ born in 1889.

While her children were still young, Margaret helped establish a Colorado branch of the National American Women’s Suffrage Association. She was involved in the early feminist movement in Leadville, and also worked in soup kitchens to assist poor families in the Leadville community. In 1893 during the silver crash, JJ who was the mine superintendent of all Ibex properties at the time, made a discovery of gold in Little Johnny Mine. The Browns were rewarded with significant shares in Ibex Mining Company and became millionaires.

With their newfound riches, the Browns purchased what became their long-time home in Denver on Pennsylvania Avenue in 1894. Margaret worked closely with Judge Ben Lindsey to help destitute children and to establish the first Juvenile Court in the country, which later became the basis of today’s U.S. juvenile court system. She was also a student of the Carnegie Institute in New York where she studied drama, language, and literature. In 1901, Margaret was one of the first women in the United Sates to run for a political office when she attempted to win a seat in the Senate eight years before women were even allowed to vote, though she withdrew from the race prior to election-day.

The Browns enjoyed travel and embarked on a world tour in 1902 which seemed to bridge the distance that had begun to grow between the couple. In 1909 though, after 23 years of marriage, both quietly signed a separation agreement. Margaret received a cash settlement, maintained possession of the house on Pennsylvania Avenue, and received $700 a month which allowed her to continue traveling.

Margaret and her daughter, Catherine, traveled throughout Europe and were staying with friends JJ and Madeline Astor in Cairo, Egypt when she received word that her first grandchild was ill.

She booked an immediate passage back to New York on the first available ship: the ill-fated R.M.S. Titanic. After the ship struck the iceberg, Margaret worked tirelessly to help load women and children into the lifeboats and get them settled. Eventually, she was forced to board lifeboat 6. Aboard lifeboat 6, she organized women to handle to oars and attempted to dispel the gloomy spirits. When the crewman in charge of the lifeboat proved too cowardly to go back and help rescue those in the water, she threatened to throw him overboard. Though their boat did not go back to help those in the water, Margaret assumed command of the boat until it was picked up hours later by the Carpathia, which came in answer to the Titanic’s distress calls. Once aboard the Carpathia, she was able to console survivors who spoke little English through her knowledge of foreign languages. She also rallied first class passengers to donate money to the survivors who had lost everything in the tragedy and, by the time the Carpathia reached New York, she had helped found a Survivor's Committee and raised $10,000. She was surrounded by reporters when they docked and, when asked what attributed to her survival, she replied “Typical Brown luck, we’re unsinkable”, which earned her the nickname the ‘Unsinkable’

Molly Brown. In later years, Margaret helped to get the Titanic memorial that now stands in Washington, D.C. constructed. Her efforts for the survivors in the aftermath of the tragedy put her in the national limelight for the first time.

She was called to Ludlow, Colorado, when a strike against the Colorado Fuel & Iron Company, a part of the Rockefeller Corporation, broke out. The strike was an effort to gain relief from harsh and dangerous working conditions and extreme hours. She decided to travel to Ludlow after tensions between the strikers and Colorado Fuel & Iron came to a climax on April 20, 1914, when a battle broke out between the strikers and security guards, killing twenty people including several women and children. She helped both sides as she had connections in both the east and the west. She spoke out for miners’ rights and pressured Rockefeller, who eventually softened his stance and made some concessions for the miners.

After her involvement in settling the strike, she became involved in the National Women’s Trade Union League and traveled the country speaking about women’s issues and labor issues, and wrote dozens of newspaper articles. In July 1914, Margaret worked with Alva Belmont, who was the president of the National Women’s Suffrage Association, to organize the Conference of Great Women which was held in Newport, Rhode Island and was attended by human rights activists from all over the world.

Margaret tried once more for a political seat in the U.S. Senate to represent Colorado, but once again withdrew when World War I broke out and she shifted her focus to relief efforts. She travelled to France to work for the American Committee for Devastated France which helped rebuild devastated areas behind the frontlines and worked with wounded American and French soldiers. Margaret was awarded the French Legion of Honor in 1932 for “overall good citizenship”, which included her efforts of helping raise money for Titanic survivors and crew, helping organize the Alliance Française, her work with Judge Ben Lindsey on organizing the Juvenile Court of Denver, and her relief efforts during World War I.

After the passage of women’s suffrage in 1920 and JJ’s death in 1922, Margaret became interested in the cultural renaissance and pursued a career in acting. She had the honor of portraying her hero, Sarah Bernhard, in stage productions of L’Aiglon in Paris and New York City. Young women in the 1920s shaped a new American identity called “New Women”, and in many ways Margaret was the embodiment of New Women in the 1920s. She was free, liberated and self-sufficient.

Margaret was immortalized in a 1960 Broadway musical production called “The Unsinkable Molly Brown” and later in a film adaption of the musical in which Debbie Reynolds portrayed her. She was portrayed in the 1997 film Titanic by Kathy Bates and in 12 other television shows and movies. Margaret Tobin Brown died of a brain tumor in 1932 in Barbizon Hotel in New York City in her sleep, still living life in her own term and pursuing ambitions of her heart.