Speaker 1: Ghost Stories of the Rocky Mountains written by Barbara Smith
published by Lone Pine Publishing Unsinkable Spirits, The classically American
Rags to rich a story, began in Hannibal, Missouri, in
eighteen sixty seven with the birth of Margaret Tobin. One
of six children. Margaret was raised in poverty by uneducated parents.
She attended school until she was thirteen. Therefore, when she
set out to make her own way in the world,
she was at something of an educational advantage over her peers,
most of whom were lucky if they had stayed in
school long enough to learn how to read and write.
Perhaps more importantly, Margaret was also ambitious, and by eighteen
eighty six had made her way from Missouri to the
booming mining centers in Colorado. Here, the young woman met
and married thirty one year old James Joseph Brown. J J,
as he was most often called, was not only as
smart as his bride, but also at least as ambitious.
By the mid eighteen nineties, the couple had been blessed
with two children and had purchased a family home at
a prestigious address. Both Margaret and j J. Recalled those
early days as being the happiest they had known. Then
their relationship began to splinter, taking much of the enjoyment
out of the marriage. Margaret turned her considerable abilities towards
social climbing. Her husband, however, aphoorred anything even approaching involvement
in high society's world, and the couple drifted apart. They
soon made the dissolution of their marriage official. Margaret Taban
Brown was touring Europe alone in the spring of nineteen
twelve when she heard that their young grandson was ill.
She immediately made arrangements to return home. The first ship
scheduled to sell for the United States left on April tenth,
nineteen twelve. Margaret booked her fateful passage on the r
M S Titanic. Stories of her rescue from the sinking ship,
as well as her subsequent heroism on that dreadful night,
became more and more dramatic with each telling. Hyperbole in
Hollywood movies aside. There is no doubt that the woman
who had been born to utter poverty and had risen
to great financial wealth immediately took charge of the terrified
group huddled together, and one of the first life boats
to be launched from the doomed liner. That tragic night,
Margaret Brown armed herself with the little craft's oars and
rowed the lifeboat and as passengers away from inevitable death.
Her heroics earned Margaret, dubbed the Unsinkable Missus Brown, the
publicity that she craved, but nothing was able to heal
the raft in her marriage. J J who once told
their son, your mother is my greatest enemy, died alone
in nineteen twenty two. Margaret also died alone in nineteen
thirty two. In death, it would seem that the two
have reunited to hunt what was once the Brown family home,
their beloved mansion at thirteen forty Pennsylvania Avenue in Denver, Colorado.
Their residence is now a museum and is referred to
as the Molly Brown House. Although during their lifetime, Margaret
was usually called Maggie and never Molly. The later name
comes from the somewhat fictionalized nineteen sixty stage musical based
on her life, The Unsinkable Molly Brown. Despite any veryation
of her name, there is no question that the unsinkable
nature of Maggie Brown's spirit has survived. It is generally
accepted by the staff at the museum that the house
is haunted not only by Maggie, but also by JJ
and the unidentified spirit of a long deceased servant. Many people,
even casual visitors to the grand old Place, acknowledge that
they feel the former owner's presence in the rooms. There
are also frequent reports of the scent of rosewater, Maggie's
favorite fragrance. In addition, there are considerably more direct contacts
with the ghosts of the most famous Titanic survivors. Maggie's
rocking chair occasionally rocks, and dependently for prolonged periods of time.
This strange site is often accompanied by the smell of rosewater.
In the nineteen seventies, when a dance troupe was touring
the historic house, a particularly sensitive dancer actually saw Maggie
in what had been her bedroom. The apparition was so
distinct that the dancer was able to describe the ghosts
clothing right down to the white lace. Maggie's appearance that
day was no mere fluke. She had a message that
she wanted to get to the curator of her former home.
Through the psychically sensitive dancer, Maggie was able to let
the staff know to expect delivery of some furniture that
had belonged in the home. Less than a month later,
someone brought an artifact to the house that had been
a part of the original furnishing. During another tour, a
guy was shocked to see a picture on a wall moving.
In October nineteen ninety six newsletter from the Molly Roundhouse,
the movement was described as not up and down, not
side to side, but sort of rippling forward and back.
The guide who reported this strange motion explaining Maggie's parents
extreme poverty during her childhood and how it resulted in
her determination to provide a comfortable lifestyle for her family.
The picture that responded to her statements was of the
stack where Maggie had been raised. It's likely that the
phantom drawing at ten to this picture was that of
Maggie herself, although it could also have been the ghost
of her husband j J, whose presence is frequently detected
by the smell of cigar smoke wafing through the house.
One of the most puzzling ghost pranks at Molly Brown
House occurred during the Christmas season in the mid nineteen nineties.
Decorations in the house included a set of toy soldiers
placed under the Christmas tree. The day after they were
set out, a volunteer opening the house in the morning
found the soldiers lined up one to a step ascending
the staircase. Thinking that a child visiting the house might
have been responsible for the re arrangement, the volunteer worker
collected the little soldiers and put them back where they belonged,
or so she thought, under the tree. As the day
progressed and other staff members arrived at the house, the
woman made a point to ask each one if he
or she had placed the toys at the stairs. No
one she asked seemed to know what she was talking about.
Only mildly frustrated by the strange occurrence, the woman went
about her day if she had forgotten about the incident
by the end of the day. What she found the
next morning certainly brought all her confusion right back for
there as though marching up the stairs were all the
toy soldiers that she knew she had put under the
Christmas tree when she had secured the house the night before.
This unexplained activity continued for several days. Whoever or whatever
was at work through the night in the Molly Brown
House evidently one of the toy soldiers on the staircase.
No one was ever able to solve the puzzle of
the toy's mysterious movements during the holiday season. The ghost
with the bent for redecoration might not have been Maggie
or j J. Even in their lifetimes, the Browns already
knew that the house had at least one haunted staircase.
Maggie's mother once reported seeing the image of a deceased
servant on the back staircase. That spirit is apparently still
in residence, for in recent years, someone carrying supplies down
that stairway was pinched by invisible fingers. There may be
some question as to the identity of that ghost, but
there is certainly no question that the Mollie Brown House
is haunted.