Editing Margaret Brown (section)

==Early life==
Margaret Tobin was born on July 18, 1867,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Margaret Tobin Brown |access-date=2022-09-02 |website=Molly Brown House Museum|url=https://mollybrown.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Margaret-Brown-Bio_2018.pdf}}</ref><ref name="Hannibal mag" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=Molly Brown – American parvenue  |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Molly-Brown |access-date=2022-09-02 |website=Britannica |language=en}}</ref> near the [[Mississippi River]] in [[Hannibal, Missouri]], on Denkler's Alley.<ref name="Hannibal mag">{{cite magazine|first=Lisa|last=Marks|url=http://www.hannibalmag.com/celebrating-molly-brown-on-her-150th-birthday|title=Celebrating Molly Brown on her 150th birthday|date=June 29, 2017|magazine=Hannibal Magazine|access-date=March 28, 2019|archive-date=March 28, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190328104926/http://www.hannibalmag.com/celebrating-molly-brown-on-her-150th-birthday|url-status=dead}}</ref>{{efn|The street was also known as Denkler Alley and Denklers Alley.}} The three-room cottage where she was born is now the Molly Brown Birthplace and Museum; it is on 600 Butler Street in Hannibal.<ref name="Hannibal mag" /><ref name="auto1">{{Cite web |title=Molly Brown Birthplace |url=https://www.visithannibal.com/attractions/museums/molly-brown-birthplace-museum/ |access-date=2022-09-04 |website=Visit Hannibal |language=en-US}}</ref> Her parents were Irish Catholic immigrants John Tobin and Johanna (Collins) Tobin.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Harbold |first=Laura |date=May 2007 |title=BEYOND Unsinkable |url=https://www.neh.gov/humanities/2007/mayjune/feature/beyond-unsinkable |access-date=2022-07-23 |website=The National Endowment for the Humanities |language=en}}</ref>{{efn|Her father, John Tobin, was said to be an abolitionist who supported the [[Underground Railroad]]. According to Kelli Atter, director of the [[Molly Brown House|Molly Brown House Museum]], "the [Tobin] children grew up believing it was their civic duty to help Irish Catholics and African Americans, both highly marginalized groups at the time".<ref name=":0" /> According to the Molly Brown House Museum and the ''Molly Brown from Hannibal'' book, John Tobin was believed by family lore to be an abolitionist in Virginia and Underground Railroad supporter.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Malcomb |first=Andrea |date=2019-06-30 |title=Irish Diaspora and Colorado |url=https://mollybrown.org/irish-diaspora-and-colorado/ |access-date=2023-08-16 |website=Molly Brown House Museum |language=en-US}}</ref><ref name="Marks">{{Cite book |last1=Marks |first1=Ken |url=https://archive.org/details/mollybrownfromha0000mark/page/22/mode/2up?q=%22John+Tobin%22+%22Underground+Railroad%22 |title=Molly Brown from Hannibal, Missouri: Her Life in the Gilded Age |last2=Marks |first2=Lisa |date=2013 |publisher=Arcadia Publishing |isbn=978-1-61423-924-6 |language=en | pages=22, 35, 41 }}</ref> Irish immigrants were often supporters of the Underground Railroad in Virginia, which was a [[slave state]]. By 1860, Tobin lived in Hannibal, Missouri, which was a major "gateway to freedom" on the Underground Railroad. John Tobin served in the Union militia in Missouri, which was a slave state.<ref name="Marks" />}} Her siblings were Daniel Tobin, Michael Tobin, William Tobin, and Helen Tobin. Both of Margaret's parents had previously been married to other spouses who had died. Brown had two half-sisters: Catherine Bridget Tobin, by her father's first marriage, and Mary Ann Collins, by her mother's first marriage.<ref name="MO" /> Called Maggie by her family, she attended her maternal aunt Mary O'Leary's grammar school, which was across the street from her home. Nearby was also the Hannibal Gas Works where her father worked as a laborer. Their neighborhood was a tight-knit Irish Catholic community, where people traveled westward through the town for the gold fields.<ref name="Iversen" />{{rp|63}}

At age 18, Margaret relocated to [[Leadville, Colorado]], with her siblings Daniel Tobin, Mary Ann Collins Landrigan, and Mary Ann's husband John Landrigan. Margaret and her brother Daniel shared a two-room log cabin, and she found work sewing carpets and draperies at a dry goods store,<ref name="MO">{{cite web |last=Harper |first=Kimberly |title=Molly Brown (1867–1932) |url=https://historicmissourians.shsmo.org/molly-brown |access-date=July 23, 2022 |website=Historic Missourians |publisher=State Historical Society of Missouri |archive-date=July 23, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220723230822/https://historicmissourians.shsmo.org/molly-brown |url-status=dead }}</ref> Daniels, Fisher and Smith. Daniel was a miner.<ref name="DPL - MBrown papers">{{Cite web |title=Collection: Margaret "Molly" Tobin Brown Papers – Identifier WH53 – Microfilm Mflm175 |url=https://archives.denverlibrary.org/repositories/3/resources/8332 |access-date=2022-09-12 |website=Denver Public Library Archives, Western History and Genealogy}}</ref>