Margaretta Mason Brown

Margaretta Mason was born in New York City on November 12, 1772.  She was the daughter of Reverend John Mason, a prominent Scotch Presbyterian minister, and Catherine Van Wyck, who came from a prominent Dutch family.  Margaretta had two siblings, a sister, Euphemia Helen Mason, and John Mitchell Mason, who later became a minister in their father's church.  Margaretta was raised in a very strict religious atmosphere, and she carried her strong Presbyterian faith with her through life.  She was well educated, studying with Isabella Graham, one of the most note female educators of the 18th century.  Margaretta spoke French and, judging by her library, could read Italian.

Margaretta Mason met John Brown in 1798, introduced by mutual friends in New York.  At the time John was 40 and Margaretta only 25.  They were engaged shortly after meeting, and were married on February 19, 1799.  At the time of Margaretta and John's marriage, the family home in Frankfort was incomplete, and the couple stayed in boardinghouses near the U.S. Capitol, first in Philadelphia and then in Washington.  It was during their time in Philadelphia that Margaretta gave birth to her first son, Mason, on November 10, 1799.  It was not until the spring of 1801, when Margaretta was expecting the couple's second child, that the family moved to Liberty Hall in Frankfort.  Shortly after their arrival, on September 26, 1801, Orlando was born.  John Brown left Frankfort shortly after his son's birth, returning to the Senate in Washington.

With John gone, it was left to Margaretta to manage the completion of Liberty Hall and see to its decoration and furnishing.  In spite of the "frontier" nature of Frankfort in the early 19th century, Margaretta furnished the home according to the latest styles, and entertained as though she were still in New York or Philadelphia.  Liberty Hall became a cultural and social center in Kentucky.  Margaretta and John hosted grand parties in their ballroom, and Margaretta welcomed every traveling preacher to stay in the guest bedroom.

While managing the operations of Liberty Hall, Margaretta Mason Brown continued to have children.  In February 1803, Margaretta gave birth to her third son, Alfred.  Sadly, Alfred died less than one year later, in January 1804.  Her fourth son, also named Alfred, was born in May 1804; he died three months later.  The losses affected Margaretta deeply, and Margaretta suffered a depression until the birth of her daughter, Euphemia Helen, on May 14, 1807.  On October 1, 1814, Euphemia fell ill with a fever, and as a result of over-zealous dosing with Calomel (mercury chloride), a common cure-all of the time, she died.  Margaretta and John both withdrew from society after their daughter's death.

Among Margaretta's pursuits during the times of family tragedy, was the establishment of a Sunday School in Frankfort.  According, to A History of The First Presbyterian Church in Frankfort, Kentucky, in "1810, Rev. Michael Arthur, a Scotch Presbyterian minister, was induced to come to Frankfort to open a school for boys....Shortly after opening the school, at the earnest solicitation of Mrs. Brown, Mr. Arthur gathered the boys together also on the Sabbath day, and spent an hour teaching them the Scriptures..."  After Mr. Arthur departed, "the instructions were maintained by Mrs. Brown, Mrs. Elizabeth Love, Mrs. Berkley and Miss Humphreys, and in March 1819, a school was organized for girls only.  Mrs. Margaretta Brown was chosen superintendent....The school was held for the most part in the "big room" of the Love House, but occasionally in the home of Mrs. Brown."  Margaretta also authored hymns and a Bible dictionary, and religious tracts including Food for Lambs, Brown's Catechism, and Exemplifications of the Golden Rule.

Margaretta traveled frequently during her life, and even made four return trips to New York after her marriage, despite the difficulty and length of such trips.  One such trip was made in 1811; she took Euphemia and Mason with her, but left Orlando in Frankfort with his father.  A letter from Orlando during that time expresses his sadness at missing his mother, but also how well the family is eating while she is gone.  Margaretta makes her final trip to New York in 1836, when she travels there to shop for the decor and furnishings for her son Orlando's new home.  Among the items she purchased during that trip a piano made by Stodart Company.  The piano, which cost $300.00, is on display in the back parlor of the Orlando Brown House.

Margaretta Brown was an outspoken opponent of slavery, though she and John kept slaves at Liberty Hall.  Raised in New York, where slavery was out of fashion (though not illegal), Margaretta expressed an "aversion to wealth purchased by the sufferings of their creatures."  Margaretta accepted, however, that slavery was the norm in Kentucky, and approved of keeping only as many slaves "as were necessary for our personal accommodation."  Margaretta educated the enslaved children at Liberty Hall, even calling Mary Stepney, the daughter of enslaved couple Hannah and Miles Stepney, "her greatest scholar."  Undoubtedly her feelings regarding the institution of slavery influenced John Brown's decision to free the children of Hannah and Miles Stepney in his will.

In 1826, much of the joy that had been lost in Margaretta's life with the death of Euphemia was returned with the birth of her first grandchild, Benjamin Gratz Brown, the child of her eldest son, Mason, and his wife, Judith Bledsoe.  When Judith died a year later, Margaretta raised Gratz, until his father's remarriage in 1835.

Margaretta lived with her husband John at Liberty Hall until his death in 1837.  She followed her husband in death just one year later, on May 28, 1838, at the age of 65.  Her apparent cause of death was a stroke or an aneurysm.  She was buried in the family plot until 1847 when her sons moved the family plot to the new Frankfort Cemetery they helped develop. Margaretta Mason Brown is buried alongside her husband and children at the Frankfort Cemetery.