 Dallas
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August 15, 1886 MUCH TALK CONCERNING THE TRAGIC DEATH OF LOLA BROWN Special to The News Denison, Aug. 14 - The "war cry" has subsided to a great extent here in Denison, as the citizens put in their spare time talking over the suicide of yesterday, which is still fresh in their minds. One thing that seems very strange is that the Mayor cannot receive any word whatever from the young girl's mother at Carthage, Mo. Several telegrams have been sent to private parties but still no answer comes. Conductor Ben Brown, who is more or less connected with the affair, left this morning for his home in Parsons, Kans. It is claimed by his friends that he will return able to prove without a doubt that he was not to be blamed in the least for the tragic death of Miss Lola Brown. As no answer has been received it was thought that some of her people would come in on the 2 o'clock train, but there was no one. She was buried at the Oakwood Cemetery this evening, the citizens making a purse sufficient to defray all expenses.
The
Parsons Weekly Sun
A
TERRIBLE CASE OF SUICIDE
The citizens of this city were startled and astonished Saturday morning by the report that at noon on Friday a young girl named Lola Brown had shot and killed herself in the sleeping apartments at Denison, Texas, of Conductor Ben B. Brown, who the girl claimed had seduced her and was the cause of her death, and he had, therefore, been held by the authorities to explain what he knew about the dreadful affair and his train sent through to this place in charge of Conductor Darlington. As Conductor Brown and his estimable wife stand high in the social circles of this city, and as he is not only one of the oldest and most popular conductors on the Missouri Pacific, but a prominent citizen of this city, being a stockholder in the gas works and the owner of considerable other property, the report attracted the deepest interest, and every bit of news throwing light on the dreadful tragedy was eagerly sought for by everybody. The train men on Conductor Brown’s train were interviewed, and they confirmed the report, but could not give any particulars, and it was not until the arrival of Missouri Pacific passenger train No. 154 Saturday afternoon with Denison papers that the full particulars were obtained. Conductor Brown also returned here on that train, but he immediately went to his house and could not be seen. He looked pale and careworn, and his face indicated that he was deeply troubled. The particulars as gleaned from the Denison papers and other sources are about as follows: Lola Brown, a rather prepossessing looking young woman of about eighteen years of age had been for some time employed as a dining room girl in the eating house that runs at Eufaula, in the Indian Territory, by John Adams, formerly of this city, and Mrs. Adams noticing that the girl was in an interesting condition determined to discharge her. The girl confesses to Mrs. Adams and charged that Conductor Brown was a married man and would not marry her; it is said that the girl became wild and declared that she would kill Brown and then kill herself. Mrs. Adams gave the girl five dollars and on Thursday when Brown’s train passed Eufaula she boarded it to go to Denison. On arriving at that place she immediately went to Brown’s room in that city, while he went to the Southern Hotel, where he spent the night. The next morning Brown went to his room to make up his report and found her half dressed. While he was at work, she asked for writing material and wrote what afterwards proved to be four letters, one being to her mother at Carthage, Missouri; another to the wife of Conductor Brown in this city; another to Mrs. Adams at Eufaula, and a note to Mrs. Poff, of Denison, with whom she had stopped at one time. When Brown finished his report he got up and went out to get shaved and was gone about an hour. When he returned he found the door locked and after some investigation he became satisfied that something was wrong and effected an entrance into the room through a window and found the girl lying dead in a great pool of blood, with a bullet hole in her breast. Brown called the officers as quickly as possible and legal steps were at once taken to have the matter investigated. The coroner’s jury, after hearing all the evidence, Conductor Brown being among the witnesses examined, returned a verdict that “the deceased came to her death from a pistol shot fired by her own hand, the ball passing through her body,” and left the question of whether or not he was responsible for her death open, making no mention of his connection with the affair. Conductor Brown testified before the coroner’s inquest as follows: I know deceased, Lola Brown; she got on the train with me at Eufaula, Indian Territory. She had paid me $5, all she had. She asked me to take her to the Southern Hotel. I went to the hotel with her. She had no money. Then she said, “I am going to your room.” I objected to her going; it wouldn’t do. She said, “I will go.” I left her at my room at 4 o’clock. I arrived in Denison at 3:40. I left the room and met Al Hall, took a drink, talked together awhile, then went to the McDougall Hotel. Then got my breakfast, came up street, walked around until 8 o’clock, when I went to my room, where the deceased is now; found the lady lying on the bed asleep with her clothing on, except her shoes, which were off. She awoke when I went in. She got up; I said she could go to the depot, but she declined. I sat in my chair, making my out reports. She asked me for some paper to write a letter. I said, “Lola, if you will go home to your mother, I will send you home.” She first objected then said she would go home to Carthage, Mo. When she came to Denison about a month ago, her mother wrote to me and asked me to help her get a situation in a store, and in the letter her mother said, “God will bless you for helping an orphan.” After I finished my report we had a conversation. I told her I was going to get shaved; it was not far from 9 o’clock. I left; she remarked she “would take a nap, and would probably be gone when I returned.” I got shaved and hair cut; I was gone until 11 o’clock or near there. I went to my room, found it locked, pushed on the door, making a great deal of noise. Several gentlemen came out of the Y.M.C.A. room. I tried to kick the door in; then went to window on side and saw the lady lying on the bed. I spoke to her but she did not answer me. I climbed in the window and saw she was dead, with the pistol lying by the side of her. I went out and found Marshall Cutler at foot of stairs. We went up together. It was my pistol and in my valise; pistol now being in court with one chamber empty. The valise was locked. She broke into the valise. She didn’t know that I had a pistol, that I know of. A gentleman in the next room said he heard the pistol shot about ten minutes before I came up; this was about 11:30. My acquaintance with the lady dates back about three years ago, when she got on my train at Eufaula; there were two of them together. She asked me between Eufaula and Muskogee, “if, by telegraphing to Madame Lester, she could get transportation from Muskogee to Denison?” I talked to her then. She told me she had been married. I learned where she lived, the trouble the trouble she and her husband had had, and her mother taking her from her husband. She stated that she had run away from Carthage, Mo., with a gambler named Charles Brown. He had taken her to Kansas City. They remained about ten days there, and he ran away and left her there in a hotel without any money. She became acquainted with a lady stopping in the hotel, the name I have forgotten. This woman persuaded her to come here. I ask her “if she intended to go into Madame Lester’s?” I would like to state that the girl was quite young and innocent, and I asked her if she knew the kind of place she was going to. She said, “I do not,” but that the lady with her said she would be furnished board and clothes and allowed to make acquaintance of such gentlemen that she took a fancy to. I then asked the girl if she had a home. She said, “she did, and a good Christian mother.” Her father, she said, was dead; and also said, “her father wore a Maltese cross like the one I wear.” At that I told her what kind of a life she would have to lead. She commenced crying. I asked her if she was furnished an opportunity if she would go home. She said she would. Then I sent her to Carthage, Missouri. I wish now that I had the letter her mother wrote to me after doing this; the letter is lost, I suppose. I answered her letter. About six months after this the girl got on my train at Chetopa, Kansas, and told me she had come down on the previous train twelve hours before, and had stopped there hearing I would be on the next train. She then had a ticket to Vinita, and told me she had run away from home again, and that she was going to Denison to enter Madame Lester’s, and said the reason of her running away that her mother was going to put her in a convent, and said, “I was afraid if they put me there I would never get out.” Again I persuaded the girl to go home again and go to the convent, and that I would use my influence with her mother that she should come out at the end of her education. She got off at Vinita and went home; I know, because I received a letter from her mother, thanking me for my actions. About two months afterwards she or her mother sent me a paper. It was from a town near St. Louis. The paper stated that Mrs. M.A. Brown had taken her daughter Lola, to the Normal School at Danville, Ind. About six months after this I was reading the Police Gazette, and an article caught my eye in regard to a teacher ruining a girl at Danville Normal School; the paper fully stated that the teacher had seduced this girl, had taken her to a hotel and got her to take medicine to produce an abortion. It went on to state that the girl thought she was going to die. The Police Gazette stated the girl was Miss Lola Brown, of Carthage, Mo. The next I knew she was here. I don’t know where she was stopping; this was about one year ago. She came to me at Parsons; asked me to assist her to get home. I did so; I told her at the time I did not think it was any use. Since that time I received letters from her mother. The letters stated that Lola was at home, and had joined the church. I answered her mother’s letter, and often enclosed a short letter to the girl. I had previously written to the girl. These letters from her mother were of gratitude. About a month ago I received from her mother stating that Lola was in Denison; that she had come here with her consent; that some friends here had promised to get her a situation in a store; the next trip in I received a letter from the girl, stating that she was at Mrs. Poff’s, asking me to call and see her; she told me she wanted a position in a store, asking me to help her. I could not, I told her; was there about thirty minutes. She remained at Mrs. Poff’s about one month. She came to me about one week ago, at my room, one afternoon; stated that she was going to leave Mrs. Poff’s, as she had heard of her past life. Mrs. Poff objected to my coming up there. I told the girl that the landlord at Eufaula wanted some girls to wait on the table; I secured a position at Eufaula for her; she left, I think, on Monday. I went out on Sunday. Last night she got on my train at Eufaula and came to Denison. She is about eighteen. Her proper name is Leila Brown.  The following is the letter written by the dead girl to Mrs. Adams at Eufaula: Denison, Texas, Aug. 13, 1886 - Mrs. Adams, Eufaula, I.T. Kind Friend: It is with sorrowing heart that I write you these few lines, Mrs. Adams. Had I taken your advice I would have been much better off. I came down to Denison with him and he persuaded me to go to his room with him, which I did, and Mrs. Adams he took those letters away from me and burned them up; he is a dirty dog. Mrs. Adams, I told him how untrue you told me he had been and he said you were a liar. He said you were known in Parsons as a woman of gossip. Mrs. Adams I am very sorry I had to hear such a wicked man as him talk about a poor Christian woman in such a way, and I know you are. I am going home and do what is right. He said he wanted to put it on you folks to shield himself. I will write to you when I get home, and trust you will answer. Lela Brown The following is the letter written to the wife of Conductor Brown in this city: Denison, Tex., Aug 13th, 1886 – Mrs. Brown, I am very sorry to pen you these few lines and as they must reach your ear I feel it is my duty. Your husband, Ben Brown, has deceived and ruined my life. He has told me time and time he loved me dearer than his own life, and now he sees and knows it must come out, so he is trying to send me to hell. Mrs. Brown, I have been told you were a true Christian woman. If you are, you will forgive me and as we have never met on earth we may meet in heaven. I will tell you no more, the world may tell you, I cannot, but your husband is doomed forever. Lela Brown The letter written by the girl to her mother at Carthage, Missouri, is as follows: Denison, Tex, Aug 13, 1886 – My Dear Mother and Sister : As I am about to commit that cruel and wicked crime, suicide, I will bid you farewell forever in this world, but will meet you in the next., I am certain God does not hold me responsible. For my cause in doing this is Ben Brown. He has told me he loved me and has deceived. Oh, more than tongue can tell, and now he has come to the conclusion he is tired of me. I came to Denison with him, dear mother, last night from Eufaula, Indian Territory, and came where I shall be found in his room. I had some letters of his he had written to me. I showed some of them to Mrs. Adams, in Eufaula, and told her my sad story and I promised her I would go home if I could get the money from him to go on, but when I saw the man I loved and who claimed once to love me, my courage failed me and I could not resist his offer when he asked me to come to Denison with him and all would be well. I prefer death to a life of shame and sorrow and had rather go as I do than die in the street a low woman. I am a Christian girl as I could be owing to my circumstances. I will say who knows of Ben Brown and my friendship is Mrs. Poff of Denison, Texas and Mrs. Adams of Eufaula, Indian Territory. So hoping I will meet you in heaven, I am no more your child. Lela Brown Ma, my trunk and all of my clothes are in Eufaula at the depot. Get it and keep my things. Ask Ben Brown if he won’t bury me. Can he refuse when he looks at me? No he cannot. The note to Mrs. Poff, with whom the girl had stopped, is as follows: Mrs. Poff, May I stay at your house until someone comes to save my body, my mother or someone else? Lela Brown
The
suicide is said to have been a rather pretty, well developed young
woman,
having a mother, brother and sister at Carthage, Mo.
Her handwriting is also said to have been
pretty, and gave evidence of her being a young lady of education. After the coroner’s
inquest the body was
properly dressed for burial, and a telegram sent to her mother at
Carthage. The
friends and acquaintances
of Conductor Brown in this city are dumbfounded at his connection with
the
affair, and the hope is universal he will be able to clear himself of
the
charges which at present connect him with the terrible death of the
unfortunate
girl.
Denison,
Texas, Aug.
14. – Lela Brown, who committed suicide yesterday in Conductor Brown’s
room,
No. 124 Main street, applied to Mrs. Jos. R. Martin, of this city, on
the 19th
day of August, 1885, for work, saying that she had left home because
they were
about to force her to take the black veil in a convent.
Mrs. Martin, liking the girl’s appearance,
took her into her family, where she remained for about four weeks. Mrs. Martin had noticed
that for some time
she had appeared downhearted and dejected.
The night before leaving Mrs. Martin’s she made a
confident of her and
Mrs. Martin’s mother. She
told them that
about two years previous, while returning from Florida with her mother,
she met
Ben Brown, a conductor, who came into the sleeping car and sat down by
her and
commenced making love and before they reached their destination asked
her to
marry him, which she promised to do.
Her
mother forbade her to see him, but they frequently met clandestinely,
some of
which meetings were in his room at the hotel; that she thought him
single until
a few days previous
to her relating the above. She showed the ladies some letters, one of which was signed, “Your Loving Ben,” and written at some place in Mexico, in which he said he was there with his wife, who was in delicate health and could not live long, and that as soon as he was free he wanted to claim her (Lela) as his own. Another letter, dated the day previous to the revelation, state the train would be in at 2 o’clock and for her to meet him at the postoffice at 3. She said the letters were written by Ben Brown who had been her lover for two years. She represented that her uncle was postmaster at Carthage, Missouri, and that her sister worked in the office with him. When she left she promised to go home and let Brown alone. She went, however, to Mrs. Poff’s to live, and in a few days accompanied Mrs. Poff’s children to the circus. During the performance of the circus, she suddenly disappeared, no one knew whither. A few days after Mrs. Poff received a note from her, mailed at the Denison office, asking her to send her valise to her at Carthage; that she had met an acquaintance who was going to Carthage and had left very suddenly to go with him. This was the last seen of her until her appearance at Mrs. Poff’s as a visitor a few weeks ago. The following dispatch from Carthage, Missouri, the home of the unfortunate girl, gives something of the her history and life as known there: Carthage, Mo., Aug 14 – Mary Lela Brown, the young lady who suicide in Denison, Texas yesterday, was only seventeen years old, but had experienced an extraordinary amount of the ups and downs on the highway of life for one of that age. As the Globe-Democrat representative here and there, from responsible and professional gentlemen and from the public records, picked up threads in the narrative of her life, they gradually grew into a tangled and shapeless romance, wherein were brought out the beautiful and the ugly elements of feminine nature in strange and incomprehensible confusion. About four years ago, Mrs. Martha Brown, a widow lady, removed from Lebanon, Mo., to this city with her two daughters. The eldest was a young widow named Mrs. Belle Johnson, and she obtained a situation as money order clerk in the postoffice under Postmaster A.F. Lewis and since the appointment of George Blakeny, she still retains the position. The younger sister was Miss Mary Lela Brown, a girl of rare beauty. She was under the medium height, fair complexion, well rounded and symmetrical in form, black hair and dark brown eyes, over which her eyelashes drooped in a fascinating way. She was intelligent and accomplished, but always discontented, and said to have been crafty beyond her years. About three years ago a simple German youth, named Charles H. Bierbrauer, and possessed of considerable city property, fell a victim to her charms, and under the advice of her mother, she married him. In a few months her husband accused her of infidelity, with good grounds according to the general public opinion, and they separated. She then sued for divorce, and her husband also sued her for divorce. The same lawyer acted as attorney for both at first, until Prosecuting Attorney Haughawont interfered with this violation of the law and became counsel for Bierbauner. The divorce was granted Oct. 2, 1884, the woman getting most of the real estate. As to how and where Lela first went astray there are various opinions, and her own last statement, published yesterday, is the only light thrown upon the subject. After her divorce she went to Evansville, Ind., and attended school. While she was there Attorney Haughawont received an inquiry from an Evansville attorney as to who the girl was, adding that she had sued a young man there for seduction. Haughawont in reply forwarded a transcript of her divorce proceedings, showing the grounds. This proved a stunner, and while a warrant was being sworn out against her for blackmail she quietly departed and went to Denver, Col., and came from there to Joplin, where she was invariably overcome with humiliation whenever she saw a former acquaintance. In December last she left Joplin and came back to this city and shortly afterward made a profession of religion and joined the Christian church. From that time until her departure for Texas, about six weeks ago, she led a strictly moral life. The cause of her going to the home of her cousin in Denison is a mystery. All accounts agree that it was not by invitation of Conductor Ben Brown. At the time of the divorce suit Brown was in danger of losing his situation on account of charges that he was the cause of the separation, but he secured from her an affidavit exonerating him from all blame, and the Missouri Pacific Company retained him in its employ. Many people here express a firm belief that Brown was not the first to lead his fair cousin astray from the path of virtue. Mrs. Belle Johnson was interviewed today. She had little to say, and hoped the newspaper account of the affair would be made as short as possible. Her sister was weak-minded, she said, and a little wild. Lela did not go to Denison at Brown’s request. Her mother, Mrs. Martha Brown, left for Denison this morning. Quite a sensation was created here on receipt of the news of the suicide. Many are puzzled to account for her suicidal freak when her past tainted history is remembered, but the most plausible theory is that she was overcome with her old mortification at her evil doings to which was added this time a conscience rendered more tender by her conversion to Christianity last winter. The following special dispatch from Eufaula to the St. Louis Globe-Democrat details the circumstances of the girl’s employment there as a dining room girl and her departure from that place: Eufaula, I.T., Aug. 14 – A very important and missing link in the evidence connecting Conductor Ben Brown with the suicide of Lela Brown at Denison yesterday was a bundle of letters written by Brown to her at various times. That gentleman brought her to this place Tuesday, having secured for her a position in the Railroad Eating House here. Thursday the suspicion of the other dining room girls was aroused that there were some “irregularities” between Lela and Brown, and they demanded her dismissal or they would leave in a body. On being told this Miss Brown was greatly agitated. She produced a large bundle of letters from him. They were of the most damaging kind, several dozen of them making appointments with her, some signed your brother, some simply Ben and others had his name in full, Ben Brown. They contained many endearing phrases, telling how he loved her, etc., and were read by the other girls at the house, Miss Lettie Ferguson, Miss Lide Bollander and Miss Hattie Blivens. Miss Brown also stated that Ben Brown had offered her seventy-five dollars and then one hundred dollars for them, but she would never give them up, as it was all the evidence that she had to put her right in the world. She then declared if he got possession of them she would kill him and then herself, and as a precaution she did the letters up in one package and the envelopes in another, to mislead any one attempting to get them. Thursday evening a very tragic scene was enacted here by the two. Brown had denied all connection with the girl to the proprietor of the eating house, and the two meeting in the lunch room he asked her to corroborate his denial of the tale told by the latter, and to tell the truth. Raising her finger and speaking with deliberate and crushing emphasis, she said, “Do you want me to tell the real truth? You were the cause of my ruin. You passed yourself off to me as an unmarried man, and we lived in Denison as man and wife.” Much more was said, and Brown could make no reply. He represented to her concerning the letters that his brakeman, Ben Bodekin, wrote them, using his name, and that he also gave the girl his (Brown’s) picture, and many other articles. Besides the ladies above, several of his fellow conductors had seen damaging letters that proved Brown’s relations with the dead girl, and if other evidence is wanted any amount can be obtained. The affair is causing a great deal of talk throughout the territory, and that is by no means favorable to Brown. The Denison Journal of Monday prints an interview with the mother of the unfortunate girl. The Journal says Mrs. Brown is a nice looking old lady of about fifty years, with raven black hair and a sharp black eye, and talks in fluent, well-informed manner. When approached by the reporter she seemed in great trouble and would at times appear beside herself, but freely told all she knew in connection with the sad tragedy. Her story is as follows: “The girl’s right name is Leola Brown. She was eighteen years of age her last birthday. During her early life she was kept constantly at school. She was always a close student and her constant study finally brought her down to a severe spell of spinal meningitis. After recovering from this she has always been subject to spells when her mind seemed to be unbalanced and she at these times was almost entirely uncontrollable and would get mad at the least provocation. Shortly after recovering and when she was very little over fourteen years of age, she met a young man named Charley Bierbruner, who she shortly after married. They then lived together in Carthage for about a year, each seeming to think the world of the other. Bierbruner was a poor man, a carpenter by trade and Leola went to work and everything went on nicely until some of her neighbors told that she was too young to work and that they would not do as she did, until they got her to think as they did, when one day she turned up missing. It was afterward learned that she had gone to visit a cousin at Jacksonville, Florida. After being away a few months, she returned home and I went with her to Danville, Indiana, where I put her in school. The story of a teacher seducing her there is not so. I knew of the case; it was a Lottie Brown at some place in Illinois. I have seen Lottie Brown. After leaving Danville we went back to Carthage, Missouri. I never saw Ben Brown in my life. I received a few letters from him and wrote him some. He has sent Leola home three times. He always pretended to be a friend of her and me, as he was a Mason and so was my husband. About a year ago Leola came to Denison to visit the wife of James Poff, with whom she had been raised and was well acquainted. It was during that trip she became acquainted with Mrs. Poff and Miss Mary. During her stay here she worked for a while for a family named Martin. This spring Miss Mary Poff wrote for her to come to Denison and I allowed her to come. I also wrote Ben Brown at the time about it and told him to keep a watchful eye over her, as she was wayward. I had all confidence in Ben Brown, but he has proven false to the trust and has ruined my daughter. When I first heard Leola speak of him, she said that he was a single man. I thought that he was a single man. I never knew of Leola getting but one letter from him; that was a good friendly letter. I have not been sick lately, nor did I send any telegram to that effect. I cannot think who possibly sent a telegram of that kind. A number of people have informed me that they saw the telegram and that it stated that I was sick. I shall always think that Ben Brown sent the telegram to get her away from Mrs. Poff’s. I certainly do blame Brown and think that he is a villain of the deepest dye. I never said that he was a friend to the girl and I exonerated him. I said that he pretended to be a friend to the girl.” The Journal also makes the following mention of the funeral of the poor girl: “The remains of Leola Brown, the unfortunate young suicide, were laid to rest in Fairview cemetery at 8:30 Sunday morning. The hearse was procured and a number of carriages accompanied the remains to the cemetery. The mother, who arrived on the 1 a.m. train, took the matter very hard and was almost prostrated with grief and trouble. The deceased had been dead so long that it was considered best not to take the remains to Carthage, as had been intended.”  SUICIDE Susan Hawkins © 2024 If you find any of Grayson County TXGenWeb links inoperable, please send me a message. |