Brown – My Family History

Virginia Brown Murray

Education & Employment: 1929-1965

Virginia Murray, 1937 — Virginia Brown, 1937

I was influenced to write this post about my mother at this time by the upcoming college graduation of my great-niece, which will be a virtual commencement due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Although it has been 83 years since my mother graduated from college, it struck me that both she and my niece chose teaching careers, graduated with NY State teacher certification, experienced a pandemic, and had their graduation experiences altered by grave societal events. While my niece has her future career to experience, I wanted to understand my mother’s experience in regard to career and employment.

As I pieced together relevant events from her life, it became clear that social context greatly impacted her success. Ultimately, her various efforts to gain employment were thwarted by three factors: the Great Depression, World War II, and the dominance of traditional sex roles. This story describes her efforts and the end results.

Virginia Pauline Brown was born on July 22, 1917 in Ogdensburg, NY.[1] The influenza pandemic raged in her young life from January 1918 through December 1920. Just a month shy of her twelfth birthday, on June 23, 1929, she received her elementary diploma from Holy Family School in Watertown, NY.[2] A few months later, in August of 1929, the US stock market crashed, ushering in the Great Depression.

Mary Ellen Watson (1855-1899)

Family tree drawn by Virginia Brown Murray

I first learned the name of my great-grandmother, Mary Ellen Watson (1855-1899), from a family tree drawn by my mother, Virginia Brown Murray. She wrote “Watson” in parentheses, with a question mark above. She also wrote “Pembroke” below her name, perhaps as a reference to where Mary was born.

The Parish Register for St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Ogdensburg, New York records the marriage of Mary Watson and my great-grandfather, Patrick Brown (1839-1901), on 7 August 1884. Mary was about 29 and Patrick was about 45.

Mary Watson was a Protestant and a dispensation was granted to allow, Patrick, a Catholic, to marry Mary in the Catholic Church. The dispensation is noted in the parish register by the priest who performed the marriage. (I note that the priest recorded the letter “S” prior to Mary’s name. I’m not certain what that means.)

Continue reading “Mary Ellen Watson (1855-1899)”

Teaching Jobs & Women

I think my mother, Virginia (Brown) Murray (1917-1982), would have loved to know and talk with her grandchildren. I am thinking of one of her grandchildren in particular who today is leaving one high school, in which she taught business courses and coached girls’ soccer, for a position in another high school. She never knew my mother, who was also a teacher.

In contrast to my successful niece, my mother was not successful in getting a permanent teaching position as a mathematics teacher when she graduated from college in 1937. The country was still amidst the Great Depression, jobs were scarce, and math teachers tended to coach boys’ athletics.

From family reports, it seems she would have preferred to work and earn money rather than attend college in 1933. Continue reading “Teaching Jobs & Women”

Old Newspapers Reveal Surprise

I guess having ingested some silly childhood myth that went “no one in our family (except for Uncle Eddie) has ever been divorced” explains why I was surprised to find the following news about my great aunt, Mary Brown, reported in 1924 and 1935 in The Ostego Farmer.

Background

Mary Brown (1888-1976) married Pearly Hanlon in 1907. They had 2 children: Doris and William Hanlon. She was buried in a plot with her two children in Mt. Calvary Cemetery in Oneonta, NY. The name on her gravestone is Mary B. Norwood. I assumed Pearly Hanlon had died prior to Mary’s marriage to Mr. Norwood. Au contraire! Continue reading “Old Newspapers Reveal Surprise”

Patrick Brown 1841-1901

To the best of my knowledge, Patrick was born in Murraugh Parish, County Cork, Ireland in February of 1841. He immigrated to the United States about 1851, along with his parents, James Brown and Johannah Murphy, as well as his sister, Ellen, and his three brothers, John, Michael, and James. The 1860 US Federal Census indicates that Patrick, his parents, and his sister Ellen could neither read nor write.

Patrick was 43 when he married Mary Watson in 1884 at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Ogdensburg, New York. Mary died at home from Typhoid fever in 1899 at age 44. Tragically, Patrick died two years later at age 60. Continue reading “Patrick Brown 1841-1901”