Brown, Margaret

Margaret Brown (b.1900)

Keene, NH

Twenty-year old Margaret Brown first arrived in the United States on August 11, 1920.  A single woman of color, Brown was originally from Jamaica but had been living in Camaguey, Cuba, at the time of her immigration.  According to the USS Munamar’s manifest, Margaret traveled from Cuba to New York City and was enroute to Keene, New Hampshire, thanks to a relationship she had with a white woman named Mrs. Emily Ashley.   Margaret’s occupation was listed on the document as servant.

Emily and John Ashley were residents of Keene for a short time in the 1910s.  John Ashley worked as an auditor for the Cuba Railroad Company and often traveled between New Hampshire and Camaguay, Cuba.  During the 1910s, the Railroad Company was contracted to transport sugar, molasses, manganese, and hardwoods to other parts of Cuba and its allies.

Margaret Brown may have come to southwest New Hampshire for domestic work.  No other documentation has been discovered to tie her to the area; she may not have stayed long.

New York, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820-1957 for Margaret Brown

GENEALOGY

MARGARET BROWN was born in Jamaica in 1900.

SOURCE MATERIALS

New York, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1920— ancestry.com