miners a few years later. It became the country's largest supplier of beet sugar by 1978. Personal life Brown married Margaret Tobin on September 1, 1886, in Leadville's Annunciation Church. They first settled in Leadville, Colorado but moved closer to the mines on Iron Hill in the rugged Stumpftown (now a ghost town). After the birth of their son, the Browns moved back into Leadville, living at 320 Ninth Street and then 322 Seventh Street. As Brown became more successful, the family enjoyed the life of the upper middle class and sent their children to school in Paris. In 1894, the Browns moved to Denver, Colorado, buying a $30,000 Victorian mansion in Denver's wealthy Capitol Hill neighborhood. In 1897, they built a summer mansion Avoca Lodge in Southwest Denver, near Bear Creek. The couple enjoyed the opera and theatre and Brown was a member of the Denver Athletic Club and the Denver Country Club. Margaret was later known as The Unsinkable Molly Brown, having survived of the sinking of the RMS Titanic in 1912. Children The Browns had two children: Lawrence Palmer "Larry" Brown (August 30, 1887 – April 2, 1949) was born in Hannibal, Missouri. Larry married Eileen Elizabeth Horton in 1911 in Kansas City, Missouri. They had two children, Lawrence Palmer "Pat" Brown Jr. and Elizabeth "Betty" Brown. The marriage failed and Larry married actress Mildred Gregory in 1926. Larry studied at the Colorado School of Mines, worked in the mining trade, and took over his father's interests after his death. Catherine Ellen "Helen" Brown (July 22, 1889 – September 18, 1970) was born in Leadville, Colorado. She married George Joseph Peter Adelheid Benziger (1877–1970) on April 7, 1913 in Chicago, Illinois, with whom she bore two sons, James George Benziger (1914–1995) and George Peter Joseph Adelrich Benziger (1917–1985). Catherine Ellen Brown (Helen) died in Jackson County, Illinois. They raised three of their nieces: Grace, Florence, and Helen Tobin. There were other nieces and nephews who lived with the Browns occasionally. Separation In 1909, Brown and his wife signed a separation agreement. The couple were both Catholic and they never divorced. The agreement gave Margaret a cash settlement and possession of the Victorian mansion on Pennsylvania Street in Denver's Wealthy Capital Hill neighborhood, and also the summer mansion Avoca Lodge in Southwest Denver, near Bear Creek. She also received a $700 monthly allowance (equivalent to $19,066 today) to