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Clara Brown, US-American pioneer and philanthropist (public domain), Wikimedia Commons.
Clara Brown

Clara Brown

By Colorado Public Radio Staff
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When Clara Brown gained freedom from slavery in Virginia, she immediately went in search for her husband and children. She heard one daughter was out west, so Clara walked 700 miles and ended up in Central City in 1859. With her laundry service for miners and domestic work, she saved an astonishing ten thousand dollars and then invested in mining claims, which put her in very good financial shape. Clara opened her home to the sick, injured and homeless of all races and religions, and traveled to Kansas to persuade black people to move to Colorado for jobs vacated by mining strikes and supported their new neighborhoods. They called her “Aunt” Clara Brown, who, at the age of 80, finally reunited with her long-lost daughter.

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Colorado Postcards are snapshots of our colorful state in sound. They give brief insights into our people and places, our flora and fauna, and our past and present, from every corner of Colorado. See more postcards.

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