Libbie Beach Brown

Libbie Belle Beach was born in Livingston County, Illinois, March 11, 1858. Family members were educators. Her parents, Freedus Poe Beach (1827-1912) and Nancy (née, Lewis) (1828-1903), were known as leaders in reform movements. Libbie had several siblings including Mary, Marcia, Carrie, Lavaun, and Clifford.

Brown was educated in a seminary.

Brown entered the teacher's profession, performing this work for five years before her marriage, in Champaign, Illinois in 1883,{{efn|According to Willard & Livermore (1893), Libbie's first marriage occurred in 1882.}} to Ernest B. Hoel. In one year, she was a wife, a mother, and a childless widow.

File:Home for the Friendless, Lincoln (Semi-Centennial History of Nebraska, 1904).png

She took up the teacher's vocation again, until 1890, when she accepted the position of superintendent of the Home for the Friendless, in Lincoln, Nebraska. She was sent by the Governor of Nebraska as a delegate to the National Conference of Charities and Correction held in Indianapolis, Indiana in May 1891, and went as a delegate to the same convention held in Denver, Colorado in June 1892. The press of the State praised her as a business manager. She served as the Home's superintendent for six years.{{cite news |title=People you know |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/314013340/?terms=%22Libbie%20Beach%20Hoel%22&match=1 |access-date=22 November 2023 |work=Nebraska State Journal |via=Newspapers.com |date=4 Oct 1895 |page=6 |language=en}} {{Source-attribution}}

On October 3, 1895, at Trinity Methodist Episcopalian Church in Lincoln, Nebraska, she married Rev. Harrison D. Brown (1846-1940).{{cite news |title=City in Brief |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/65904604/?terms=Libbie%20Beach%20Hoel&match=1 |access-date=22 November 2023 |work=Lincoln Journal Star |via=Newspapers.com |date=4 October 1895 |page=5 |language=en}} {{Source-attribution}} For many years, he served the Methodist churches in Nebraska. After the nuptials, the couple removed to Portland, Oregon where Rev. Brown accepted the position of superintendent for Oregon and Washington of the children's home finding society.

File:Washington Children's Home orphanage, Seattle (CURTIS 1635).jpeg

File:Lebanon Home, ca 1920 (MOHAI 1096).jpg

Rev. and Mrs. Brown removed to Seattle, Washington in 1896 and founded the organization that became the largest nonprofit child welfare agency in the state of Washington: the Children's Home Society of Washington.{{cite news |last1=Merryman |first1=Kathleen |title=Homes with a heart |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/739738306/?terms=%22Libbie%20Beach%20Hoel%22&match=1 |access-date=22 November 2023 |work=The News Tribune |via=Newspapers.com |date=18 September 1996 |page=45 |language=en}}{{cite web |title=Our History |url=https://www.childrenshomesociety.org/history |website=Children's Home Society of Washington |access-date=22 November 2023}} It served institutions such as the Lebanon Home for Girls where in one year, girls from 17 nations received assistance. Some of them had children and they, too, were cared for.{{cite news |title=Community Fund Will Help These Girls |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/932933926/?terms=Libbie%20Brown&match=1 |access-date=22 November 2023 |work=Seattle Union Record |via=Newspapers.com |date=24 October 1921 |page=10 |language=en}} {{Source-attribution}} She also served as president of Seattle's City Federation of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (W.C.T.U.).{{cite news |title=Noted Japanese Woman Honored With Reception |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/932924319/?terms=Libbie%20Brown&match=1 |access-date=22 November 2023 |work=Seattle Union Record |via=Newspapers.com |date=17 August 1920 |page=7 |language=en}} {{Source-attribution}}

She was a musician, and for years made music a large part of her life-work. As a singer, she excelled.

On August 9, 1924, a Seattle newspaper reported that Brown was seriously ill.{{cite news |title=W.C.T.U. Head Ill, Picnic Is Postponed |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/932985814/?terms=Libbie%20Brown&match=1 |access-date=22 November 2023 |work=Seattle Union Record |via=Newspapers.com |date=9 August 1924 |page=19 |language=en}} {{Source-attribution}} Libbie Beach Brown died at her home in Seattle, August 28, 1924.{{cite web |title=Libbie Belle Beach Female 11 March 1858 – 28 August 1924 |url=https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/LCRH-FSV|website=www.familysearch.org |access-date=22 November 2023}} Burial was at Lake View Cemetery.{{cite news |title=Mrs. Brown's Funeral |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/seattle-union-record-obit-libbie-beach/135609461/ |access-date=22 November 2023 |work=Seattle Union Record |via=Newspapers.com |date=29 August 1924 |page=7 |language=en}} {{Source-attribution}}

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{{reflist|30em}}

• {{wikisource-inline|Woman of the Century/Libbie Beach Hoel}}
• [https://www.newspapers.com/article/lincoln-nebraska-state-journal-report-h/135609271/ Report, Free-Home For The Friendless, May 1892, submitted by Superintendent Libbie B. Hoel]

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Category:1858 births

Category:1924 deaths

Category:Wikipedia articles incorporating text from A Woman of the Century

Category:People from Livingston County, Illinois

Category:Philanthropists from Illinois

Category:Temperance activists from Washington (state)

Category:Activists from Seattle

Category:Woman's Christian Temperance Union people

Category:Burials at Lake View Cemetery (Seattle)