Beulah Brinton (1836–1928) was an American social worker who opened her

Milwaukee, Wisconsin Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at th ...

home to the families of Bay View’s immigrant rolling mill workers in the 1870s. Her teaching of reading, music, English, cooking, and sewing to the iron men’s children and wives and occasional service as midwife predated the celebrated work of settlement houses in London and New York. Recalled as “perhaps the outstanding woman of Bay View’s history” and the “real literary leader of the early community,” Brinton pursued community-building efforts that transcended ordinary neighborliness, prompted by an expansive religious faith and sense of duty to “her fellow men.”Kursch, Daisy Estes. “Beulah Brinton of Bay View,” Milwaukee History, vol. 10, no. 2 (1987): p. 38-46. Korn, Bernhard C. The story of Bay View. Milwaukee: Milwaukee County Historical Society, 1980, p. 108-110.

Early life and marriage

She was born in New York in 1836 as Bulah Tobey, at a time when spelling was more fluid than it would become. In 1854 Beulah married Connecticut native Warren Brinton, a millwright whose work took the couple from New England to Missouri’s iron district and steel mills on the

Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the mid-east region of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. There are five lakes ...

. The couple’s five children were born in Vermont, Missouri, and Michigan.“Beulah Brinton, Aged 92, Dies,” Milwaukee Journal, March 19, 1928, p. 13. Before coming to Milwaukee, the Brintons lived in

Wyandotte, Michigan Wyandotte ( ) is a city in Wayne County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 25,058 at the 2020 census. Wyandotte is located in southeastern Michigan, approximately south of Detroit on the Detroit River, and it is part of the coll ...

, site of the Eureka Iron & Steel Works, established in 1853 by Beulah’s cousin

Eber Brock Ward Eber Brock Ward (December 25, 1811 – January 2, 1875) was an American industrialist, iron and steel manufacturer, and shipbuilder. Ward invested in several industries in Michigan and the Midwest. He started as an owner of steamship interest ...

. A former Great Lakes ship captain, Ward had incorporated the Milwaukee Iron Company in 1867.Detroit News - E.B. Ward obituary January 2, 1875
published by ''The New York Times'' January 5, 1875. Warren served the Milwaukee works for two decades as weighmaster, timekeeper, and paymaster.

Milwaukee community outreach

In Milwaukee, Brinton organized neighbors’ relief efforts after the

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of October 1871 and sought in 1886 to reconcile all parties in the wake of May’s National Guard shootings of a group agitating for the 8-hour workday.“Social Center Honors Woman,” Milwaukee Journal, August 3, 1924, p. 48.Gurda, John. “Brinton: still a role model years later,” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, October 7, 2012, p. 74. A lending library that Brinton started outgrew her parlor, moved to a room at the rolling mill, then a neighborhood school, and became the nucleus of Milwaukee’s first branch library. She helped organize the Bay View Literary Society, which frequently met in Puddlers Hall, a union hall on Saint Clair Street. The family’s time in Missouri was recalled in 'Man is Love', Beulah’s somber Civil War novel, published by Lippincott in 1874. She later published a book of mystical poems, 'Behold the Woman', while editing a village newspaper, The Bay View Herald. She popularized tennis in the 1880s, having a court laid out on her house’s side lot. A basket of rackets on the back porch was available for whoever wished to play. Beulah once led local children to claim an empty lot for a neighborhood park. That plot is now part of South Shore Park, through which South Shore Drive – originally called Beulah Avenue – winds. Beulah also preached at her Methodist church and served on its mission board and was an officer of a local Republican women’s committee. After her husband’s death in 1895, Brinton retired to Chicago, living with her son Warren Junior, an

International Harvester The International Harvester Company (often abbreviated by IHC, IH, or simply International ( colloq.)) was an American manufacturer of agricultural and construction equipment, automobiles, commercial trucks, lawn and garden products, household e ...

executive whose manufacturing career had begun in the Bay View mill. Brinton returned to her old home in 1926 to live with the family of her granddaughter Mabel Pickard and Ray Estes and died there in 1928. The Brinton house now serves as headquarters of the

Bay View Historical Society The Bay View Historical Society was established in 1979 to preserve the character and heritage of the neighborhood of Bay View in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Description Incorporated in 1879, the working class village of Bay View was later annexed ...

Legacy

When a neighborhood community center opened in 1924 in a former firehouse on Saint Clair Street, it was considered a direct continuation of her home service and named for her. Brinton came from Chicago to speak at its dedication; a proclamation for the event and a portrait of Brinton grace the lobby of a newer Beulah Brinton Center on Bay Street. in Milwaukee County is also named after Brinton.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brinton, Beulah People from Milwaukee 1830s births 1928 deaths American social workers People from Jay, New York American midwives