Kansas
Brown Museum
In 1972 the Historical Society purchased the Brown Mansion,
a three-story, 16-room home erected around the turn of the
century by W.P. Brown. Violet Brown Kohler, his daughter,
stipulated that the Mansion be available to the public so
they opened guided tours in 1973. The furnishings in the
home are not reproductions but are the furnishings belonging
to the family.
W.P. Brown built the three-story 16-room Mansion at a wholesale
cost of $125,000, completing it in 1906. The main floor
includes a living room (called the "hall"), parlor,
music room, library, conservatory, dining room, billiard
room, entry, kitchen, and maid's quarters. Five bedrooms
and three full baths are on the second floor.
The entire third floor is a ballroom which
served as a schoolroom and gymnasium for Brown's son. A
full basement houses the butler's quarters, the laundry,
heating system, walk-in ice box, wine cellar, and other
storage rooms.
To escape a difficult relationship with his
father, W.P. Brown left home at the age of 14. He met his
lovely wife-to-be Nancy from Ohio. She was petite, only
4’11” when she married W.P. Brown and moved
to Kansas to start a lumber business. They had two sons
who died in infancy; one buried in Independence Kansas and
the second son buried in Coffeyville, Kansas.
William was born in 1899 and died November 11, 1911, from
complications of diabetes. He died one month before his
12th birthday. The only child who lived in the mansion was
William. His parents buried him in Coffeyville, Kansas.
Their son, Donald died at age four. Violet was their only
child who lived to adulthood.
Despite their tragedies, the gods smiled on
them several years later, Brown smelled natural gas outside
his company’s building and, six months later, he discovered
one of the largest natural gas wells in the country. Brown
went on to found the Coffeyville Mining and Gas Company
and owned several other businesses in the area.
Violet Elizabeth Brown was born in 1885 in Port Washington,
Ohio, shortly before her parents moved to Coffeyville. She
married at the age of 19, to a man from the Wichita Eagle
family. The marriage didn’t last long after their
one and only child, a son died.
Violet was what today people would call an independent woman;
she traveled the world, had a second marriage and divorce,
and went to college. Her second husband was an heir to Kohler
Plumbing. When they divorced Violet kept his name and moved
to Ponca City, Oklahoma to become a librarian. In the mid
1930's she moved back to Coffeyville to take care of her
ill parents. When they died, they left the mansion to Violet.
Some believe she was not the only occupant of the mansion
at the time.
The depression devastated the family fortune and in 1970,
in ill health, Violet sold the mansion to the Coffeyville
Historical Society for use as a museum. She moved into a
Nursing Home in Independence, Kansas. Violet lived there
till her death on November 16, 1973, at the age of 88 years
old.
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