Brown was hired as a maid and cook by a family heading to the westward departure point of Leavenworth Kansas Territory.[2] From there Brown was hired by Colonel Benjamin Wadsworth in April 1859 to work on the wagon train as a cook for 26 men. It was a hot, difficult eight-week journey to Denver, Colorado, made more uncomfortable by the complaints of a southern man about a black woman traveling with them.[5] Brown is believed to be Colorado’s gold rush first African American woman.[3]