Brinton welcomed the workers and their families into her home, where she taught them how to read, sew, and perform other valuable skills.

In Milwaukee, Brinton organized neighbors’ relief efforts after the Great Chicago Fire 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.

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.

[1] Beulah 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 Beulah Brinton house contains an archive of antiques in the home, including dresses, hats, photos, and paintings from the 1870s.