The story of J.J. Brown accidentally burning his money after Molly hid it in the stove didn't really happen. It was made up by a Denver journalist after Molly Brown became a hero on the Titanic. When asked by her daughter why she didn't refute the false story, Molly Brown supposedly replied, "It's better that they write something about me than nothing." (Kathy Bates, as Molly Brown, repeats the story in James Cameron's Titanic (1997).) Molly Brown is also said to have reported the story with a slightly different ending. Molly did hide money in the potbelly stove in their Leadville cabin, and Johnny unknowingly started a fire on a particularly cold night. That's in keeping with the other version, but the end of the story, as told by Molly and reported in newspapers interviews during her lift, was a little different. Her addition was "Just think if it had been paper money!" The "money" was gold and silver coin which melted and melted to the stove. Miners didn't trust paper money in those years. The stove had to be broken apart and resmelted to separate the iron, gold and silver.