USA > Missouri > Encyclopedia of the history of Missouri, a compendium of history and biography for ready reference, Vol. I > Part 70
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which, with the aid of a memory singularly tenacious and accurate, enabled him in a time inconceivable short, to harmonize principle with precedent in the construction of argu- ments, persuasive, logical, conclusive. It seemed to one opposed to him for the first time that his indifference made him an easy antagonist, but no man ever emerged from such a controversy without feeling that upon every important point Colonel Broadhead was fully prepared and able to support his position with the clearest application of estab- lished principle, coupled with every precedent which the history of the law could supply.
"It can not be said that Colonel Broadhead was versatile in the law; he had not in such marked degree as some other great lawyers the faculty of special fitness in numerous de- partments of the practice ; yet in no branch of the law, however different from those which he specifically preferred, did he ever show unfitness. The intellectual superiority which made him great in some negatived the pos- sibility of weakness in any. His preference and the trend of his mental activity was in the direction of the more profound legal ques- tions, such as constitutional law. His famil- iarity with the history of jurisprudence and the philosophy which underlies and perme- ates that greatest of all sciences, specially qualified him for the solution of those broad- er questions involved in the construction of the written charters of the States and the nation. In the famous case of the late cor- poration of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, these qualities appeared in special prominence. In this case he held a brief for the Mormon Church, which was contending against the attempt of the United States to invade the property rights of a re- ligious corporation by escheating its lands to the government. His argument in this case rises to heights rarely equaled in the profes- sion and stamps him as a constitutional law- yer of surpassing ability. An incident which occurred in the argument of that case before the Supreme Court of the United States illus- trates both the power of his argument and the esteem in which he was held by that tribunal. In the course of the argument this colloquy occurred : The Court: 'Conceding that that part of the statute is valid which declares this corporation called "The Church of Latter-Day Saints" is dissolved, what do you say becomes of it?' Mr. Broadhead:
'That is the question I am undertaking to discuss.' The Court: 'You are stating these leading authorities. I would like to know what your view is; where are you coming to? What do you say?'
"We believe there can be no higher en- comium given to a member of our profession than that the highest court of the land, in a case involving so great a question, should place itself upon record as desiring, in addi- tion to leading authorities, the individual opinion of counsel on the vital issue of the case.
"In the famous express cases the question involved was one as to the obligation of com- mon carriers. The issues were most im- portant and far-reaching in their scope; the controversy bitter. Among his opponents were such men as Senator Edmunds, Mr. Seward and ex-Justice Campbell, but in the final hearing before the Supreme Court of the United States, which was concluded by Colonel Broadhead in an argument of nearly two days' duration, he exhibited a grasp of the issues, a convincing power which carried the day and added another to his long list of forensic successes. It was his own opinion and that of many others, that, considering the commanding ability of his adversaries, and the fact that several members of the court had on the circuit expressed views opposed to his contention, his victory in this case was the greatest triumph of his professional life.
"It is undoubtedly true that much of his professional success was due to the fact that every tribunal before which he appeared be- came immediately impressed with his perfect candor and honesty. His face, his manner, his whole bearing throughout the case, carried a conviction of his single-minded purpose to present the issueswith absolute fairness ; that he came before the court with profound con- victions, and with the intention of perform- ing the most exalted function of the lawyer by aiding the court in sifting out the very truth and justice of the matter in dispute.
"The public career of Colonel Broadhead was characterized throughout by the highest qualities of patriotic citizenship. He came of a stock which had borne arms in defense of liberty in the Revolutionary War, and in the War of 1812, and he imbibed in his youth and early manhood the spirit which actuated the fathers of the republic. While too young to have had any personal intercourse with Jef-
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ferson, he was reared in a locality where the best qualities of that great man had im- pressed themselves upon the thought and conduct of all those with whom he came in contact. He grew to manhood in an atmos- phere created by eminent statesmen and per- meated by a love of country, a patriotic devo- tion to public duty, and a full recognition of the obligation which rests upon the citizen to give his services for the public good. His personal acquaintance and relations with Mr. Madison served to foster still further these virtues, and thus one of the most prominent characteristics of his life was the unques- tioned readiness with which he devoted him- self to the solution of every public question of magnitude, and the intrepid courage with which he labored throughout his whole life for the right, as he conceived it. at whatever cost to himself. In the great national crisis of 1861, he was eminent in his strenuous ad- vocacy of the Union at any cost.
"His argument before the convention which met in this city in 1861, in support of the right of the Federal government to call out the State militia for the purpose of sup- pressing insurrection, was as able as it was courageous, and his administration of the difficult and delicate duties of provost mar- shal was marked by a fidelity to duty, and yet a kindliness which signalized the patriotism of the citizen while it gave earnest of the gen- tleness of his nature; so that whilst perform- ing a task under circumstances where harsh- ness was almost a necessity. he retained the affectionate regard of those against whom he was obliged to enforce the severe penal- ties imposed by the Federal government. His services in the State Convention, which established the provisional government in 1861, were notable. The situation was most difficult. The State government was in con- fusion ; the people were divided in sentiment and sympathy on the great question of the day : intense bitterness, partisan rancor and violence were universal. With a great patience, an unwearying tolerance of the opinions of others, and with an eye single to the patriotic purpose of preserving the Union, he labored in season and out of sea- son, giving unsparingly of his time, his tal- ents and his means till at length order suc- ceeded anarchy and perfect success rewarded lis devotion.
"The war being over, he was one of those
who believed that amnesty. was not a mere word; he threw away the sword and strove mightily to restore to his former adversaries the civil rights and privileges of which par- tisan bitterness had deprived him.
"In the Forty-eighth Congress, as a mem- ber of the judiciary committee, he gave to National Legislation the same able and con- scientious service, which was the habit of his life. He impressed himself upon his asso- ciates as a man devoid of any purpose save that only of an upright, zealous discharge of duty. In great measure he contributed to the correct solution of the weighty questions which came before that body.
"In the Constitutional Conventions of 1845 and 1875 Colonel Broadhead's talents were of great value. As in the interpretation of organic law lay his greatest power, so in the creation of those great charters his special ability shone forth. In the grave questions which came before those conventions his voice was ever for conservatism and the strictest application of the great principles which underlie our form of government ; and his arguments were replete with illustrations drawn from the wise utterances of the found- ers of the nation when they passed through that unknown and troubled sea which lay be- tween them and the institution of our re- public. The spirit of fairness which ever per- vaded his mind and his devotion to the in- terests of the State of his adoption aided in great measure, if it did not control, the limi- tations imposed by those instruments on the aggressions of corporate interests against the rights of the people, and the unwise and illiberal efforts of those who would have in- peded the progress of the State by enact- ments restricting the rewards which are justly due to capital honestly invested. His breadth of view, his full comprehension of the operation of economic laws, his thorough understanding of the genius of the people, their needs, their weakness and their strength. his candor, his known integrity and his high professional standing, gave him a weight in these councils and a power for good which have been of incalculable benefit to this State.
"His last appearance in political life was in the memorable campaign of 1896. Though it pained him deeply to sever his connection with his old political associates, he did not hesitate to follow his convictions and identify
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himself with the National Democratic party, in whose convention at Indianapolis he was one of the most prominent figures. While some may not agree with his conclusions, his disinterested advocacy of what he believed to be right must challenge the admiration of all.
"The personal characteristics of Colonel Broadhead were such as to merit special notice. There was in him a simplicity, an utter absence of guile, such as is rarely seen in one whose life has been spent in legal and public controversies, and who has been in touch with affairs so many and so varied. With a noble disdain of the meannesses of life he combined a tolerance of the errors and weaknesses of others which made him a con- stant target for the designing and an ever ready help to the unfortunate. It seemed impossible for him to deny any appeal from the distressed, irrespective of the merit of the application. Indifferent to the glitter of wealth and the allurements of power, he gave freely, too freely, indeed, of his earnings, and died comparatively a poor man. Ostentation was impossible to him, and his modest appre- ciation of his own ability, his repugnance to asserting any claim for reward for his own public services, were notable qualities of the man in a day when the rule is so conspicu- ously otherwise. Though undemonstrative in manner, any man who had ever known him carried throughout life affectionate rement- brances either of some kindness done or some assurance, which needed no spoken word, that no appeal to him would ever go unanswered. His controversies engendered no rancor ; the elevation of his character and his unquestioned sincerity carried assurance to every opponent, however sharp the con- test, that the man had no quarrel save with wrong, that the battle was one of intellect and wholly above the plane of personal animos- ity. He accepted his defeats, which were few, with an equal mind, and with the feeling that the tribunal which decided against him might have erred in judgment but was in- capable of wrongdoing ; and he bore his tri- umphs, which were many, without undue ela- tion and in such spirit of modesty and with such kindly consideration as left no sting in the bosom of his adversary.
"Colonel Broadhead possessed a rare and discriminating taste in literature and his mind was stored with the beauties of the English classics. His legal arguments and public ad-
dresses are full of evidences of this ; for while the chief merits of his style are simplicity and perspicuousness. the irresistible eloquence of facts, yet it abounds with illustrations of a high order of literary learning and skill.
"It is impossible to sum up in a few words a character and career such as this. If we say that his nature was at once simple, sin- cere, dignified, noble and lovable ; that as law- yer he deservedly ranked as high as any at the bar of this State, possessed of some qual- ities excelling any of his contemporaries, and of a professional stature surpassed by few in the nation; that as a public man he was a polemic and a statesman of the foremost order ; and that as a citizen he was one of the purest patriots in our history, we should still fall short of completeness ; for there was that about him which can not be pictured in words ; an indefinable personal quality which affected all who knew him with unbounded confidence in his character and capacity, and united him to all with whom he came in con- tact with ties of enduring affection and esteem. And to this must be added that he was of a type, now unfortunately too rare, which realizes the highest duty of our profes- sion ; the type which accepts and executes the trusts imposed upon the lawyer by the re- quirements of civilization-that he shall frame the organic law of the land, aid in its administration ; treasure the wise precedents of the past for guidance in the future, evolve and shape the polity of the republic, and give freely of his time and his skill to the con- servation of her institutions; the type of Hamilton, Henry, Marshall; the men who laid the foundations of the commonwealth, and the emulation of whose virtues will alone perpetuate her greatness."
Broekett, Charles A., conspicuously identified with the development of Kansas City, and founder of one of its most import- ant manufacturing enterprises, was born No- vember 16, 1844, at North Haven, New Haven County, Connecticut. His parents were George W. and Eliza Augusta (Barnes) Brockett, both natives of Connecticut. On the paternal side he was descended from John Brockett, son of Sir John Brocket, (as the name formerly appeared). of Hertford- shire County, England. For the sake of his religious views John Brockett relinquished his heirship to the patrimonial estates, and emi-
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grated to America, sailing in the good ship "Hector," in company with the eminent Rev. Mr. Davenport and others, in 1638. After touching at Boston, the company landed in Connecticut, and founded the New Haven colony, John Brockett being among those who assented to the original covenant of the planters. He was a practical surveyor, and at their appointment he laid out the orig- inal nine squares of the town of New Haven in 1641. In 1660 he surveyed the lands and established the lines between the New Haven and Connecticut colonies. In 1665 he laid out Elizabethtown, New Jersey, and then re- turned to New Haven. His descendants were useful citizens, filling honorable places in life, and to the seventh generation were reared in the same neighborhood, now known as Montowese, at the lower part of North Haven. Charles A. Brockett, brought up on his father's farm, was educated in near-by public and private schools. His studies werc interrupted by the Civil War, in which he en- gaged with patriotic enthusiasm. At the outbreak, when he was little more than seven- teen years of age, he enlisted in the Fifteenth Regiment Connecticut Infantry Volunteers. With this command, he took part in the cam- paign under General Burnside in Virginia, including the Battle of Fredericksburg, and participated in the operations in North Caro- lina, including the engagements at Newbern, Kinston, Edenton Road, Plymouth and Lit- tle Washington, and the siege of Suffolk, Vir- ginia. For a time he performed duty in the office of provost marshal at Newbern, North Carolina. Soon after the war had ended, he engaged in the hydraulic cement businessand the manufacture of cement pipe in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. From 1871 to 1873, at Wood- bridge, Connecticut, he was senior member of the firm of Brockett & Newton, operating the William A. Clark Match Works, the old- cst match factory in the United States, estab- lished in 1834. In 1873 he took up his resi- dence in Kansas City, Missouri, and organ- ized the C. A. Brockett Cement Company, now the oldest company in this line of bus- iness in the city, of which he has been pres- ident for many years past. In 1880 the com- pany purchased the Fort Scott Cement Works, at Fort Scott, Kansas, and greatly increased their capacity. The hydraulic cement produced by these works, unsurpas- sable in quality and uniformity, enters into
the construction of the most important edi- fices in Kansas City and in the surrounding region. Among the many buildings in which it has been used are the old and the new United States customhouse and postoffice, the city hall, the courthouse, the Exchange Building, the manual training school, the public library, the workhouse, the Midland Hotel, the Coates House, the Baltimore Hotel,and numerous church and office build- ings, all in Kansas City; the State capitol at Topeka, Kansas; and the courthouse at Fort Worth, Texas. The cement has also been used in the river bridges at Jefferson City and at Sioux City, and in many other great bridges in the Southwest; in track construction by the Metropolitan Street Railway Company, at Kansas City; and by various railways centering there. As per- sonal manager of this extensive business. Mr. Brockett has habitually displayed the qualities of an accomplished business man, whether in office affairs or in the direction of practical operations, and to his effort is primarily due the great magnitude of the important industry with which his name is connected. During his entire residence in Kansas City, he has also given active assist- ance to various enterprises of a semi-public nature, and his influence has been felt in every progressive movement. He has been a member of the Commercial Club and of the Manufacturers' Association from their organ- ization, and he has borne a full share in all their effort for the advancement of the city. He is a member of the order of the Sons of the American Revolution, of the Grand Army of the Republic, a Knight Templar, and a Noble of the order of the Mystic Shrine. In politics he is a Republican, and in religion an Episcopalian. Mr. Brockett was married in IS71 to Mrs. Henrietta Mccutcheon, long deceased ; she was a sister of the Honorable Robert W. Mackey, then State Treasurer of Pennsylvania. A son born of this marriage, on the day preceding the death of Mr. Mackey, was named for him; he is now con- nected with the C. A. Brockett Cement Com- pany. Howard Mccutcheon, secretary of the company, is a son of the late Mrs. Brockett by her former marriage. In ISSS Mr. Brockett was married to Miss Hattic Barnes, daughter of Marcus Barnes, of New Haven, Connecticut. A son, Donald, has been born of this marriage. During the
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summer of 1900 Mr.'and Mrs. Brockett vis- ited Great Britain, and were honored guests at Brocket Hall, the ancestral mansion of the Brockett family, near Hatfield, in Hertford- shire County, England. The stately pile was crected about one hundred and fifty years ago, on the original foundations of the first structure, and the estate comprises four thousand acres of the richest and most pic- turesque field and woodland in England. The present owner is the Earl of Cowper, and the mansion is occupied by Lord Mount Stephens.
Brockmeyer, Henry C., lawyer, leg- islator, publicist and author, was born near Minden, Prussia, August 12, 1828, and left his home at the age of sixteen to seek his fortune in America, reaching our shores in an emigrant ship, penniless, friendless and un- able to understand the English language. By dint of hard work in an humble capacity he got money enough to make his way west- ward, and finally, when twenty years old, ar- rived in St. Louis. For two months he was employed in the tannery of John How. Afterward he went to Memphis, Tennessee, and to Columbus, Mississippi. where lie worked at the same trade until he accumu- lated means to attend Georgetown College, Kentucky, and subsequently Brown Univer- sity, at Providence, Rhode Island, taking advantage of vacations to provide means to pursue his studies in preparation for a pro- fessional life, all the time relying upon his own exertions in the battle against "iron for- tune." In 1854 he returned to Missouri. From boyhood he had been a lover of nature, and of "communion with her visible forms." To him, indeed, she spoke "a various lan- guage." With his books and gun he made himself a rude home in the woods of Warren County, where for nearly three years he led the life of a recluse, his only companion be- ing his faithful dog. It was not that he loved man less, but nature inore, that he thus se- cluded hiniself, while deepening the founda- tion of that philosophic knowledge which has so comforted him in after life, and been the source of so much enjoyment to others. He acquainted himself with the habits of animals and birds, the musical and the tuneless in- habitants of the forest, with the secrets of verdure and leaf, with the royal arcanum of "God's first temples." This study was varied
by thoughtful investigation into the science of human government in all its forms. And so those hiermit years were passed until other objects began to claim attention. Returning to St. Louis, young Brockmeyer obtained employment in the "Excelsior Stove Works" of Giles F. Filley, and afterward with Bridge, Beach & Co. He then tried farming in War- ren County, and, the Civil War breaking out. enrolled himself in the militia, and was elected captain of a company. Later he was com- missioned as lieutenant colonel and author- ized to raise a regiment. This he did within a period of three weeks. The regiment peti- tioned Colonel Gamble to give Brockmeyer a colonelcy. Both muster roll and petition were declined, and a few days thereafter the surprised suspect was thrown into Gratiot Street Prison by order of General Morrill, whose headquarters were at Warrenton. An investigation of the facts showed there were no grounds for this proceeding, and he was released. The people of Warren County vindicated "Colonel" Brockmeyer, as he continued to be called, by electing him by a large majority as a Union Democrat to the next Legislature, in 1862. During the ses- sion lie acted with the war Democrats, and voted for Samuel T. Glover for United States Senator. At the close of his term he re- moved to St. Louis and began the practice of law. In 1866 he was elected alderman, and in 1870 State Senator. He was chairman of the committee on judiciary of the latter body for two years, and served a like term as chairman of the committee on ways and means. He was a member of the Constitu- tional Convention of 1875, and served as chairman of the committee on legislative de- partment. During the whole of his repre- sentative career Colonel Brockmeyer exhib- ited a thorough and detailed knowledge of prevailing systems of taxation and revenue, internal improvements, public institutions, education, and, indeed, the whole range of political economy. He is the author of the restrictions placed by the constitution of 1875 upon expenditures in excess of a certain per- centage of the revenues, whereby a sinking fund was established for the extinguishing of the public debt, and of many others of the features making that instrument a model of its kind. In 1876 Colonel Brockmeyer was the Democratic candidate for Lieutenant Governor on the ticket with John S. Phelps,
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thereby becoming president of the State Sen- ate, and appointing the working committees. He has been repeatedly solicited to re-enter public life as a member of Congress, but since 1879 has declined all participation in political affairs, except as a voter; but for many years he was active in politics as a speaker throughout Missouri, and in other States, and as a participant in State and national Democratic conventions. Literary pursuits have engrossed him mostly.
Bronaugh .- A village in Vernon Conn- ty, on the Nevada & Minden branch of the Missouri Pacific Railway, sixteen miles southwest of Nevada, the county seat. It has a public school; a church occupied by Cumberland Presbyterians and Southern Methodists; and lodges of Masons, United Workmen, Modern Woodmen and Good Templars. It is a large shipping point for cattle and hogs. In 1899 the population was 200. It was platted in 1886 by the Bronaugh Town Company, and named for W. C. Bronaugh, owner of the land.
Bronson, Ira Thomas, physician and surgeon, and supreme medical examiner of the Royal Tribe of Joseph, was born in Watertown, New York, July 21, 1840, son of Dr. Jonathan and Lucinda (Countryman) Bronson. His father, who was also a prac- ticing physician, was a native of New Hamp- shire, and an ardent abolitionist and prohi- bitionist. The latter's father was born in Connecticut and descended from Scotch and English ancestors who came to New England in the early Colonial days. Dr. Jonathan Bronson died in 1889 at the age of seventy- seven years. When the subject of this sketch was six years okl he accompanied his par- ents to his father's old home in New Hamp- shire-Landaff, Grafton County-where his common school education was begun. In September, 1861, when the Civil War was in progress, after having been debarred from enlistment in the Union Army twice by rea- son of physical disability, he joined the Fifth New Hampshire Volunteer Infantry as a bugler, and with that command went to the front. The regiment was assigned to the Army of the Potomac, and at its first great battle, that of Fair Oaks. Virginia. June 1, 1862, he slung his bugle over his shoulder, possessed himself of a gun and until the close
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