USA > Pennsylvania > Delaware County > A history of Delaware County, Pennsylvania, and its people; Volume III > Part 54
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The personality of Mr. Broomall was a most charming one. Endowed with rare womanly tenderness, this served simply to temper the firmness and determination of his character. The poor and afflicted ever found in him a sympathising and helpful friend, and the children who loved him and whom he loved were legion. He consistently opposed the punishment of children, holding that to try to train them by mere physical supremacy was to make cowards of them, and would inevitably lead them to opposition to all authority as they grew older and stronger. He had been disowned by the Society of Friends because his first marriage was "out of meeting." However, he never bore enmity toward that sect, was a constant attendant at their meetings, and was a frequent speaker at their Providence Meeting in Media. Yet he al- ways refrained from again becoming a formal member. One reason of his legal and political successes was the power he possessed of clear, analytical reasoning. His language was simple, yet eloquent ; his vocabulary particularly rich, yet he preferred to use the vigorous and trenchant words of the Bible and Shakespeare, rather than more fanciful expressions. Music and poetry were a constant source of delight to him, and his memory for poetry was one to be marvelled at. Schools, public libraries, young men's associations, all received his sympathy and assistance, and in the cause of higher education he was ever on the side of what was best and noblest.
William Booth Broomall, the well known lawyer of Chester, BROOMALL Delaware county, Pennsylvania, is the eldest son of Hon. John Martin Broomall, in whose sketch will be found the ancestral history of the family. He was born in the house still standing at the corner of Market Square and Third street, January 30. 1843, and when he was two years of age he was taken to the farm which had been purchased by his
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fatlier in Upper Chichester, near the present Boothwyn. At a suitable age he became a pupil in the school of Joseph Taylor, which was conducted in the second story of the Penn building, Market Square. Subsequently he was placed under the private tuition of James G. Riddle, to gain the necessary knowledge of the classics and higher mathematics, and he generally prepared for entrance to college. He matriculated at Haverford College in Septem- Ler, 1856, and was graduated from that institution in July, 1861. In the meantime his father had removed to Media, and there in the office of his father he commenced the study of law. Among his fellow students at law were : Hon. James Barton Jr., and Hon. John B. Hinkson, both of whom later be- came mayor of Chester, and both of whom were lifelong friends.
At the age of nineteen years Mr. Broomall enlisted in Company D, Cap- tain Norris L. Yarnall, 124th Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, and was mustered into the service of the United States with the rank of sergeant, August 11, 1862. On September 16, after a day's hard marching, and having been without food for almost twenty-four hours, the regiment was ordered to take part in the battle of Antietam, and from daylight until three o'clock of the following afternoon, held its position. There were a number of changes as these hours passed by, and they lost and regained the .am? ground several times. The regiment was thrown to the front in the terrible battle of Chancellorsville, when the Eleventh Corps became panic- stricken. For five hours they held the confederate veterans in check, until, being outflanked, they were compelled to retire. Mr. Broomall was actively identified with his regiment until he was honorably discharged at Harrisburg, May 9, 1863, at which time he had not long passed his twentieth birthday.
Returning to the office of Broomall & Ward in Chester, Mr. Broomall re- sumed his reading of the law, and this was continued without further interrup- tion until his admission to the bar of Delaware county, February 28, 1864. For a period of three years he remained as an assistant in the office in which he had gained his legal knowledge, then decided upon establishing himself. In January, 1867. he became associated in a partnership with Hon. William Ward and David M. Johnson, but at the end of one year Mr. Johnson withdrew and the firm b came Ward & Broomall until 1878. when Mr. Broomall resigned from it. Up to this time he had rarely appeared in court as a pleader of cases, confining his services to the counseling line, but his fame as a careful and exact advocate of the law spread rapidly. and he was soon acknowledged as the lead- ing spirit of the bar.
From the time that Mr. Broomall commenced to practice law indepen- dently of others, there have been very few important cases involving large amounts in which he was not engaged. In 1889, after the Union Railway Company was authorized to lay tracks on designated streets, the Chester Street Railway Company sought to restrain them from the use of the streets, but so ably were the facts and the law presented by Mr. Broomall, that the court sustained his contention. The Union Railway Company purchased the equip- ment of the other company, miles of tracks were laid, and the present magni- ficent railway system inaugurated. In the case of the Swarthmore and Morton Railway against the Chester Traction Company, Mr. Broomall was also success- ful. Unlike his father, Mr. Broomall very rarely appeared in a criminal case. In the few in which he did appear, they created a widespread attention. One of these was the Pfitzenmeyer homicide case, in 1891, when a woman was on trial for the murder of her sister. and where Mr. Broomall introduced the neck of the murdered woman in court in order to prove the fallacy of the conten- tions of the prosecution. The jury acquitted the prisoner after a deliberation
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Relax D Manley
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lasting but a few minutes. In 1892 Mr. Broomall was the leading counsel in the William Brown homicide case, where, during a strike at the Standard Steel Works, one of the strikers, while attempting to intimidate other worknien, was killed. The accused parties were acquitted. In numerous other cases Mr. Broomall has been equally successful in proving his points, and is con- sidered as one of the ablest lawyers in the entire state. A considerable por- tion of the leisure time of Mr. Broomall has been given to historical investi- gation, and he has written many interesting papers on this subject. Two of these, which were read before the Delaware County Historical Society, were: William Lewis, an old time leader at the Pennsylvania bar, and William Ward. These are valuable contributions and welcome ones, to the annals of the state. For at least a quarter of a century he has been a member of Chester Lodge, No. 236, Free and Accepted Masons, and has served in it as master. For many years he has been deputy grand master, representing the grand lodge in Delaware and Chester counties. He has been presiding officer of the Penn Club since its organization in 1896. Since 1874 he has visited Europe three times, and his travels in the United States, Mexico and Canada have been ex- tensive and profitable.
Mr. Broomall married, October 17, 1876, Anna M., daughter of Joseph Engle and Anna ( Black) Hinkson. It is a rather curious fact that the mar- riage took place in the house in which Mr. Broomall was born, this having passed through various hands in the meantime. To his friends Mr. Broomall is regarded as a man of high instincts and warm heart, of gracious and courtly hospitality, a lover of music and art, and a man of quick and ready wit. Pro- fessionally he is recognized as a keen student of human nature, a man of in- sight and force of character. He is a man of wide reading and sound judg- ment, and his opinions carry weight in the legal world, because of their peculiar clearness of expression, which renders them easy of comprehension by the lay mind.
The Manleys of Media, Pennsylvania, are allied to the De
MANLEY Haven family of Philadelphia, and to the Maddocks, an early English family. They trace in Delaware county to Thomas Manley, a farmer, who at various times cultivated large farms in Chester, Middletown and Newtown.
Benjamin Manley, son of Thomas Manley, was born in Delaware county, Pennsylvania, became a farmer and a mechanic, living his entire life in his native county. He married a Miss De Haven of the De Havens of the Schuyl- kill, a family yet prominent in Philadelphia.
Charles D. Manley, son of Benjamin Manley, was born in Radnor town- ship. Chester county, Pennsylvania, December 19, 1805, died on his birthday, December 19, 1880. He attended the public schools, also was a student in two private schools, acquiring a fair English education. Before reaching his eighteenth birthday he began teaching in Chester, Pennsylvania, continuing with much success as an educator for four years-during that period saving from his earnings a few hundred dollars and obtaining by private study a knowledge of the rudiments of law. He was a hard worker and his health failing he abandoned teaching, accepted a clerical position in the Bank of Delaware County, located at Chester. After sixteen months he resigned to be- come junior partner of the mercantile firm of Eyre & Manley, continuing in business four years. He then sold out and returned to his original ambition, the law. He first studied under Peter Hill Engle, finishing his legal study under E. Darlington and was admitted to the Delaware county bar in 1848.
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He practiced in Chester until 1851, then moved to Media, then just established as a town. He continued there in practice until his death, winning the respect of his brethren of the bar and of the public as a capable conscientious lawyer. He was a lifelong Democrat and in 1855 was elected to the state legislature. In 1856 he was a delegate to the national convention at Cincinnati, and in 1858 was the candidate of his party for congress, but was defeated by John Hinch- man, an Independent. He was twice elected a member of Media town council and was always ready to aid any movement looking to the advancement of his town. He was a member of the Protestant Episcopal church, vestryman of St. Paul's Church, while residing in Chester, and always manifested deep concern in all religious and moral subjects. He was a member of the Masonic order, believing in and practicing the tenets of that ancient institution. Genial, gener- ous and kind-hearted. he attracted all men to him and retained a host of warm friends until his death. He was particularly strong in debate, had a well stored mind and from his wide reading gleaned a store of facts that his quick and retentive memory quickly brought to his aid to the discomfiture of his opponent. Yet he was never aggressive, but would stoutly maintain his political, religious and legal opinions.
He married Margaret Worrell, born in Delaware county, died there and is buried in the cemetery of St. David's Church at Radnor. Children: 1. Mary M., married John Cuming, whom she survives. 2. Henry De Haven, graduate of the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, class of 1860, a class- mate of Admiral Winfield Schley: he served during the civil war and attained the rank of commander, but a defect in hearing prevented further promotion ; he retired in 1882: died November 19, 1893. 3. Charles, now a resident of Media. 4. Horace R., see forward.
Horace R. Manley, youngest son of Charles D. and Margaret (Worrell) Manley, was born in Media, Pennsylvania, May 4, 1849. He began his educa- tion in the public schools of Rev. James A. Dale, a Presbyterian minister of Media, then passed to the private school of James W. Baker, later county superintendent of a public institution. After finishing at these schools, Mr. Manley clerked in a Media mercantile house for two and a half years, then began the study of law under the wise guidance of his father, continuing until the death of the latter. The settlement of the estate then developed upon him and he never resumed legal study or applied for admission to the bar. He, however, does conveyancing and a large amount of business of that nature, settling estates and administering trusts, as well as transacting a large real estate business in Media and elsewhere. Mr. Manley is a lifelong Republican and following the example of his father has been active in local politics since his fifteenth year. He was chairman of the Democratic county committee for several years, and in 1883 was appointed quarantine master of the city of Phila- delphia by Governor William E. Pattison, serving four years. He is a member of the Masonic order ; was one of the original members of the Rose Tree Coun- try Club, and is a vestryman of the Episcopal church, of which both he and his wife are members.
Mr. Manley married, in February, 1889, Ella T., daughter of Oliver Strickland, of Media, now deceased. a veteran of the civil war. Both children of Mr. and Mrs. Manley died in infancy.
Mr. Manley has spent his entire life of sixty-four years in Media and has fairly earned the respect and confidence of that community. His character above reproach is reënforced bv a genial and companionable nature that attracts men who always remain his friends. He has lived a useful, honorable life that is hut little past its prime.
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McKENNA A product of Philadelphia schools and colleges, Dr. John A. McKenna, in the services he has rendered the city in his con- nection with the Medico-Chirurgical College and as a physi- cian practicing in the city and vicinity, has brought to the place of his birth a reflected credit by his rise to a position of eminence and responsibility in the medical and surgical world. Nor is that the only field in which he has become known to Philadelphians, for as a reporter and correspondent of the Public Ledger, one of the oldest of the city's journals, he first came into the public eye, although it is in that profession that his father gained his greatest fame. But a more connected account of Jolin A. McKenna and his forbears follows.
County Derry, Ireland, is the locality that was the early home of the Mc- Kenna family, Grandfather McKenna having large holdings of land in that county, near Meagliera. His wife was a sister of the distinguished surgeon of Edinburgh, Davis Mooney, bearing the same relation to Dr. Daniel Mooney, also of Edinburgh, and to Rev. Dr. Patrick Mooney, rector of Saint Audien's Church, in Dublin. One of the sons of Grandfather McKenna, Daniel A., held the rank of lieutenant in the United States navy, and from 1863 to 1869 was assistant to the commandant of the Philadelphia navy yard.
John J., father of John A. McKenna, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsyl- vania. June 18, 1846. He attended the schools of the city, discontinuing his studies to enter the retail coal business, and at one time was the owner of two coal yards in the southern section of the city. In 1872 he entered the journal- istic field, for ten years being identified with the Philadelphia Inquirer, and for twenty years was a member of the editorial staff of the Public Ledger. The last eight years of his service with this last named periodical was passed in the capacity of city editor, and the reputation of the Public Ledger is full assur- ance that one commanding that high position upon its staff must be indeed a journalist of fine discriminatory powers and of exceptional ability. From 1902 until 1904 he was associate editor of City and State, published in Philadelphia, and after severing his connection with that publication he accepted a position as general manager and publisher of the Newark, New Jersey, Advertiser. his standing as a newspaper man of unusual executive ability and great organizing power having spread abroad. This he held during 1905-06, in the latter year announcing his retirement from journalistic work and all other activities, and since then has contracted no business connections. He married, in Philadelphia, October 2, 1872, Mary E., born in Philadelphia, July 13, 1850, daughter of Captain James P. and Ellen (Leary) Lindsay. Captain James P. Lindsay was a son of Michael and Julia Lindsay, natives of Wicklow, county Wicklow, Ireland. Wicklow is a seaport of Ireland, and from this city Michael Lindsay entered upon a seafaring life, subsequently becoming a shipmaster, his trade being a thriving one with the Orient in the latter years of the eighteenth cen- tury. His son, Cantain James P. Lindsay, was born in Wicklow, Ireland, April 27. 1821, died in Philadelphia, in 1908, aged eighty-six years. As a boy he was fond of the sea, shipping as cabin boy when he was too young to discharge the duties of an able seaman. In later life he became captain of several sailing ves- sels, a mariner of the old type, and circumnavigated the globe many times. at one time as captain of the famous clipper. "John Trucks," of Philadelphia. When the civil war broke out he entered the service of the United States navy and was master of the steam sloop "Pawnee," being engaged at the battle of Port Royal, South Carolina, in 1862, in which conflict he was wounded. After the war he was in command of several vessels touching at South American ports in pursuit of the coffee trade. being so employed until his appointment as harbor master of the port of Philadelphia by Governor Pattison, a position
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for which he was eminently fitted by reason of his long experience as a mariner. Upon the expiration of his term in the municipal service he was offered a posi- tion in the United States mint in Philadelphia, which he accepted and held until his retirement. He married, in Philadelphia, in 1849, Ellen Leary. Children : Mary E., Julia J., Margaret A., James P. Jr., and Teresa. Mary E. Lindsay, wife of John J. McKenna, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, July 15, 1850, and attended the public schools of her native city, completing her educa- tion in Ireland, where she studied for two years. She accompanied her father upon one of his trips around the world, the ship in which she sailed being the clipper, "John Trucks," and after her return to Philadelphia was married from her father's old home at Third and Christian streets, a locality at that time occupied by seafaring men.
John A., son of John J. and Mary E. (Lindsay ) McKenna, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, June 21, 1875. In his youth he attended the public schools of the city and as a lad of seventeen years became a member of the reportorial staff of the Philadelphia Public Ledger, working on local assign- ments and later traveling as the correspondent of that paper. For four years he was connected with newspaper work, at the end of that time entering the Medico-Chirurgical College, of Philadelphia, an ambition that he had long cherished being realized when he received his degree from that institution in May, 1897. He was for one year retained as resident surgeon of the hospital connected with his alma mater, joining the army during the Spanish-American war as an acting assistant surgeon, being stationed at Camp Alger, Virginia, until the conclusion of hostilities. He was assigned to the Second Division, First Army Corps, and during June, July and August, 1898, was in charge of the typhoid cases at that encampment, numerous malignant cases appearing among the soldiers which were successfully combated by Dr. McKenna and his assistants. After the war he went abroad and took a course in surgery at a famous institution in Berlin, Germany, and upon his return home became associated with the Medico-Chirurgical Hospital, of which at the present time he is assistant surgeon and the chief of the surgical clinic. In addition to the manifold duties of these positions he is an instructor in the Medico-Chirurgical College, giving a course of lectures upon surgery. There is little that tran- spires in his profession that Dr. McKenna does not absorb, and so far is he from being content with his extraordinarily wide training in surgical and med- ical matters that in the past ten years he has made no less than half a dozen trips to the medical centers of Europe. Despite the fact that his professional connections are a severe drain upon both his time and strength, Dr. McKenna does not use this as an excuse to avoid the duties incumbent upon good citizen- ship, and as a Republican has for ten years been a member of the Lansdowne borough council, at present being chairman of the highway committee and the active head of the good roads movement in Lansdowne. It was recently his pleasure, after strenuous efforts to bring the same to pass, to personally super- vise the construction of ten miles of improved streets in Lansdowne, which have added greatly to the attractiveness and beauty of that suburb. He is a director of the Delaware County Building Association, and is a member of the Republican Club, the fire company, the Borough Improvement Association, and the Union Athletic Association, all of Lansdowne. His church is Saint Philomena's Roman Catholic, of Lansdowne, and he is past grand knight of De La Salle Council, No. 590, of Lansdowne, Knights of Columbus, of which he was an organizer, also belonging to the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick, of Philadelphia. As a means of keeping in touch with all developments in his
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profession he holds membership in the Philadelphia Medical Society and the Pennsylvania and American medical associations.
Dr. McKenna married, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, April 18, 1900, Emily A., born in Philadelphia, in 1877, daughter of Thomas A. Lynch, of Philadelphia, the well known builder of municipal and governmental buildings, who was a member of the engineer corps during the civil war. They are the parents of two children-Ernest, aged thirteen years, and Eleanor, aged six years.
This is the life record, far from completed, of John A. McKenna. Son of a man of accomplished talents, he inherited no mean share thereof, and has so used his education and training that their fruits have been of benefit to many, while in their just exercise and in the results he has achieved he has found a splendid reward.
Joseph S. Keller, president and manager of the Pratt Food
KELLER Company, of Philadelphia, with which he has been actively identified for more than a quarter of a century, is justly num- bered among the honored and leading citizens of Philadelphia. His is a com- mendable record, furnishing an example of the wise application of sound prin- ciples and safe conservatism. He is a man of strong business force and sound judgment, as well as resourceful ability, and his efforts have met with the success they merit.
Francis Keller, father of Joseph S. Keller, was a native of Switzerland, from which country he emigrated in boyhood to the United States, locating in the outskirts of West Philadelphia, where he resided for many years, removing later to Upper Darby township, Delaware county, Pennsylvania, where he pur- chased a fine property, which he cultivated and improved, devoting the active years of his life to farming, and his death occurred there in 1897. He was a man of worth and influence in the community, respected and esteemed by all with whom he was brought in contact. He married Catherine Laudenslager, a native of Baden Baden, Germany, daughter of Jacob Laudenslager, who emi- grated from his native land, Germany, to the United States, settling in Phila- delphia, Pennsylvania, where he spent the greater part of his life retired from active business pursuits. Mrs. Keller died in 1909. They were the parents of two children : Joseph S., of whom further; Frank, born 1861, now living re- tired in Upper Darby township, unmarried.
Joseph S. Keller was born in the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, July 4, 1853. He attended the public schools and later a business college, thus acquiring a practical education. About the year 1876 he engaged in the flour and grain business at Thirty-ninth and Market streets, Philadelphia, in which he continued for many years, achieving a large degree of success. In 1885 he became connected with the Pratt Food Company, of Philadelphia, which was established in 1872, incorporated in 1887, with factories in Philadelphia, Chi- cago, and Toronto, Canada, and having branches in England, New Zealand and Australia. They are the manufacturers of the Original Stock and Poultry Regulators of America and Pratt's Veterinary Remedies, both of which are invaluable to those engaged in that line of work. Owing to the superiority of the goods manufactured and the increasing demand for them, the business of the company grew to large proportions, and Mr. Keller was forced to relin- quish his flour and grain business in order to devote his entire time and atten- tion to the new industry. The first location of the company was at Nos. 126- 130 Twenty-second street, Philadelphia, but in 1890, their business demanding
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