USA > Pennsylvania > Encyclopedia of genealogy and biography of the state of Pennsylvania with a compendium of history. A record of the achievements of her people in the making of a commonwealth and the founding of a nation, Volume II > Part 13
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35
43
732
COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY AND GENEALOGY
Mr. William HI. Hodgson was married three times. His first wife was .Vice Clayton, who died in about two years without issue. Sarah Rich, youngest daughter of Anthony and Maria Rich, of Buckingham township, Bucks county, was the second wife. She died in August. 1865, leaving no children. The third and present wife was Mrs. Wil- helmina Pierson, nee Dennison, of Philadelphia, their marriage taking place in that city in 1872. One child was born to them, a son, Walter Dennison Hodgson, who is married and residing in West Chester.
Mr. Hodgson has continuously resided in West Chester for nearly seventy years, excepting a few months in 1857. which he spent in the west on a business prospecting tour. In 1901 he, with his son, made a three months' tour of Europe, and previously visited Bermuda on a pleasure trip. He is a Democrat in politics, and a Presbyterian in re- ligious faith. At this time he is a member of the board of trustees of the First Presbyterian church of West Chester, a member of the Order of Free and Accepted Masons, of the Odd Fellows, Patrons of Husbandry, and the West Chester (social ) Club.
THOMAS M. JENKINS.
There may be found in almost all American communities quiet. retiring men, who never ask public office or appear prominently in con- nection with public affairs, yet who nevertheless exert a widely felt influ- ence in the community in which they live, helping to construct or solidify the foundation upon which the social ad political superstructure is built. Such a man was the honored subject of these memoirs, whose life history contains no startling chapter, but is pregnant with that interest and incentive that attaches to the record of every man who faithfully per- forms his duty to his country, his fellow man and himself. Mr. Jenkins
J.m. Justine
735
OF THE STATE OF PENNSYLVANIA.
was a man of distinct individuality, and his life, cut short in its very prime, has been one of signal usefulness and honor, while in the city of Pittsburg he was esteemed for his sterling worth and was known as a capable and upright business man. That a tribute to his memory. as one of the representative citizens of his native state, should be incor- porated in this compilation is assuredly most consonant, though such was his intrinsic modesty that fulsome encomium or extravagant statement should find no place in this brief biography.
Thomas M. Jenkins was born in Westmoreland county. Pennsyl- vania on the Ioth day of May. 1857. and his death occurred on the 18th day of July. 1899. at his home in Pittsburg. He was the fifth in order of birth of the children of Robert and Jane ( Morton) Jenkins, the former of whom was long conspicuously identified with the commercial life of Pittsburg.
Some years prior to the retirement of the senior Jenkins he estab- lished his sons, Frank and Thomas M .. in the coal mining business : Frank died in 1876, and Thomas M. and his brother Robert, Jr., took the business under the firm name of T. M. Jenkins Company, and upon the death of Thomas the business was carried on by his brother. Robert. Jr .. until a few years ago, when he sold out to the combine and embarked in control of another line of business.
Thomas M. Jenkins received his early education in the public schools of Westmoreland county, and later was matriculated in the Western University in this city, where he took a course in civil engineer- ing and left the university at the age of sixteen.
In his political allegiance he was stanchly arrayed in support of the principles and policies of the Republican party, but was essentially de- voted to his home and his business, and the activities of political strife and competition had no allurements for him, so that he never desired
736
COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY .IND GENE. ILOGY
public office or any order and withheld himself from active participation in political affairs. His religious faith was of the most sincere and insistent nature, and dominated his life in all its relations. He was a con- sistent and valued member of the Hazelwood Presbyterian church, with which his widow still continues to be prominently identified. He was well and favorably known in the business circles of the state as an able. conscientious and progressive citizen, and his friends were in number as his acquaintances, since his character and his course of action were ever such as to command mequivocal confidence and esteem as emanating from those with whom he came in contact in either business or social relations. His death removed from the business circles of Pittsburg a valued member, and his loss was deeply felt by those with whom he had been associated and with whom his firm had business connections under his regime. He was a member of the directorate of the Duquesne National Bank, and his brother Robert is now filling his place as a member of the board. He was exceptionally popular in both business and social circles. being genial and kindly at all times, and ever showing that refined courtesy which indicated a noble and appreciative nature. His domestic relations were of ideal order, and in the sacred precincts of his home he found his greatest solace and pleasure. In a memorial of this sort, it is hardly consistent to attempt the lifting of the veil in order to disclose the beauties which pervaded his home life, where the strength and nobility of the man showed in their higest degree. but to those who were nearest and dearest to him and to whom was accorded his constant and self- clenying devotion, his memory will ever rest as the grateful benediction that "follows after prayer."
In Connellsville. Fayette county. Pennsylvania. on the Ist of Sep- tember. 1887. Mr. Jenkins was united in marriage to Miss Nevada Butter- more, daughter of Smith Buttermore, one of the prominent and influ-
737
OF TIIE STATE OF PENNSYLVANIA.
ential citizens of that place, and the originator of the Connellsville Hos- pital. Of this union were born three daughters, Marion, Louise and Margaret, who, with their mother, survive the honored husband and father.
In the last letter which he wrote to his brother Robert shortly prior to his death, he spoke as follows: "In another package are some keep- sakes which Hentrust to your care and keeping for our dear little daugh- ters when they are old enough to appreciate them," and in other letters written while the shadow of death hung above his head was expressed the great love and devotion which he always manifested for his family and which showed the gentle and noble nature which endeared the man to all who came within the immediate sphere of his influence, for "The bravest are the tenderest, the loving are the daring." Such men do not pass unnoticed from the field of life's activities, and their influence re- mains cumulative through the passing years to an extent not superficially evident, the angle of beneficence ever widening and growing.
HON. JOHN M. BROOMALL.
Hon. John M. Broomall, deceased, was during a long and active career one of the most able and conspicuously useful men of his day. A distinguished member of the Pennsylvania bar, his career as a lawyer covered the phenomenal period of more than a half-century. For nearly the same period he was a prominent political leader, first in the Whig party, and, after its dissolution, in the Republican party, which he aided in founding. His activities were not confined to those fields in which he won for himself a nation-wide fame, but extended to local affairs, and he was a prime factor in promoting the interests of his home community along commercial, educational and other lines.
738
COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY AND GENEALOGY
Mr. Bromall was of English Quaker descent, and the family from which he sprang was planted in Pennsylvania in the early colonial days of William Penn. His immigrant ancestor. John Broomall (1), came about 1682 or 1684. and obtained land in what is now East Bradford. Chester county, and in the old county records of 1710 his name appears as a land holder in West Chester. He subsequently settled in Nether Providence, Delaware county. He died 6 mo., 23. 1729. and his will dated. 4 mo., 29, 1729; and proved 8 mo., 21, 1729. makes his wife Mary executor of his estate. and names his children-John. Lydia. Ellen. Mary and Jane.
John (2), only son of John Broomall ( 1), was born prior to 1700. and was the first of the family born in America. He died at his farm in East Howellsville, in 1730, from injuries received in falling from a load of hay. He married 8 mo., 12, 1720, Anne Lewis, who was born in Philadelphia. Their children were Danicl and David.
Daniel (3). son of John (2) and Anne ( Lewis) Broomall, was born in 1728, and died 4 mo., 2. 1817, at the advanced age of eighty- nine years. He was owner of a large farm in Chester Creek. in Thorn- bury township, which was until a recent date in the ownership of his grandsons Abraham and Daniel. He married, in 1751, Martha, who died 5 mo., 3. 1812, daughter of Joseph and Hannah Talbot, and great- great-granddaughter of George and Alice Maris, of Springfield town- ship. Delaware county. They were the parents of the following named children: 1. Hannah, married John Smith: 2. John ; 3. Daniel, mar- ried Sarah Worrall: 4. Nehemiah, married Mary Robinson; 5. Isaac, married Lydia Neal: 6. James, married Hannah Dutton ; 7. Jacob, married Phobe Broomall; 8. Rachel, married Caleb Temple ; 9. David ; 10. Elizabeth. married Isaac Frame; 1I. Nathan, married Hannah G.
739
OF THE STATE OF PENNSYLVANIA.
Connor, and they were the godparents of the wife of Judge Pennypacker ; 12. Joseph, married Elizabeth Yeats, and (second ) Phoebe Brown.
John (4), second child and ellest son of Daniel and Martha ( Tal- bot) Bromall, was born It mo., 8, 1760. He spent his youth on the paternal farm in Thornbury township. He was four times married. He married, according to the discipline of Friends' at Concord Meet- ing. I mo., 4, 1796. Susanna, daughter of Thomas and Ruth Wilson. She died without issue. 12 mo .. 19. 1798. John Broomall married (second) 6 mo .. 7. 1804, Sarah, buried 6 mo., 15. 1806, daughter of Joseph and Mary Sharpless. For his third wife John Broomall mar- ried, 3 mo .. 14, 1811, Sarah, daughter of George and Elizabeth ( Reynolds) Martin. She died, 4 mo., 12, 1819, leaving four children- George, Elizabeth and John M. (twins), and Martha, who died at the age of nine years. John Broomall married (fourth) 7 mo .. 4, 1822. Ann, daughter of Samuel and Sarah Townsend, of Newtown, New Jersey. She died in 1836, and her husband lived a widower twelve years, dying 3 mo., 6. 1848, aged nearly eighty-eight years, and was buried in the burying ground at Chichester Meeting House.
John Martin Broomall (5), son of John and Sarah (Martin) Broomall, was born January 19, 1816, in Upper Chichester township, Delaware county, Pennsylvania. He was reared upon the home farm and was educated in the schools of the Society of Friends and in Samuel Smith's boarding school in Wilmington. Delaware, and he was for a time a teacher in the last named institution. He began his legal studies in Philadelphia under the preceptorship of the eminent legist, jurist and author, John Bouvier, and completed them under Samuel Edwards, a leading lawyer of Delaware county. Mr. Broomall was admitted to the bar on August 24. 1840, and at once entered upon the profession in which he soon gained an advanced position and to which he devoted
740 COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY AND GENEALOGY
himself with unabated zeal and ability until his last illness. It was his great distinction from a midway point in his career until its close, to enjoy recognition among his professional colleagues as the foremost of them all, and it was no uncommon expression among suitors to say that, with Mr. Broomall against them, their case was half lost before the trial had begun. He was a close and logical reasoner upon legal topics, and was often powerful before the court in his discussion of principles and precedents, but he was at his best before the jury. His deep knowledge of human nature made him all-powerful in his persuasive advocacy. He was a legal strategist. His cases were often won by ยท fixing upon some particularly strong point, and by keeping it con- tinually before the jury. He was spoken of as "an uncurable com- petitor." and he had the faculty of introducing some favorable feature of his case, regardless of the restrictions of the laws of evidence. While his profound knowledge of law made him a master in all its various fields, he was particularly renowned in criminal law, and during almost his entire career appeared for the defense in cases of homicide, and in nearly all obtaining either entire acquittal or acquittal of first-degree murder. His zealous interest in such cases was not due to his desire for gain, for he was rarely paid for his services, but was prompted by an inveterate hostility to capital punishment. This opposition probably having its foundation in his Quaker heredity, manifested itself in him early in his youth, and gradually intensified throughout his life, until he would go to almost any extreme to save a fellow creature from the gallows. The court records and the journals of the days contain many narratives of cases in which he achieved notable success. but for these there is no space in these pages. When Delaware county became a separate judicial district, the bar made unanimous recommendation of Mr. Broomall for the position of president judge, to which he was ap-
741
OF THE STATE OF PENNSYLVANIA.
pointed by the governor. He was commissioned early in 1874. and served until January 1. 1875. Of the cases tried before him, only about a half dozen were appealed, and all of these were sustained upon review. Undoubtedly Judge Broomall would have attained to a high position upon the bench, had not the logic of events thrown him into another field.
Judge Broomall, from his earliest life, was a determined opponent of human slavery, and he came to be numbered among the most ag- gressive in the movements for its overthrow. Allied with the Whig party, the time came when its younger element in the county, in casting about for a leader, selected Mr. Broomall, whose prominence at the bar and forcefulness as a speaker were already established. He was nominated for the legislature. and was elected, and served most creditably in the sessions of 1851 and 1852, taking a prominent part in state legis- lation. He declined to again become a candidate, and he also refused the nomination of the Whig party for a seat in congress, declining in favor of William Everhart. of Chester county. He accepted the candi- (lacy in 1854, but was defeated by the Democratic candidate. John Hick- man. Mr. Broomall having made opponents of many of those who de- sired to support him, by his refusal, out of conscientious objection to affiliation with secret orders or parties, to connect himself with the Know Nothings.
Mr. Broomall aided in the organization of the new Republican party in Delaware county, in 1856, and the same year was nominated by the Republicans of the county for a seat in congress. In the other county in the district (Chester ) Mr. Bowan was nominated, and, rather than divide the party in its initial campaign. Mr. Broomall withdrew. In 1858 he was again nominated in Delaware county and also in Chester county. Mr. Hickman, who had been elected at the previous election,
742
COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY AND GENEALOGY
now appeared as an independent candidate and received many Repub- lican votes because of his break with President Buchanan, and was elected. In 1860 Mr. Hickman, having now fully renounced the Demo- cratic party, was nominated for congress by the Republicans in both counties, and received Mr. Broomall's cordial support.
Mr. Broomall's political career had a new beginning in 1862. In that year he was nominated by the Republicans in both the' counties of Delaware and Chester. and was elected, being returned to his seat by two successive re-elections. He entered upon his duties at a crucial period of the Civil war, and until the close of that momentous struggle he took an able part in all military and financial legislation, and he was a potent factor in the moulding of the legislation which conferred full civil and political rights upon the black . as well as the white man. During his entire congressional service he was a member of the com- mittee on accounts and the committee on expenditures, and was chair- man of the latter body in his last term, and in his second term he was a member of a special committee (and for a considerable time its chair- man) sent to Memphis to investigate the riots in that city. He was among the foremost of his party in struggling for the abolition of slavery, and he took a very active part in all debates upon slavery, finance and other leading issues. On February 7. 1865. he delivered a masterly speech on civil rights, which Mr. Blaine (in his "Twenty Years of Congress") said was "the finest specimen of terse and strong English known to the American Congress," and the same high authority testified of Mr. Broomall that he was "an independent thinker, a keen debater, inflexible in principle. untiring in effort." During all the time of his congressional service Mr. Broomall was closely associated with the foremost men of the times-Blaine, Stevens, Garfield, Butler, and others and he possessed the intimate friendship of the great Lincoln.
743
OF TIIE STATE OF PENNSYLVANIA.
His high abilities were warmly appreciated by these eminent states- men, and his ability and sagacity commanded the plaudits of his oppo- nents, as Mr. Randall. a Democratic leader, who said of him that he was one to whom recourse was generally had for any ingenious and skillful management of the course of legislation, and that, when his plans were once adopted. Stevens. Butler. Blaine and other were sent to the front to do the ponderous hitting. Mr. Broomall was an ardent admirer and warm friend of Thaddeus Stevens, and. as his eulogist upon the occasion of the memorial proceedings in congress after his death. paid a glowing tribute to his services in behalf of the colored race.
Mr. Broomall's patriotism was not of a type which would permit him to confine his effort to the halls of legislation. Twice during the period of his service as a congressman, he also performed the duty of a soldier. In 1862, when Lee's army threatened Washington with capture and Pennsylvania with invasion, he took the field as captain command- ing Company C. Sixteenth Regiment, Pennsylvania Militia, and in the following year, previous to the battle of Gettysburg, he served from June 19 to .August Ist in command of Company C. Twenty-ninth Regi- ment Emergency Men.
In the field of politics proper. Mr. Broomall kept an unspotted record. In his campaigns in his district. during which he delivered a greater number of speeches than any other speaker, he never used money nor ever made or promised an appointment to office to further his own interests. He held others to the same standard which he set for himself, and contended for honesty at all times and in all places. Thus, while a member of the legislature. he was a determined opponent of the influence on state politics and legislation exercised by powerful corporations, particularly the Pennsylvania Railroad. Out of such considerations, also, in the first national Republican convention in Chi-
744
COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY AND GENEALOGY
cago, in 1860, in which he was a delegate, he declined to be a follower of General Cameron, and was one of three men of the Pennsylvania delegation who from the first cast their votes for Abraham Lincoln, thus leading the break which resulted in his nomination. Mr. Broomall was a member of the electoral college in 1860 and again in 1872, when his votes were cast for Lincoln and Grant, respectively.
Mr. Broomall performed highly useful service as a member of the Pennsylvania Constitutional Convention of 1874. He was a member of the two most important committees, the committee on judiciary and committee on taxation, and was chairman of the last named. He took a diligent part in all the transactions of the convention. Holding ad- vanced ground upon all questions of organic law, he ably advocated but unsuccessfully. the incorporation in the constitution of a provision against capital punishment, and another for the extension of political rights to women.
Mr. Broomall was a charming personality, a rare compound of womanly tenderness and self-assertive virility. He could rise to a height of aggressiveness almost passionate, but it was ever in defense of the wronged. He was endowed with ready sympathy for his fellow man. particularly the poor and afflicted. and he viewed the criminal with pitying compassion, deeming him rather the victim of circumstances, the creature of heredity and environment, and contending that he should be corrected by reformation rather than visited with severe penalties. He was touchingly fond of children, and strenuously opposed their punishment lest they might misunderstand it and be incited to rebellion against the exercise of power. In brief. his personal life bore ample evidence of his Quaker birth and rearing. It is curious and interesting to note that while he had been disowned by the Society of Friends because of his first marriage being "out of meeting." he never bore
745
OF THE STATE OF PENNSYLVANIA.
enmity towards that people, was a constant attendant at their meetings and frequently a speaker at the Providence meeting in Media, and yet resisted all solicitations to resume his formal membership. His in- tellectual faculties were strong, and he was a powerful analytical rea- soner. He was eloquent in speech, yet simple in language, confining himself as far as possible to the unstilted, vigorous, deep meaning words of the English Bible and Shakespeare. He delighted in music and poetry, and would for hours recite for his own amusement, or in the social circle, verses from his favorite British and American poets.
Mr. Broomall was twice married. His first wife, to whom he was wed October 14, 1841. was Elizabeth, a daughter of Joseph and Martha Booth, who died March 19. 1848. leaving to her husband two children, William B. and Anna E., another. Joseph J., having died. September 29. 1853. Mr. Broomall married Caroline L., daughter of John Larkin. Jr., of Chester, and to them were born five children-John L .. John M .. Jr., Henry L., Caroline L., and Carolus M .. of whom Henry L. and Carolus M. survive.
Mr. Broomall resided in Media from 1860 until his death: He was of frail constitution and in youth held out little hope of extending his life to more than the scriptural limit of three score years and ten. But his nervous activity developed an energy which rendered him un- tiring in effort, and conquered every physical weakness. Ilis health did not suffer serious impairment until December, 1893. when he was attacked with pneumonia, which left him with an enfeebled heart. and death came to him on June 3. 1894. His death was a deep sorrow to the entire community, and all classes united in paying respect to the memory of a loved friend. The Delaware County Institute of Science. of which the deceased was an active member. and. for many years and to the time of his death the president, held a special meeting. Mr.
746
COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY AND GENEALOGY
Charles Potts, who presided, paid a glowing tribute to the illustrious dead. Various members read papers descriptive of the leading char- acteristics of Mr. Broomall-Thomas V. Cooper, on "The Political Career of Hon. John M. Broomall": Miss Graceanna Lewis on "Mr. Broomall as a Philanthropist" ; and Benjamin C. Potts on "Mr. Broomall as President of the Institute." Extemporaneous remarks were made by Captain Isaac Johnson, on the life and public services of Mr. Broom- all: the Rev. S. A. Heilner on his life from a religious standpoint : and Dr. Brinton on his usefulness to science and scientists. The papers read, with an excellent biographical history from the pen of Mr. William B. Broomall, son of the deceased, were printed in a memorial pamphlet.
WILLIAM BOOTH BROOMALL.
William Booth Broomall traces his descent from an ancestry re- markable because of its association with the carly settlement and colonial development of the southwestern section of Delaware county, and in all the lines in which he derives descent his forebears have resided within six miles of the place of his birth, excepting in the one instance of the Dilworths, who were located in Birmingham. It was at Dilworthtown, named from the Dilworths, that General Greene made his masterly stand which saved the American army from destruction at the dis- astrous battlefield of the Brandywine. In the paternal line he represents in the fifth generation descent from Anna Lewis: in the sixth from John Talbot. Margaret Battan and Elizabeth Acton : while in the seventh, Margery Mendenhall, John Worrelow. Thomas Marten, James Dil- worth. Anna Waln. Richard Webb, Henry Reynolds. Lewis Davis, Florence Jones, Rebecca Hinde and Joseph Baker. The eighth gives his descent from William Clayton, who settled at Marcus Hook before
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.