USA > Pennsylvania > Historic homes and institutions and genealogical and personal memoirs of the Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania Vol. I > Part 40
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(Signed) MATTYS JANSEN J. HARDENBERGH JOHN RUTSEN."
Daniel Brodhead did not remain in Pennsyl- vania, but his cousin Daniel Brodhead, son of Richard Brodhead, a brother of Captain Charles Brodhead, mentioned above, moved to Pennsyl- vania about 1735, settling on what is now Brod- head Creek, near Stroudsburg, in what was then Bucks county, but is now a part of Monroe coun- ty. He laid out a town about a mile square and named it Dansbury, a station on the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad. From him are descended all the Brodheads of Pennsylvania.
The line of descent from the founder of the
family came through Richard Brodhead and his wife Magdalena Jensen. He was born in 1666, and died in 1758, while his wife died in 1707. Their only son Daniel, who established the family in Pennsylvania, was born April 20, 1693. In 1726 he was a merchant in Albany, New York ; a licensed Indian trader in 1730; and in 1737 or 1738 he removed to Pennsylvania, where he built the town of Dansbury, and established a mill, and also a Moravian church. He was commissioned justice of the peace, September 25, 1747, and died in Bethlehem, July 22, 1755. His wife was Hes- ter Wyngart, and their children were: Thomas Garton, who was born in 1723, and died at sea ; Garrett Lucas, born in 1724 ; Richard B., in 1726; Ann Garton, in 1727 ; Charles, September 7, 1729; Garrett, January 21, 1733; Daniel, October 17, 1736; John -; and Luke, in 1741. One of the sons, Daniel by name, was colonel of the Eighth Pennsylvania Regiment in the continental army during the war of the Revolution, and at its close, while colonel commanding the western department with headquarters at Pittsburg, by special act of General Washington, and in the re- organization of the Pennsylvania troops, about 1782, was made colonel of the First Pennsyl- vania Regiment in the continental establishment. He held several state offices, and when the new organization was formed in 1789 became the first surveyor-general of Pennsylvania, which office he held for many years and until his death at Milford, Pike county, in 1809.
His brother, Garrett Brodhead, the great- grandfather of Hon. Charles Brodhead, was also an officer in the Revolutionary war. He was born January 21, 1733, and became a lieutenant, do- ing frontier service during the struggle for na- tional independence. He was married March 15, 1759, to Jane Davis, and their children were: John, born March 3. 1766; Daniel, Richard, George, Elizabeth, born in 1775; Rachel, and Samuel, born in 1779.
Richard Brodhead, born in 1771, married Jane Drake, and they were the grandparents of Hon. Charies Brodhead. Their children were: Sarah, born in 1791 ; Garrett, in December, 1793; William, in 1795; Jane, in 1797 ; Albert Gallatin,
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GENEALOGICAL AND PERSONAL MEMOIRS.
in 1799 ; Anna Maria, February 14, 1801 ; Charles, August 4, 1805; Rachel, Eliza, Elizabeth, and Richard.
Albert Gallatin Brodhead, born in 1799, be- came a merchant of Conyngham, Pennsylvania, and in 1839 removed to Delaware, Pike county, where he purchased the old Brodhead homestead. He was quite prominent, and influential in public affairs, and several times served in the state legis- lature. He married Ellen Middaugh.
Hon. Charles Brodhead, only child of Albert G. and Ellen Brodhead, was born at Conyngham, Luzerne county, Pennsylvania, August 4, 1824, and was reared until the age of fourteen in Dela- ware, Pike county, acquiring his education in the local schools. In 1838-39 he was a student in an academic school at Stroudsburg, conducted by Ira Burrell Newman. In the spring of 1840 he went with Mr. Newman to a newly established school at Dingman's High Falls, Pike county, and in November, 1840, entered the freshman class of Lafayette College, at Easton, Pennsyl- vania, then under the direction of the Rev. Dr. George Junkman. After his graduation from college in 1844, he entered the law office of his uncle, Richard Brodhead, then a member of con- gress and afterward United States senator from Pennsylvania. During his student days Charles Brodhead attended the law school established at Philadelphia by David Hoffman, and was ad- mitted to the bar at Easton, during the Novem- ber term of court of 1846.
Shortly afterward, Mr. Brodhead became sheriff's attorney, and acted in that capacity for three years, but soon gave up the practice of law and engaged in the real estate business in Bethle- hem. About that time the Lehigh Valley Rail- road, in connection with the Central Railroad of New Jersey, and the Northern Pennsylvania Railroad were being built into Bethlehem. Both had their lines located on the south side of the Lehigh river at Bethlehem, and Mr. Brodhead in 1854 purchased one hundred acres of the Mora- vian farm land on that side of the river, and laid out what is now to a great extent South Bethle- hem. He is one of the largest landowners in that borough, and also owns considerable realty in
Bethlehem, where among his other possessions he has the well known Sun Inn, built in 1758. In laying out South Bethlehem he made an effort, with the co-operation of Jefferson Davis, then sec- retary of war, and the Hon. Richard Brodhead, United States senator from Pennsylvania, to have a government foundry established in that place. Though his efforts then proved futile, the seed was sown, and to-day, extensive works for the manufacture of war material for the govern- ment, are in successful operation on the ground reserved by Mr. Brodhead for the government foundry in 1856, and which he subsequently sold to the Bethlehem Steel Company. It was mainly due to the efforts of Mr. Brodhead, and his active co-operation in the projects of Augustus Wolle, that the Bethlehem Iron Company's works were located at South Bethlehem. The facts, briefly, are these : Mr. Wolle was and con- tinued to be all his life one of the most active and progressive men ever in business in the Beth- lehems, and his particular talent was along the line of an executive officer. He had leased what was known as the Gangawara ore bed, in Saucon township, and secured a charter for an organi- zation called the Saucona Iron Company, for the development of the Gangawara and other veins of hematite ores. He urged Mr. Brodhead to join him in this project, but the latter suggested that they unite forces and put up works in South Bethlehem, as the extra cost of ore transporta- tion would be quite balanced by the less cost of transportation of coal if stopped at Bethlehem. The result was that Mr. Wolle, being himself a large landowner in South Bethlehem. agreed upon that place as the site for the new works. Mr. Brodhead then drew a supplement to Mr. Wolle's Saucona charter, which was subsequently passed by the Pennsylvania legislature, authoriz- ing the company to make and manufacture iron ores and iron into any shape or condition, and changing the name of the company to The Beth- lehem Rolling Mill and Iron Company. Mr. Wolle was the first and largest subscriber to the stock and was followed by others, and thus the Bethlehem mills became an accomplished fact.
Mr. Brodhead was the first to suggest the
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construction of the new steel bridge which, start- ing in Bethlehem, in Northampton county, crosses the canal and railroad of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company, the Monocacy creek, a section of Lehigh county, the Lehigh river, many tracks of the Lehigh Valley Railroad, and terminates its eleven hundred feet of length in South Bethlehem. The Broad street bridge, which connects Bethlehem with West Bethlehem was also one of Mr. Brodhead's conceptions, the idea having first come to him when he was having his engineers locate what was popularly known as "Charley Brodhead's Huckleberry Railroad", now the Lehigh & Lackawanna Railroad, leading from Bethlehem to the great slate quarries in and about Chapman, Wind Gap, Pen Argyl, and Bangor, with a branch leading through the fam- ous wind gap of the Blue Mountains and extend- ing to Saylor's lake, in Monroe county. The ob- jective point of the road is Stroudsburg, on the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad, a connection with which will make the line a fav- orite for summer tourists from Philadelphia to the resorts at Delaware, Water Gap, Strouds- burg, the Pocono mountains, Bushkill, Ding- man's, High Falls, and Milford, on the upper Delaware. This road was projected by Mr. Brodhead, and pushed through by him with un- tiring perseverance and pertinacity, he acting for many years as president of the company. It is now one of the leased lines of the Central Railroad of New Jersey.
Mr. Brodhead has not only contributed in large and important measures to the material de- velopment and substantial building of the state, but has also left the impress of his individuality for good upon public life, thought and action. In 1873 he was elected a member of the constitu- tional convention of Pennsylvania, and was the originator of several valuable provisions in that instrument, notably the one providing for free telegraph lines, and prohibiting the consolidation of parallel or competing lines, by reason of which the people of this state alone were thus protected from the thraldom of a monster monopoly. He also secured the enactment of the section which prohibits all officers and employes of railroad
companies from being interested, directly or indi- rectly, in the furnishing of supplies and material for the corporations with which they are con- nected, or being interested in transportation lines or contracts for transportation. These provisions have been highly beneficial to stockholders, who before were often plundered by unscrupulous of- ficers and employes. Mr. Brodhead likewise in- troduced and secured the adoption of that section of the state constitution which extended the terms of county treasurers to three years and pro- hibited their re-election, which has had a very salutary effect upon municipal financiering. He is a member of the board of trustees of Lehigh University and has ever manifested a wa 'n in- terest in educational affairs.
Mr. Brodhead was married, June 1, 1858, to Miss Camilla M. Shimer, a daughter of General Conrad Shimer, an extensive farmer, prominent in military and political affairs in Northampton county. The children of Charles and Camilla Brodhead are as follows : Charles, who was born July 26, 1859, and died May 18, 1860; Kate Ellen, who was born May 15, 1861, and is the wife of Warren E. Wilbur ; and Albert, born September 26, 1867.
J. DAVIS BRODHEAD, district attorney and a most capable lawyer of South Bethlehem, was born in Easton, Pennsylvania, January 12, 1859.
He traces his ancestry back to Daniel Brod- head, the progenitor of the family in the new world. His history appears elsewhere in this work.
Hon. Richard Brodhead, the father of J. Davis Brodhead, was for many years one of the most eminent men of this state.' He was born in Pike county, Pennsylvania, in 1810, and in his youth went to Easton, where he prepared for the legal profession, studying law with James M. Porter as his preceptor. Admitted to the bar, he devoted his attention exclusively to his profession until the demands of public affairs increased to such an extent as to require his entire time. In 1843 he was elected upon the Democratic ticket to represent in congress the eighth district, then
Jeremiah. F. Werner
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known as "the Old Tenth Legion", and filled that responsible position until 1849, thus serving as a member of the twenty-eighth, twenty-ninth and thirtieth congresses. He was elected a member of the United States senate from Pennsylvania to succeed Daniel Sturgeon, a Democrat, and served from the Ist of December, 1851, until 1857. Dur- that time he was a member of various important committees, and also gained distinction as the author of the bill creating the United States court of claims. He was one of the youngest members of congress, but he possessed a statesmanlike grasp of affairs, and his labors aided usefully in shaping the governmental affairs during the twelve years in which he took part in the deliber- ations of the two law-making bodies of the nation. It is to be remarked that a fellow-member of the house of respresentatives was Jefferson Davis, who became president of the Confederate States of America, and whose niece became the wife of Mr. Brodhead. This lady, whom he married in 1850, was Miss Mary Bradford, born near Vicks- burg, Mississippi, a daughter of David Bradford, a wealthy planter. Of this marriage were born two children-J. Davis, and Richard, the last named having been an attorney in Easton, and now located in New York City.
J. Davis Brodhead recieved his education in Georgetown (D. C.) College, the Moravian school in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, in Seaton Hall, New Jersey, and in Yale College, where he took a classical course covering two years. He spent the years 1879 to 1881 in travel through the United States, principally in the south. He pre- pared for the profession of the law under Judge John B. Storm, of Strasburg, ex-member of con- gress, and was admitted to the bar in 1880, the year in which he attained his majority. He at once entered upon practice in South Bethlehem, in which he has since been actively engaged. He served as district attorney from 1889 to 1893, and was borough solicitor for the long period of nine- teen years. Aside from his profession he has had varied business interests in Bethlehem, and vi- cinity. He was one of the original incorporators of the Easton Transit Company, has served as
president of the Bethlehem Consolidated Water Company from 1901 to the present time (1904), and is a director in several other corporations contributing to the commercial and industrial activity of the village and county. He is a stanch Democrat in politics, and active in political af- fairs. In 1892 he sat as a delegate in the Dem- ocratic national convention which nominated Grover Cleveland for his second presidential term, and gave to that distinguished statesman a hearty and effective support. He was alternate- at-large to the Democrat national convention of 1904.
Mr. Brodhead married, in 1883, Miss Cecile Harvier, a daughter of Calix and Cecile Harvier, the ceremony being performed in New York, of which city the bride was a native. Two daughters have been born of this union, Ethel and Leonie, both in Bethlehem. The family home is situated on Fountain Hill, South Bethlehem.
JEREMIAH F. WERNER, who is serving his third term as notary public at Lansford, and is one of the well known and much respected citi- zens of that town, has for thirty-five years acted as a justice of the peace, twenty-one years in Car- bon county and fifteen years in Schuylkill. He represents one of the old Pennsylvania families, and was born in Berks county, this state, July 25, 1829. His father, Jacob Werner, was also born in Pennsylvania, and was a well educated man of his day. He successfully engaged in teaching in the public school, and left the impress of his in- dividuality for good upon the minds of his pupils. He was also professor of vocal and instrumental music, and his labors contributed in no small measure to the intellectual and aesthetic develop- ment of his community. He married Miss Sa- loma Theresa Born, who was a native of England, while he was of German lineage. They became the parents of ten children, three of whom are now living : Rev. Jacob L. Werner, who is a min- ister of the Evangelical church; Rebecca and Jeremiah F.
The last named spent the first twelve years of his life in the county of his nativity, and then
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HISTORIC HOMES AND INSTITUTIONS.
accompanied his parents on their removal to Schuylkill county, Pennsylvania, where he learned the millwright's trade. In early manhood he also engaged in teaching school, following that through the winter months, while he devoted his energies in the summer seasons to his trade. Becoming a resident of Tamaqua, he was pro- prietor of a drug store at that place, and was also considered an expert dentist of that time. Many lines of activity felt the stimulus of his energy and enterprise, and contributed in large measure to the commercial and industrial development of his town. At Tamaqua he owned and operated a planing mill, and was an extensive contractor and builder. In 1872 he removed to Lansford, where he now makes his home, and in this borough he followed the business of pattern making for the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company for a num- ber of years.
In the days of his early manhood Mr. Werner was a member of a militia company, and has al- ways felt a deep interest in military affairs. His political allegiance was given to the Democracy in early life, but in 1860 he endorsed the prin- ciples of the Republican party and cast his bal- lot for Abraham Lincoln. He has since affiliated with this great national political organization, and has been a recognized leader in its ranks in his community. He has been honored with every office in the township, and has also been a mem- ber of the borough council, in which he served as secretary. His political belief is indicated by his membership in the Evangelical church, of which he is local preacher. He has put forth earnest and effective labor in behalf of the work of the. church, has co-operated in its various activities, and has served as both steward and trustee of the church, while in the Sunday school he was super- intendent for seventeen years. His life has been a busy and useful one, and his efforts have been of marked value to his community along lines of material, intellectual, social and moral develop- ment.
In 1850 Mr. Werner was united in marriage to Miss Amelia Heisler, of Lewistown, Pennsyl- vania, who was born at that place on the 15th of March, 1831. Their children are Rebecca S.,
deceased ; Jemima A., deceased ; John W., Lewis A., Milton E., Sylvia, Andrew L., Elmer E., Jeremiah M., deceased ; and Sarah A., deceased.
ROBERT HEYSHAM SAYRE, of South Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, has for many years been prominently connected with railroad con- struction and operation in the Lehigh valley. He was born in Columbia county, Pennsylvania, Oc- tober 13, 1824, and traces his ancestry back to Thomas Sayre, who was a native of England, and became the progenitor of the family in the new world, and who built the first house at South- ampton, Long Island, in 1648; this house is yet standing. The representative of the family in the second generation to Robert Heysham Sayre was Joseph Sayre, who died in 1695. His son, Daniel Sayre, married Elizabeth Lyon, and was a farmer of Elizabethtown, New Jersey. John Sayre, of the fourth generation, was born in Elizabethtown, New Jersey. In 1735 he was a tailor, owning and occupying a house and store at No. 56 Broad street, New York city, in which year he was admitted a freeman of that city. He married (first) Esther Stillwell, daughter of Nicholas and Elizabeth Stillwell, and (second) Rachel Le Chevalier, daughter of Jean Le Chev- alier.
John Sayre, of the fifth generation, was born June 4, 1738, at 58 Broad street, New York, and was educated at Kings (now Columbia) College, in that city, and became a clergyman of the Epis- copal church. He was married in Philadelphia, September 25, 1758, to Mary Bowes, who was born in Trenton, New Jersey, March 5, 1739, a daughter of Francis and Rachel (Chevalier) Bowes.
Francis Bowes Sayre, of the sixth generation, was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, September 9, 1766, studied medicine in the University of Pennsylvania and received the degree of Doctor of Medicine in 1790. He died in Philadelphia, September 2, 1798, of yellow fever. He was mar- ried April 9, 1792, to Ann Heysham, who was born in Philadelphia, January 25, 1765. They had three children : William Heysham, who was born May 17, 1794, and married Elizabeth Kent ;
Very truly Yours Potter Jayne
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GENEALOGICAL AND PERSONAL MEMOIRS.
John Cox, who was born August 1, 1795, and died August 23, 1801 ; and Mary Elizabeth, who was born October 27, 1797, and died August 26, 1801.
William Heysham Sayre, of the seventh gen- eration, the father of Robert Heysham Sayre, was born in Bordentown, New Jersey, May 17, 1794. His early life was spent in the mercantile business under the firm name of Cook & Sayre, in Phila- delphia. Later he removed to Columbia county, same state, and in the year 1828 located in Mauch Chunk. He entered the services of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company as boating clerk, having charge of the accounts and the collection of tolls due on boats navigating the canal. He re- moved from Mauch Chunk to South Bethlehem in 1862, and died there May 29, 1872. He was one of the founders of St. Mark's church at Mauch Chunk, and served as senior warden there 11ntil 1862, when he removed to Bethlehem, where, with seven others, the Church of the Nativity was founded on May 6, 1862. He was elected senior warden, which position he held until his demise. He was married, June 25, 1816, to Eliza Kent, who was born in Boonton; New Jersey, May 17, 1796, and died January 10, 1849. They had eleven children.
Mary Elizabeth (1) was born April 4, 1817, was married June 24, 1841, to John P. Cox, and they had five children : Walter E., who is married and has five children ; John S., who is married and has two children; Mary, the wife of Colonel H. B. Mckean, by whom she has a son, John ; Edith ; and Anna.
Ann Heysham (2), born March 4, 1820, died March 2, 1821.
Francis Rudolphus (3), born October 1, 1821, is now a resident of Mauch Chunk. He was married October 1, 1851, to Harriet P. Woolley, who died January 24, 1883. Their children are : Kate Irwin, born June 23, 1852, died October 17, 1903 ; Louise Foster, who was born September 30, 1854, was married April 9, 1880, to Asa Packer Blakeslee, who was born in Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania, November 13, 1854; Charles Eugene, born September 20, 1856, married Oc- tober 10, 1894, to Caroline Haner Brown, who
was born October 7, 1859; and Anna Frances, born November 9, 1859.
Robert Heysham (4) attended the public schools at Mauch Chunk, and then entered an engineer corps of the Lehigh Coal Naviga- tion Company. Early in the year 1841 he en- gaged on the repairs of the canal, which had been partially destroyed by a freshet in the Lehigh river. He was afterward under the direction of Edwin A. Douglas, chief engineer, and was en- gaged in the engineering department in charge of the canals, railroads and of the building of the incline planes and gravity road, known as the Switchback Railroad, between Mauch Chunk and Summit Hill. He was appointed chief engineer of the Lehigh Valley Railroad in the spring of 1852, and after the completion of the road be- tween Mauch Chunk and Easton, in 1855, was appointed general superintendent as well, and re- mained in that service until 1882, when he was elected president and chief engineer of the South Pennsylvania Railroad. When work on that en- terprise was suspended he returned to the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company, and was elected sec- ond vice-president, in which capacity he was charged with the care of its transportation lines and engineering. He was also elected the vice-president and general manager of the Bethle- hem Iron Company. He was named in the will of Asa Packer as one of the five trustees to man- age the estate, and he and his brother William were appointed original trustees of the Lehigh University, in 1865, and St. Luke's Hospital, located at South Bethlehem. To this hospital he has recently added a men's ward at the cost of twenty-seven thousand dollars. He is and has been a member of the E. P. Wilbur Trust Com- pany since its organization. He is a director of the Valley Coal and Coke Company, and owner of coal lands in West Virginia and Alabama. He is president of the Sayre Mining and Manufac- turing Company in Alabama, president of the Little Warrior Coal and Coke Company in Ala- bama, and director of the Wilbur Coal and Coke Company of West Virginia, and of the Virginia Coal and Coke Company in Virginia. He built his present residence on Fountain Hill in 1858, and
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the library, which now contains 10,000 volumes, was added to it in 1899. He is a charter member of the Church of the Nativity, was one of the original vestrymen, and is now rector's warden.
Robert H. Sayre was married, April 15, 1845, to Mary Evelyn Smith, who died May 31, 1869. There were nine children by that marriage: I. Charles White, born June 23, 1846, died April 10, 1848; 2. Mary Eliza, born February 3, 1849, was married June 10, 1873, to Professor William H. Chandler, Professor of Chemistry in the Le- high University, and their children are-Robert Sayre, who died in infancy; Evelyn, who was born July 6, 1876, and was married October 22, 1903, to Ralph R. Hillman ; and Sarah Whitney, born September 27, 1877. 3. Anna Catherine, born December 18, 1850, died August 12, 1852. 4. Robert Heysham, Jr., born January 5, 1853, was married December 28, 1880, to Harriet Eliza- beth Hillard, of South Bethlehem, and died at Thomasville, Georgia, February 1I, 1904, and they have a son, Robert Heyshan, 3rd .. 5. Eliza- beth Kent, born December 1, 1854, was married June 1, 1876, to Albert Newton Cleaver of South Bethlehem. 6. Jennie Weston, born October 2, 1857, was married October 15, 1879, to James Fitz-Randolph, who died at Watkins, New York, November 19, 1900. They had three children- Theodore, Elizabeth, who was married Decem- ber 19, 1903, to Robert H. Ballard, and Robert Sayre Fitz-Randolph. 7. Francis Rodolphus, born September 27, 1859, died March 3, 1864. 8. Ellen May, born January 24, 1862, died March 24, 1864. 9. Ruth May, born May 14, 1864, was married October 15, 1884, to Robert Packer Linderman, a grandson of Asa Packer. Mr. Linderman died January 21, 1903. Their chil- dren are: Ruth Evelyn, born August 23, 1885 ; Mary Evelyn, July 15, 1889; Lucy Evelyn, Oc- tober 9, 1892; Evelyn, September 27, 1893; Christine, June 17, 1895; and Robert Packer, May 29, 1898.
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