"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 Delaware,
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, Pennsylvania, 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 congress 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 admitted to the bar at Easton, during the
November term of court of 1846.
Shortly afterward, Mr. Brodhead became sheriff's attorney, and
acted in the capacity for three years, but soon gave up the practice
of law and engaged in the real estate business in Bethlehem. About
that time the Lehigh Valley Railroad, 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 Moravian farm land
on that side of the river, and laid out what is now to a great
extent South Bethlehem. 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 secretary 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 government,
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 continued to be all his life one of the most active
and progressive men ever in business in the Bethlehems, and his
particular talent was along the line of an executive officer.
He had leased what was known as the Gangawere ore bed, in Saucon
township, and secured a charter for an organization called the
Saucona Iron Company, for the development of the Gangawere 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
transportation 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 Sough 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, authorizing the company
to make and manufacture iron ores and iron into any shape or condition,
and changing the name of the company to The Bethlehem 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 first to suggest the construction of the new
steel bridge which, starting 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 famous wind
gap of the Blue Mountains and extending to Saylor's lake, in Monroe
county. The objective point of the road is Stroudsburg, on the
Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad, a connection with
which will make the line a favorite for summer tourists from Philadelphia
to the resorts at Delaware, Water Gap, Stroudsburg, the Pocono
mountains, Bushkill, Dingman's, High Falls, and Milford, on the
upper Delaware. This road was projected by Mr. Brodhead, and pushed
through by him with untiring 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 contribute din large and important measures
to the material development 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 constitutional 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 indirectly, in the
furnishing of supplies and material for the corporations with
which they are connected, 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 officers and employes. Mr. Brodhead likewise introduced
and secured the adoption of that section of the state constitution
which extended the terms of county treasurers to three years and
prohibited 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 warm interest 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."