Sources and notes on Thornton Fleming Brodhead

 

Sources & Notes for information on the family of

Thornton Fleming Brodhead

(John > Luke > Daniel > Richard > Daniel)

Source: Edited Appletons Encyclopedia, Copyright 2001 Virtualology TM

BRODHEAD, John, clergyman, born in Monroe County, Pennsylvania, 22 October, 1770; died in Newmarket, New Hampshire, 7 April, 1838. In 1794-'6 he traveled as a Methodist preacher in New Jersey and Maryland, and then went to New England, and became a founder of Methodism there and in Canada. In 1811 he settled in Newmarket, New Hampshire. From 1829 till 1833 he was a representative from New Hampshire in congress.

--His son, John M., born in Canaan, New Hampshire, was educated as a physician at Dartmouth, was appointed second comptroller of the treasury, held the office until 1856, in 1863 was reappointed, and retained it until he resigned in January, 1876.

--Another son, Thornton F., soldier, born in New Hampshire in 1822; died in Alexandria, Virginia, 31 August, 1862. He studied law at Harvard, and practiced in Detroit, Michigan. He served through the Mexican was as an officer in the 15th infantry, adn was twice brevetted for bravery. Resuming the practice of his profession after the war, he was elected to the state senate, and in 1852 appointed postmaster of Detroit. At the beginning of the civil war he raised the 1st Michigan cavalry regiment, at the head of which he served under Generals Banks, Fremont, and Pope. He died of wounds received at the second battle of Bull Run.

 

 

Rally Round the Flags - Michigan Historical Museum

On 28 September 1861 Colonel Thornton Brodhead received this flag on behalf of the First Michigan Cavalry Regiment. On 30 August 1862, at Second Bull Run, Brodhead was shot. Knowing he was dying, he wrote his wife: "I hope from heaven I may see the glorious old flag wave again over the individual Union I have loved so well. Farewell wife and Babes and Friends. We shall meet again." (87.136.90)

Source: http://www.militaryhistoryonline.com/civilwar/wittenberg/lewisford.asp

Col. Thornton F. Brodhead, commanding officer of the 1st Michigan, was apparently the last Federal on the battlefield. Brodhead tried to rally Buford's routed forces, and could have escaped with the rest of the command. However, he chose to stay and try to patch together a defensive line. Adjutant Lewis Harman of the 12th Virginia met Brodhead near the Lewis Ford. Harman demanded Brodhead's surrender and, when Brodhead refused, the Confederate shot and mortally wounded the Yankee officer. Harman rode off with Brodhead's horse, saddle, pistols, and sabre. Brodhead received a deathbed brevet to brigadier general for his vallant stand at the Lewis Ford. The 1st Michigan also lost its Major, Charles Town--down with two bullet wounds and a saber cut.

...

Further, the defeat at Second Manassas demoralized the Federals, and sapped their will
to fight. Thornton Brodhead, shot through both lungs, found the strength to write a final
letter to his wife from his deathbed on August 31. In it, Brodhead stated clearly a
sentiment felt by many in the Army of Virginia: "Before I die let me implore you that in
some way it be stated that General Pope has been outwitted and that McDowell is a
traitor. Had they done their duty, as I did mine; and had [they], as I had, the dear old Flag
would have waived in triumph our Generals--not the Enemy's have defeated us." Brodhead
died that day.

Source: http://www.michmarkers.com/Pages/L0577.htm

Colonel Thornton Fleming Brodhead (1822-1862) and his wife, Archange Macomb Abbott, lived on the hill just north of this site. This small stone office and library building was constructed around 1855. Colonel Brodhead was, at various times, editor and part owner of the Detroit Free press, state senator and postmaster at Detroit. He served in the Mexican War and led the First Michigan Cavalry in the Civil War. The colonel was mortally wounded at the second Battle of Bull Run.

Source: http://www.geocities.com/michhist/grosseilebios.html

Alexander & William Macomb: The first legal owners of Grosse Ile, were born in Ireland and came to America with their parents, John and Jane (Gordon) Macomb, in 1755, at the ages of seven and four. There was also a sister, Anne. The brothers became large real estate owner, in New York, as well as in Michigan. At one time they owned nearly all the islands in the Detroit River, acquiring Grosse Ile, in 1776. It would seem that later they sold much of the land on Grosse Ile, as some of the early pioneers bought tracts at a public sale of lands in New York.

The Macomb brothers possessed wonderful business ability, carry on an enormous mercantile business, with its headquarters in Detroit, reaching not only to the colonies, but into Canada as well. They were often referred to as "merchant princes." Alexander Macomb, the elder brother (later the father of Major General Alexander Macomb) married, first to Catherine Navarre, the daughter of Robert Navarre, who was Notaire Royal of the French colony at Detroit, from the first establishment of the colony. There were nine children from this marriage, the seventh being Alexander Macomb Jr, who is the only one of the nine children to have descendants still living on the island. His daughter, Alexandrine, married an officer in the army named, Stanton, and from them, came the Stanton residents.

Alexander Sr's second wife, Jane Rucker, widow of John Peter Rucker, a merchant in New York. By her he had seven more children, total of sixteen in all. None of these descendants lived on Grosse Ile. William Macomb Sr, married Sarah Jane Dring, a descendant of a Huguenot family who fled from France to England after the Edict of Nantes had been revoked. They had eleven children. William Macomb Jr, and his sister, Sarah Macomb-Rucker are closely identified with the early history of Grosse Ile, ten heads of families in 1880 being direct descendants of this brother and sister. William Sr, some years previous to the surrender of Detroit, by Hull, built a beautiful home on Grosse Ile, which he named the "Mansion House", after his New York residence at 39 Broadway, near Old Trinity Church. The later had been built by him in 1786 as a family residence, and was at one time Washington's headquarters, where he received from LaFayette, through Thomas Paine, the Key of the Bastille. He died in Detroit April 16, 1796. Aside from providing well for his family, he left an annuity to his aged father.

William Macomb Jr was the sixth child of this family. His father, in his wiill, had left all of this real estate to his three sons, John W., William, and David B. Macomb. It would seem that the Grosse Ile properties fell into the hands of William Jr, for about the time of the War of 1812, he was occupying the Mansion House, with his young wife, Monique Navarre, and their son, Pierre, and servants. When the prisoners at the time of Hull's surrender were taken from Detroit to Toronto, on the Brig Queen Charlotte William Jr was among them, along with another Detroit native resident, Judge Abbott. William had incurred the displeasure of the Fox Indian Tribe by having a sweetheart in their tribe, who , upon hearing that he had married a French lady, drowned herself. The Natives, for revenge, decided to destroy his home. One evening, Mrs Macomb, alone and unprotected with her son and servants, saw a number of small boats moving quietly toward the shore. It proved to be a small fleet of canoes filled with Native Americans. Fearing some evil she hurriedly gave the alarm to her household, and wrapped her baby in a blanket and started for the forest behind the house. There, she saw the Native Americans dancing around the ruins of her burning home, and dared not proceed until they returned to their boats. How she made the dreadful journey to Detroit is not known. There was only one bridge across the River, at the upper end of the island. Some small boat could have taken her to Trenton,, and from there on foot she probably traveled the 18 miles to Detroit, in the dark night sky. She reached friends in the village, and soon after she died of pneumonia, the result of exposure, in November 1813. Baby Pierre was born in 1812, and according to family records, died in 1866, unmarried.

Some years later, William married a second time, to Jeanette Marentete, and rebuilt further south, but still on the area of Mansion Block. This tract extended entirely across the island, and the Rucker, Keith and Smith farms, later occupied the western portions.

Jeanette brought forth four children; a son, Tronville, who left home when he was quite young and was never heard from; and three daughters, Jane, Archange and Catherine, all of whom married and lived side by side until their deaths. Jane , the eldest, married Lieutenant Henry Brevoort. Their eldest son, William a lieutenant in the Civil War, met his death by Colonel Thornton Brodhead's regiment. Henry, the second son, was a prominent lawyer in Detroit for many years. Thornton, the youngest, died before Henry, having lived as a resident of Grosse Ile.

Archange, the second sister, married Colonel Thornton Brodhead (the same man who's regiment killed William) and bore six children, Josephine, Marian, John, Ellen, Katherine and Elizabeth. Josephine married a Canadian government officer, Balfour, and lived in Toronto. Marian married John K. Webster. John married the niece of Nathaniel P. Willis, a author in Detroit, and Elizabeth married Frederick Howard.

Source: http://www.usgennet.org/usa/mi/county/tuscola/waymar/boyer-brown.htm

Elizabeth BRODHEAD & Frederick A. HOWARD - 18 NOV 1892

Josephine Archange BRODHEAD & William Douglas BALFOUR - 18 OCT 1876

Mary Jeannette BRODHEAD & Jonathan Kearsley WEBSTER - 24 OCT 1883


This page was last updated on:
May 22, 2002