Bromwell, Henry P. H.

Born: 1823-08-26 Baltimore, Maryland

Died: 1903-01-07

Henry P. H. Bromwell was a teacher, attorney, newspaper owner and editor, judge, congressman, and a Mason. He moved with his family to Cincinnati, Ohio in 1824, then to Cumberland, Illinois in 1836. He received a good education as a child, attending private schools in both Ohio and Illinois, including Marshall Academy in Marshall, Illinois. He became an instructor at the Academy in 1844. He soon developed an interest in the law, however, and began studying. He gained admittance to the bar in 1853 and began practicing in Vandalia, Illinois. Around the same time, Bromwell began editing and publishing the Age of Steam and Fire, a newspaper that was ostensibly political neutral but which aligned with the principles of the Whig Party. He sold the paper in either 1854 or 1855. In 1853, he also became judge for Fayette County, a position he held until 1857, when he relocated to Charleston, Illinois. In 1858, he married Elizabeth E. “Emma” Payne, with whom he had at least three children. He was an active figure in the founding and early history of the Illinois Republican Party, and served as a state presidential elector for Abraham Lincoln in the 1860 Federal Election. By 1860, he owned $4,000 in real and personal property. Toward the end of the Civil War, he was elected as a Republican to the U.S. House of Representatives. He died in Denver, Colorado.

Newton Bateman and Paul Selby, eds., Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Fayette County, ed. by Robert W. Ross and John J. Bullington (Chicago: Munsell, 1910), 2:721; Biographical Directory of the American Congress 1774-1949 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1950), 291, 893; Franklin William Scott, Newspapers and Periodicals of Illinois, 1814-1879, vol. 6 of Collections of the Illinois State Historical Library (Springfield: Illinois State Historical Library, 1910), 343; Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, Clark County, 15 June 1858, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Coles County, IL, 212; U.S. Census Office, Ninth Census of the United States (1870), Coles County, IL, 83; Elizabeth E. Bromwell, Gravestone, Cedar Hill Cemetery, Corydon, IN.