My Genealogy Hound

HON. LAWRENCE J. BROUGHAL, who was a member of the Legislature from 1892 to 1894, is numbered among the public-spirited and enterprising citizens of this district, whose first endeavor is always the good of the people. A native of South Bethlehem, he was born January 22, 1856, and is a son of Andrew Broughal, a native of County Wicklow, Ireland. The latter, on leaving the Emerald Isle, located in Newark, N. J., where he was employed with the oxide works for a time, and in 1853 came to this point. At that time the oxide zinc works were started in South Bethlehem, and he remained with the company until about 1865. He was then an employe of the Bethlehem Iron Company until he was severely injured by an explosion, his injuries terminating fatally in 1891, at the age of fifty-seven years. Both he and his wife, whose maiden name was Ellen Mulaly, were members of the Catholic Church. Mrs. Broughal was born in Ireland, and by her marriage became the mother of nine children, seven of whom are living.

The subject of this sketch is the eldest in his father’s family, and passed his boyhood in this city, where he attended the common schools, and was graduated in 1869 from the high school. His active career was commenced at the foot of the ladder in the employ of the Bethlehem Iron Company as a helper at the rolls. When eighteen years of age he was placed in charge of a set of rolls, and steadily rose until he became a foreman in the works. When the South Bethlehem National Bank was established in 1889, he was one of the organizers, and has been a Director ever since. He is also a member of the building and loan association and other city enterprises.

In Bethlehem, June 21, 1884, Mr. Broughal married Miss Josephine Hellenberger, who was born in Grant, Pa., and by their marriage four children have been born, who are in order of birth as follows: Dennis, Mary, James and Nellie. The family are members of the Catholic Church and are much respected in this city. When only twenty-one years old, Mr. Broughal was elected to the City Council, and has served in the same for a number of terms, some eleven years in all, in which time he served as Chairman of the Market Committee and as a member of the Finance and Street Committees. For one term he served as School Director, being much interested in educational affairs.

A Democrat in politics, Mr. Broughal was a member of the Democratic Central Committee of the county, and was a delegate to the State Convention which met at Paterson in 1890. In 1892 he was nominated to the Legislature as Representative from the county at large, and was elected in the fall of that year. In 1894 he was again nominated, but his loyalty and fidelity to principle cost him his election, as had he not been stanch and true to his associates on the ticket he would most certainly have been elected. He lost the election by four votes only, a remarkably small defeat in such a general “landslide.” Mr. Broughal is intelligent and well educated, and his many friends and constituents placed the utmost confidence in his honor and integrity of principle as their representative.