Rash's Surname Index
Notes for William Booth BROOMALL
William Booth Broomall, the well-known lawyer of Chester, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, is the eldest son of Hon. John Martin Broomall, in whose sketch will be found the ancestral history of the family. He was born in the house still standing at the corner of Market Square and Third Street, January 30, 1843, and when he was two years of age he was taken to the farm which had been purchased by his father in Upper Chichester, near the present Boothwyn. At a suitable age he became a pupil in the school of Joseph Taylor, which was conducted in the second story of the Penn building, Market Square.
Subsequently, he was placed under the private tuition of James G. Riddle, to gain the necessary knowledge of the classics and higher mathematics, and he generally prepared for entrance to college. He matriculated at Haverford College in September 1856, and was graduated from that institution in July 1861. In the meantime his father had removed to Media, and there in the office of his father he commenced the study of law. Among his fellow students at law were, Hon. James Barton Jr. and Hon. John B. Hinson, both of whom later became mayors of Chester, and both of whom were lifelong friends.
At the age of nineteen years Mr. Broomall enlisted in Company D, [under] Captain Norris L. Yarnall, 124th Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, and was mustered into the service of the United States with the rank of sergeant, August 11, 1862. On September 16, after a day's hard marching and having been without food for almost twenty four hours, the regiment was ordered to take part in the battle of Antietam, and from daylight until three o'clock the following afternoon, held its position. There were a number of charges as these hours passed by, and they lost and regained the same ground several times. The regiment was thrown to the front in the terrible battle of Chancellorville, when the Eleventh Corps became panic stricken. For five hours they held the confederate veterans in check until, being outflanked, they were compelled to retire. Mr. Broomall was actively identified with his regiment until he was honorably discharged at Harrisburg, May 9, 1863, at which time he had not long passed his twentieth birthday.
Returning to the office of Broomall and Ward in Chester, Mr. Broomall resumed his reading of the law, and this was continued without further interruption until his admission to the bar of Delaware County, February 28, 1864. For a period of three years he remained as an assistant in the office in which he
had gained his legal knowledge, then decided upon establishing himself. In January, 1867, he became associated in a partnership with Hon. William Ward and David M. Johnson, but at the end of the one year Mr. Johnson withdrew and that firm became Ward and Broomall until 1878, when Mr. Broomall resigned from it. Up to this time he had rarely appeared in court as a pleader of cases, confining his services to the counseling line, but his fame as a careful and exact advocate of the law spread rapidly, and he was soon acknowledged as the leading spirit of the bar.
From the time that Mr. Broomall commenced to practice law independently of others, there have been very few important cases involving large amounts in which he as not engaged. In 1889, after the Union Railway Company was authorized to lay tracks on designated streets, the Chester Street Railway
Company sought to restrain them from the use of the streets, but so ably were the facts and the law presented by Mr. Broomall, that the court sustained his contention. The Union Railway Company purchased the equipment of the other company, miles of tracks were laid, and the r present magnificent railway system inaugurated. In the case of the Swarthmore and Morton Railway against the Chester Traction Company, Mr. Broomall was also successful. Unlike his father, Mr. Brooomall very rarely appeared in a criminal case. In the few in which he did appear, they created a widespread attention. One of these was the Pfitzenmeyer homicide case, in 1891, when a woman was on trial for the
murder of her sister, and where Mr. Broomall introduced the neck of the murdered woman in court in order to prove the fallacy of the contentions of the prosecution. The jury acquitted the prisoner after a deliberation lasting but a few minutes. In 1892 Mr. Broomall was the leading counsel in the William Brown homicide case, where, during a strike at the Standard Steel Works, one of the strikers, while attempting to intimidate other workmen, was killed. The accused parties were acquitted. In numerous other cases Mr. Broomall has been equally successful in proving his point, and is considered as one of the ablest lawyers in the entire state. A considerable portion of the leisure time of Mr. Broomall has been given to historical investigation, and he has written many interesting papers on this subject. Two of these, which were read before the Delaware County History Society, were: William Lewis, an old time leader at the Pennsylvania bar, and William Ward. These are valuable contributions and welcome ones, to the annals of the state.
For at least a quarter of a century he has been a member of Chester Lodge, No. 236, Free and Accepted Masons, and has served in it as master. For many years he has been deputy grand master, representing the grand lodge in Delaware and Chester counties. He has been presiding officer of the Penn Club since its organization in 1896. Since 1874 he has visited Europe three times, and his travels in the United States, Mexico, and Canada have been extensive and profitable.
Mr. Broomall married, October 17, 1876, Anna M., daughter of Joseph Engle and Anna (Black) Hinkson. It is a rather curious fact that the marriage took place in the house in which Mr. Broomall was born, this having passed through various hands in the meantime. To his friends, Mr. Broomall is regarded as a man of high instincts and warm heart, of gracious and courtly hospitality, a lover of music and art, and a man of quick and ready wit. Professionally, he is recognized as a keen student of human nature, a man of insight and force of character. He is a man of wide reading and sound judgment, and his opinion carry weight in the legal world, because of their peculiar clearness of
expression, which renders them easy of comprehension by the lay mind.
Source: "A History of Delaware County Pennsylvania and Its People." Under
the editorial Supervision of John W. Jordan, LL.D. Libarian of the historical
Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia (sic). Volume III( New York: Lewis
Historical Publishing Company, 1914)
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