San
Francisco County
JOHN LEWIS BROMLEY
John Lewis Bromley, real-estate agent, of
Of the patriotism of the Bromley family and
their military ardor, interesting evidence is preserved in the muster roll of a
company of militia at Danby Corners, in the war of 1812, in which twelve of
that name appear on record. John, a son
of William, born also in New York, was married in Vermont, to Eliza Palmer, a
native of that State, who died comparatively young. After her death the husband, who dealt in
horses and cattle and sometimes conducted droves as far south as Virginia,
settled in Maryland, becoming known as John Bromley of Mt. Savage, Maryland; he
lived to the age of seventy. His son
Lewis, the father of him whose name heads this sketch, was born in Vermont,
moved to Maryland, and was married in Baltimore, 1819, to A. C. Irons. Of their children two are on this coast—John
L., of Oakland, and Washington L., a merchant of San Francisco.
Mr. Bromley, our subject, completed his
school days in an academic course in his native city, being a pupil of three
distinguished educators of that day—Professors Cooper, Post and Reese. From the age of seventeen to twenty he was
clerk in a wholesale grocery house, and in his twenty-first year engaged in the
grain and feed business on his own account, continuing in that line some three
years. He then went to farming, chiefly
stock-raising, on land he owned in Virginia, amounting finally to about 500
acres.
In 1846 he enlisted in the Mexican war,
becoming Orderly Sergeant in the Fourteenth Regiment, and was among the first
to enter the city of
Before the close of 1848 he engaged in
business in
He has been married three times: first, at
the age of twenty-three, to a lady who died leaving no children, fifty-one
weeks after her marriage. In 1848 he was
again married, his second wife dying in child-birth, fifty-three weeks after
marriage, and leaving no children. In
1851 Mr. Bromley married, in Baltimore, Miss Anna Levering, who was born in
that city in 1829, a daughter of William and Susan (Hall) Levering, natives of
Maryland, and died in Baltimore, at an advanced age. Mr. Bromley’s children, all but two born in
Contra Costa county, are: William Lewis, born in Baltimore, May 30, 1852, died
in Oakland in 1883; Thomas, born February 1, 1854, now a topographical engineer
and artist of Oakland; Anna Catherine, born in San Francisco, April 17, 1855;
Robert Innis, born January 24, 1857, now a physician and surgeon of Sonora,
California; Martha Maryland, born October 16, 1858; Joseph Hall, born in 1860,
died in his ninth year; Ella Virginia, born in 1862, died in her third year;
Walter Frederick, born in 1863, also died in childhood; Marion, born March 22,
1865, now a student in the University of California; Virginia, born February 5,
1867; and Roscoe Palmer, May 29, 1869.
Mrs. Bromley’s father was born in Philadelphia, and died young. His father, Peter Levering, was a native of
the same city.
Mr. Bromley has been endowed with a
remarkable vigor of body and mind, which give fair promise of adding several
years of usefulness to the three-score years and ten already reached. Apparently a frail man of small frame, he has
been sick but one day in more than forty years.
Mrs. Bromley also is in full possession of her mental faculties and
bodily powers.
Transcribed by Donna L. Becker
Source: "The
© 2005 Donna L.
Becker.