railroad construction engineer, banker, businessman, b. Plattekill, Ulster County, N.Y. He studied two years as a private student at the West Point engineering school. He came to Wisconsin in 1852 as construction engineer for the Milwaukee and Mississippi R.R. Company, and later served briefly as its president (1857). During the Civil War he was active in volunteer work and was made a Companion of the Loyal Legion, one of three Wisconsin civilians accorded the honor. Brodhead was a member of Milwaukee's first water commission and of the Committee for the Industrial Exposition of 1880; a director of the Board of Trade, the Wisconsin Telephone Co., and the Northwestern National Insurance Co.; and president of the First National Bank. A part of his extensive real estate holdings is now incorporated in the village of Brodhead. Biog. Dict.... Wis.... (Chicago, 1895); J. G. Gregory, Hist. of Milwaukee (4 vols., Chicago, 1931); A. W. Derleth, Milwaukee Road (New York, 1948); Milwaukee journal, Dec. 15, 1890; WPA field notes.

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[Source: Dictionary of Wisconsin biography]