Northumberland-Schuylkill County PA Archives Biographies.....Brennan, Patrick F. 1853 - living in 1899

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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com July 6, 2005, 10:54 pm



Author: Biographical Publishing Co.



PATRICK F. BRENNAN district superintendent of the Philadelphia & Reading Coal &

Iron Company, is a man of great prominence in the Seventeenth Congressional

District of Pennsylvania. His position is one of vast importance not only to his

employers but to the thousands of laboring men under his supervision. In 1895 he

was appointed district superintendent of the Southern Coal & Iron Works and he

has exhibited much executive ability in his management of the same. The district

in his charge includes the following collieries: Henry Clay, Big Mountain,

Sterling, Burnside, Bear Valley, North Franklin and Buck Ridge. These collieries

furnish employment to about 3,800 men and boys and are all located in

Northumberland County.



  Besides his varied duties in superintending these collieries Mr. Brennan has

been partially instrumental in bringing about important changes in the mining

laws. He was appointed by Gov. Robert Pattison a member of a commission

consisting of eleven to revise the old mining law then in operation. The

commissioners gravely considered the situation and the present law is the result.



  Our subject was born September 3, 1853, in the southern part of Schuylkill

County, Pa. His father died when he was eleven years of age, leaving a widow and

four children, our subject being one of them. Thus, early in life, he was

obliged to work hard to assist in supporting the family. At the age of eleven

years he began his industrious career by working as door-boy of Preston Mine No.

2, located at Girardville, operated at that time by Eaton & Company. As he was

active and attentive to his duties he was soon promoted from that position to a

better one and finally became a miner. On account of his superior skill he was

advanced to foreman of the Suffolk Colliery, near Mahanoy City, which position

he resigned to accept his present much more important and lucrative situation,

mentioned in the beginning of this sketch.



  In 1886 Mr. Brennan was a prominent figure in the Knights of Labor and in that

year was a delegate to the Miners' District Assembly, which was held in

Indianapolis, Ind. At all times our subject has been ready and willing to do all

in his power to assist and help those who are under his supervision.



  Mr. Brennan sought and won Elizabeth Murphy for his wife and their nuptials

were consummated July 1, 1880. The following children have been born to them:

Thomas: Laura; Annie, Lizzie, Helen, and Joseph, all deceased; James; Joseph;

Eleanor; and Ida. During his experience as a miner while working at Preston Mine

No. 2 he received severe injuries, caused by a gas explosion, and has never

entirely recovered from them. Politically Mr. Brennan inclines to the party of

Jefferson and Jackson, but does not ally himself with it when its politics do

not suit him. He served one term as burgess of Girardville and was also tax

collector and chief of police of the same town. Few men can boast of having more

friends and influence in the Seventeenth Congressional District than our worthy

subject.





Additional Comments:

Extracted from:



Book of Biographies of the Seventeenth Congressional District

Published by 

Biographical Publishing Company of Chicago, Ill. and Buffalo, NY (1899)



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