HON. LAWRENCE J.
BROUGHAL
Portrait and Biographical Record ~ Pages
853 & 854
Kindly submitted by:
Barbara Gallagher
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.