History of Franklin County, Pennsylvania, 1887



Emanuel Bonbrake Biography

Emanuel Emanuel Bonbrake, attorney at law, Chambersburg. The generic name is an old one in Franklin County. Its origin is uncertain and its original form is not positively ascertained. Whether German, Dutch, Swiss or French is not known, even by those who bear it. The name is dissyllabic, and each syllable has taken a most unwarrantable license in a wild canter over the gamut. of change both in sound and in letter. The first syllable is found in documents and papers as Bon, Bone, Bohn, Boin, Bine and Bound, while the second, not to be outdone, has disported in various shapes as Bright, Brecht, Brake, Break, Breck and Brick, one paper of the year 1789 having the name as Boundbrick. It is a good example of the eccentricity and variation of a name in America. The most prevalent belief holds that the name is Swiss-German or Franco-German, but there is a singular plausibility and force in a less prevalent opinion that the name is Dutch; that it originated in Holland or the Low Countries as Brecht, with the common prefix Van or Von, making Vonbrecht, from which the transition to Bonbrecht would be easy and natural. But if the origin is uncertain, its long existence in this county is certain.

The first ancestor came between 1745 and 1765. Lands were taken up at the Grindstone Hill nearly midway between Chambersburg and Waynesboro, some of which were laid out on warrant to Daniel Binebreck in 1762, and remained in the family until 1868, a period of more than a century. There is a dim tradition that his ancestor left his native land under a cloud, because of resetting, or giving food and shelter to some one under ban of the law. He is reputed to have tarried a while in Philadelphia County, but soon located in this county, then a part of Cumberland. From the Grindstone Hill the descendants spread to Scotland, Wayneshoro and other parts of the county; to Somerset, Westmoreland and other counties in the State; and later to the States of Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Colorado and California.

The race was prolific in number and tall in stature. Many of the families had each a dozen or more members; one is said to have furnished seven sons to the American Army in the war of 1812, and now, in one family in Ohio, all the sons average over six feet in height. Some of the earlier ones were stone-cutters, of which there remains evidence in the tombstones of the well filled old graveyard at Grindstone Hill Church. But farming has been the general occupation of the race, though some have reached the highest rank as merchants, a few became lawyers, a dozen or more are now ministers of the Gospel or professors in colleges, a larger number are physicians and surgeons, one family having four or five in the latter profession. Very few have seen fit to tread the path of politics, and, although active and decided in political opinion and feeling, it is claimed for them that in this, their native county, for almost a century and a half, not one of the name has announced himself as a candidate for office, or become a tax upon the public.

The special subject of this sketch was born in 1832 on the banks of Antietam Creek, two miles east of Waynesboro, and he never had legal residence out of the county. His father was John, a teacher, surveyor and firmer, born in 1796 and died in 1866. His grandfather, Conrad (born in 1768, died in 1844), about the beginning of this century bought lands along the Antietam Creek, which still belong to his descendants. His mother was Susanna Weyant (born in 1796, died in 1836) a daughter of John Weyant.

Conrad, the grandfather, left seven children, viz.: Jacob, John, Henry, Daniel, Nancy, Susan and Catharine. John left five children, viz.: Nicholas, John W., Emanuel J., Juliann, wife of Emanuel H. Gordon, and Maria, wife of David B. Russell, all residents of the county, except John W., who has lived near Cedar Rapids, Iowa, since 1865.

The early education of our subject was gained in the free or public schools, the system of which was inaugurated in Pennsylvania in his boyhood. In 1849 he was examined by the school board of his native township (Washington) and assigned as teacher of the Mt. Vernon School. In the spring of 1850, with the funds obtained from the winter' s teaching, he began the higher course of study and entered the preparatory department of Marshall College at Mercersburg, then under the presidency of the celebrated Rev. Dr. John W. Nevin. For several years thereafter he oscillated between teaching in winter and attending college in summer, always keeping in the same class notwithstanding those absences.

He went with the college to Lancaster, Penn., in 1853, when it was consolidated there with Franklin College, and, in 1855 he graduated with honor, taking the valedictory oration, which in this college, unlike most other institutions, is awarded not to the student who has scored the highest average in recitation but to the best writer and speaker, if of respectable grade in recitations. In all public performances at college he had been signally successful and popular, some of his orations being remembered and spoken of to this day after a lapse of over thirty years; but in his valedictory he reproached, perhaps improperly, the trustees and authorities of the college for certain matters, and in doing so furnished an unfortunate example, which afterward was still more unfortunately and improperly followed. There was no doubt of his honesty and courage in making this arraignment, and just as little as to there being cause for it, but its propriety under the circumstances was quite another thing.

The like had never been known in the history of the college, and its suddenness, point and novelty gave great offense. Taken in connection with some later episode in his career, this shows such an indifference to public opinion and careless disregard of consequences that can not be reconciled with his usual prudence and judgment, and may have interfered with usefulness and promotion, and impaired the estimate of a character so earnest and otherwise estimable. He received no further or higher degrees or honors from the college. After graduating he taught an academy for boys and young men in Camden, in the State of Delaware, until 1856, when he was called to take charge of the academy in Mercersburg, the same that once had been the preparatory department of Marshall College. Relinquishing finally the role of teacher in 1857, he finished the reading of law in the offices of Cessna & Shannon, in Bedford, Penn., where, in May, 1858, he was admitted as an attorney at law. A trip of nearly a year through the Western country followed, then he located in Chambersburg in 1859, and soon after formed a partnership with Capt. George Eyster, who afterward, for seventeen years, held the office of United States treasurer in Philadelphia. From the beginning he was more than ordinarily successful, but a rigid application to business and study and close confinement to office for the purpose, as he states it, of laying a broad and sure foundation for the future, brought on in about two years such a serious breaking down of health that left him little hope of recovery. Consequently ambition was laid; aside and thenceforth his business as a lawyer was mainly confined to the less public, yet more weighty and important line of a practitioner in the orphans' court, and as a general office counselor. In these departments his success and standing are deservedly high. Advice, professional or otherwise, from him has led to few mistakes and disappointments, and his sagacity and practical wisdom, in ordinary business or in new enterprises, are so generally acknowledged that the community looks with much confidence upon any project that enlists his support.

Able and candid in negotiation, yet there is always left an impression of force in reserve. In devotion to friends and in public spirit he has few equals. To him, perhaps, more than to any other one man is Chambersburg indebted for the last and only successful agricultural fair company, for the Wolf & Hamaker Mill Works and for the Taylor Manufacturing Company. All projects favoring the improvement of town or county, whether in building, agriculture, horticulture, new or superior stock, have received his hearty good wishes and active aid. At this time he is likely the only man in the county who has thoroughbred Guernsey cattle, and perhaps the only one who owns a specimen of imported meat cattle.

In politics having come from old Whig stock he is a steadfast Republican, but without noise or demonstration, rather avoiding office than seeking it. He has never held elective office, except such as burgess or school director, in which he considered it his duty as a citizen to serve. Having struggled for his own education, he, of course, is a decided advocate of it, and seems more especially interested in the higher education as found in some of the less pretentious colleges, the ruling idea of which is to thoroughly develop, strengthen and train the intellectual faculties rather than to load the memory; to be well on in building the vessel before putting in the cargo.

For years he has been the treasurer and one of the most active and earnest members of the board of regents of Mercersburg College. His denominational connections are those of his forefathers, he is a member of the Reformed Church. In 1861 he was married to Eliza Belle Oakes, of his native town, and they have three children living: Jessie, Lillian and Norman Leroy.


Source: Biographical Annals of Franklin County, Pennsylvania : containing genealogical records of representative families, including many of the early settlers, and biographical sketches of prominent citizens; Chicago. Genealogical Pub. Co. 1905. Notes: Prepared in part by George O. Seilhamer.















Bonbrake Genealogy Resources



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