History of Pike County Pennsylvania United States of America

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Richard Brodhead, senator, was born in Lehman township, Pike county, Pa., Jan. 5, 1811. He was a student at Lafayette college, and was admitted to practise at the bar in 1836. The year following he took his seat in the state legislature. He acted as treasurer of Northampton county in 1841, and in 1842 was elected a representative to Congress, serving by re-election from 1843 to 1849. In 1849 he was elected to the United States senate as a Democrat, serving through the 32d, 33d and 34th congresses as a senator. He died in Easton, Pa., Sept. 16, 1863.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

Henry Richard Linderman, director of the U.S. mints, was born in Lehman township, Pike county, Pa., Dec. 25, 1825; son of Dr. John Jordan and Rachel (Brodhead) Linderman; and grandson of Henry Linderman of Orange county, N.Y., and of Richard Brodhead of Pike county, Pa. His first ancestors in America were Jacob yon Linderman, who settled near Kingston, Ulster county, N.Y., in 1710, and Capt. Daniel Brodhead of the King's Grenadiers, who commanded a company in Colonel Nichols' expedition to New Amsterdam in 1664, and settled at Esopus, N.Y. He was a great grandnephew of Brev. Brig.-Gen. Daniel Brodhead, colonel of the 8th Pennsylvania, and of Capt. Luke Brodhead of the 6th Pennsylvania, and a great grandson of Moses Shaw of the 5th New York regiment, all of the Continental line; a great grandson of Garrett Brodhead of the New Jersey state troops and of Capt. Samuel Drake of the Pennsylvania militia, in active service during the Revolution. He was also a nephew of U.S. Senator Richard Brodhead, who was his mother's brother. He studied medicine with his father, was graduated at the University of the City of New York, M.D., in 1846, and practised in Pike and Carbon counties, Pa. He was chief clerk of the U.S. mint at Philadelphia, 1855-64, and director of the U.S. mint at Philadelphia and in charge of all the branch mints and assay offices in the United States, 1866-69. In July, 1869, he was appointed treasury commissioner to examine the western mints and adjust some intricate bullion questions, in 1870 he was sent to Europe by President Grant to visit the mints at London, Paris, Brussels and Berne to report on their coinage methods and on the relative values of gold and silver as currency metals, and his report on his return in 1871 favored a single gold standard. In 1872 he was appointed a commissioner with Prof. Robert E. Rogers of the University of Pennsylvania, to examine the subject of wastage in operating on gold and silver bullion, and was also the government commissioner for fitting up the new mint and assay office at San Francisco. In 1872 he made an elaborate report on the condition of the market for silver, and predicted the decline in its relative value to gold which afterward took place. With a view of obtaining an advantageous market for the large and increasing production of that metal in the United States he projected the coinage of the trade dollar which was subsequently authorized by law and successfully introduced into Oriental markets with marked advantage to American commerce. In the same report he called attention to the disadvantages arising from the computation and quotation of exchange with Great Britain on the old and complicated colonial basis and from the under-valuation of foreign coins in computing the value of invoices and in levying and collecting duties on foreign merchandise at the U.S. custom houses. He was the author of the act of March 3, 1873, which corrected these defects. Dr. Linderman was the first to recommend the adoption of a system of redemption for the inferior coins used as change money for the purpose of keeping their purchasing power on an equality with the money of unlimited legal tender. He was the author of the coinage act of 1873. In 1869 he had assisted John Jay Knox, then deputy comptroller of the currency, in framing the first act for the codification of the mint legislation, which was not acted upon. Upon his return from Europe, in 1871-72, Dr. Linderman entirely rewrote this act, adding and including the provisions demonetizing silver and putting the country on a gold standard, making the director of the mint an officer reporting to the secretary of the treasury instead of the President, and authorizing the coinage of the trade dollar for Oriental commerce. He secured its passage after two years' work before congress in 1873, and was the first director of the U.S. mints under the new law, 1873-79. He declined to serve the Japanese government at a very large salary in organizing a new mint system for the empire. With Henry Dodge and Frederic F. Low of San Francisco, named by him as colleagues, as the U.S. treasury commission, he investigated the San Francisco mint, custom house and other Federal departments on the Pacific coast in 1877, without additional compensation, and the overwork brought on the illness which resulted in his death. Besides his reports to the President and treasury department, he is author of: Argument for the Gold Standard (1877); Money and Legal Tender (1877). See "Pennsylvania Cyclopaedia of Biography" (1874). He died in Washington, D.C., Jan. 28, 1879.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

History of Pike County Pennsylvania

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