My Genealogy Hound

H. M. BRACKENRIDGE was the only son of Benjamin Morgan Brackenridge, who was the only son of H. M. Brackenridge, and was born in Philadelphia, Pa., Nov. 5, 1828. He received his education in Philadelphia and Washington, and inherited a very extensive tract of land from his mother, Caroline Marie Brackenridge, located in Harrison township. Allegheny county, Pa. He was a scientist, an artist and a fine chemist, but his health was too delicate to permit him to follow his inclinations. He married, Feb. 10, 1853, Miss Phillipine, daughter of Edward Stieren, a young lady educated, refined and accomplished, whose father was a doctor of philosophy and chemistry, he having been one-fifth owner of a celebrated chemical works in Germany, but owing to unexpected financial reverses removed to America and accepted the position of first chemist for the Pennsylvania Salt-Manufacturing company, whose works are located at Natrona. Mrs. Brackenridge, however, was soon called upon to mourn the loss of her husband, who, in his thirty-fourth year, became a victim to that fell destroyer, consumption. Keenly feeling her great loss and realizing fully the responsibility now devolving upon her (being left with a son, H. M., and a daughter, Cornelia Caroline), she assumed, with the grace characteristic of a lady, all the duties and cares of superintending the proper management of a vast estate, and the education of her children. Knowing that by inheritance her children’s tastes would incline to literature and art, she sought to guide them in that direction. H. M. received his education partly at the University of Pittsburgh and Cornelia C. at the Bingham Institute. Then Mrs. Brackenridge, desirous of affording all advantages their tastes and position required, visited Europe, and for three years remained with her children, where they enjoyed all the advantages afforded by the universities of Dresden, and traveled extensively through Europe during the summer. They all, however, returned to the old Brackenridge homestead, and Cornelia C. was united in marriage with Erastus J. McKelvey, a prominent member of the Pittsburgh bar. She was doomed to an early death, and died, leaving two children, Cornelia Brackenridge and Caroline Marie Brackenridge McKelvey, now members of their grandmother’s household. They have a governess, are receiving an education, and are being fitted to properly fill the social positions a delicate and refined taste requires and wealth affords. H. M. Brackenridge married Madge, daughter of William Richards, of Philadelphia, former superintendent of the Pennsylvania Salt-Manufacturing company of Natrona, and now prominently identified with railroad interests. To them have been born two children — Helen and Cornelia. All are at the Brackenridge homestead, known as “The Grove,” located just below Natrona, on the Allegheny river, their residence being conspicuous in a lawn descending gently to the river, and in the summer-time surrounded and bathed by the sweet perfume of rare plants and shrubs; in the colder season enlivened with wit and humor, and the graces which center there would, all combined, lead one to exclaim, “Verily, this of the world is the Vol de florie.”