Montgomery County PA Archives Biographies.....Brophy, Joseph J. March 19, 1866 - 
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Joe Patterson jpatter@epix.net December 4, 2025, 3:55 pm

Source: Biographical Annals of Montgomery County Pennsylvania, T. S. Benham & Company and the Lewis Publishing Company, 1904
Author: Ellwood Roberts, Editor

  JOSEPH J. BROPHY was born at Port Kennedy, Montgomery 
county, March 19, 1866. In 1870 he went with his father's 
family to Conshohocken, where he resided until 1872, when 
the family removed to Swedeland, where he grew to manhood, 
having the advantages afforded by public schools until he 
was thirteen years of age, when he went into the Albin Print 
Works as an employee. At that establishment it was his duty 
to keep the cloth smooth as it came from the rolls. After a 
year spent in the Print Works, he secured employment in the 
Joseph Lees Woolen Mills, in the vicinity of his home, as 
bobbin-boy. After rendering service for six months in that 
capacity, he was given a better job in the picker house. A 
few months later he entered the establishment of James Hall, 
a carpet weaver of West Conshohocken, with whom he remained 
three years, finding employment at the end of that time in 
John Wood's Rolling Mill in Conshohocken. At the end of a 
year he hired with William B. Rambo in his line of work, 
where he remained another year. He then spent two years in 
the Baldwin Locomotive Works in Philadelphia, gaining 
knowledge of a locomotive which has been exceedingly 
valuable to him many times in his railroading.

  Mr. Brophy then took a western trip, going to Chicago to 
visit relatives. After his return he worked for the Reading 
Railway Company a short time at Ninth and Master streets, 
Philadelphia, handling coal. Engaging with Forepaugh, he 
took a trip through Ohio and part of Indiana, and this gave 
him all he wanted of circus life. He came home to enter the 
employ of the Reading Railway Company as repairman, in 1887, 
this being the real start of his life as a railroad man. Mr. 
Brophy has always stood by the company in its labor 
troubles, and at the time of the strike of the Knights of 
Labor in 1887, he was made a brakeman, which duty he 
performed for a year and a half, and then was promoted to 
conductor one year on day shifts. He was then a fireman for 
seven years, and on October 15, 1895, was examined for 
engineer and received a certificate as such. He has been an 
engineer ever since, six years a regular engineer.

  Mr. Brophy has been a member of the Ancient Order of 
Hibernians for fifteen years. In religious faith be is a 
Catholic, being a member of St. Augustine's church, 
Bridgeport.

  Mr. Brophy married, October 21, 1888, Miss Catharine 
Coleman, daughter of John and Mary (McNallis) Coleman. She 
was born March 1o, 1870, in Phoenixville. After his marriage 
he lived for a time in Swedeland, and then went to 
Downingtown, remaining there seven years. He then returned 
to Bridgeport and has resided there ever since.

  William Brophy (father) was born in County Tipperary, 
Ireland, on the province of Ulster, where he lived fourteen 
years, and then, with his mother's family, removed to 
England, his father having died a few years previously. In 
England Mr. Brophy was reared and there married Mary Ann 
Mooney, who was born in Queens County, Ireland. Two years 
after his marriage, Mr. Brophy and his wife left Liverpool 
in a sailing vessel and after a voyage of thirteen weeks 
landed at Castle Garden, New York. This was in 1857, and 
during the panic of that year he was glad to accept work 
with John Kennedy at Port Kennedy, for eighty cents a day. 
He remained with Mr. Kennedy twenty years. At Port Kennedy, 
his children were born and he spent there the best years of 
his life. He is above the age of seventy years and his wife 
nearly seventy-five years of age, and resides at Swedeland. 
Their children: Martin J., married (first wife) Annie 
Waters, and (second wife) Mrs. Cennus; Thomas and Margaret 
(twins), of whom Thomas married Estella Brightenstine, and 
Margaret married John McCaully; Joseph J., subject of this 
sketch.

  Mr. and Mrs. Joseph J. Brophy have had five children, as 
follows: John M., born September 13, 1889; Mary, born 
January 29, 1891; Margaret, born April 11, 1892; William, 
born April 1, 1895; and Joseph, born October 12, 1898.

  Mrs. Brophy's father was born in County Tipperary, 
Ireland, her mother in County Donegal. They came to the 
United States at different times and. located in the coal 
regions of Pennsylvania, where they were married.  Their 
children: Catharine, now Mrs. Brophy; Margaret, deceased, 
wife of John Nalley; Annie, who married Harvey Ott; Grace, 
unmarried; and Cecilia, who married Matthew Morris.

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