"Portrait and Biographical Record of Portland and Vicinity, Oregon." Authors: "a compilation of this work....by a number of writers". Chapman Publishing Co; Chicago, 1903. p. 287. EARL C. BRONAUGH, SR. In the last half century the lawyer has been a pre-eminent factor in all affairs of private concern and national importance. He has been depended upon to conserve the best and permanent interests of the whole people, and is a recognized power in all the avenues of life. He stands as the protector of the rights and liberties of his fellow men, and is a representative of a profession whose followers, if they would gain honor, fame and success, must be men of merit and ability. Such a one was Earl C. Bronaugh, who passed away March 6, 1899, after a connection of thirty-one years with the bar of Oregon, and it is safe to say that there never was an attorney in the state who was held in higher respect by his associates. Coming to the state at a time when the work of development had just begun, he became identified with the substantial growth and upbuilding of the same. Unostentatious in manner, he never allowed himself to become a public man, preferring to give his whole time to the practice of his profession. At the time of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, member of the Bronaugh family, who were French Huguenots, fled to Scotland for refuge, and from there came to America. The emigration must have taken place some time before the Revolution, as members of the family took part in the struggle for independence. Jeremiah Bronaugh, the father of the personal subject of this review, was born in Virginia, where the family had settled at a very early day. In about 1846, Mr. Bronaugh became a pioneer of western Tennessee, and still later removed to Arkansas, where he lived the balance of his life. In early manhood he was engaged in the mercantile business, but the most of his life was devoted to agricultural pursuits. By marriage he was united with Miss Elizabeth Clapp, a daughter of Dr. Earl B. Clapp, of Abingdon, Va. Dr. Clapp was a native of Massachusetts, and served as surgeon during the war of 1812 with the Virginia troops. He married Elizabeth Craig, of Abingdon, a daughter or Capt. Robert Craig. Captain Craig was a native of Pennsylvania, and in 1787 he removed to the Old Dominion. During the struggle for independence he served under Washington during two campaigns. He was also very active in promoting patriotic societies, organizing many in different portions of the country. He died in Abingdon in 1834, aged ninety years. For seventy years he was a very active member of the Presbyterian Church. Dr. Earl B. Clapp was a descendant of Thomas Clapp, a native of Dorchester, England, who came to this country in 1633, and settled in Massachusetts, where the descendants of the family resided until some time prior to the war of 1812, when Dr. Clapp migrated to Virginia, being the first member of the family to leave the New England states. His marriage with Elizabeth Craig resulted in the birth of four children, one of whom was Elizabeth, who became the wife of Jeremiah Bronaugh. Of this latter union there were seven children, three of whom lived to reach mature years, as follows: Earl C., our subject; Anna Louisa, now Mrs. Poindexter, of Bardwell, Ky., and William J., who died in Arkansas. His son, Jerry, is now an attorney of the city of Portland. Earl C. Bronaugh was born in Abingdon, Va., March 4, 1831. There he spent the first twelve years of his life, at the end of which time he accompanied his parents on their removal to Shelby county, Tenn. There a new home was founded in the wilderness, and for six years Mr. Bronaugh assisted his father in the work of the farm and wood. While a resident of Abingdon he had attended the public schools and laid the foundation for an education, and while working with his father he devoted his spare time to study. Early in life he had become imbued with a desire to make law his life occupation. Accordingly, in 1847, he entered the law office of his uncle, J. W. Clapp, of Holly Springs, Miss., and after two years of study he was admitted to the bar. Being without means to take up the practice of his profession at once, the following two years were spent in teaching in Tennessee and Arkansas. He then located at Jacksonport, Ark., where he engaged in practice for a short time. Soon after he removed to Little Rock, the same state, where for a time he served as clerk of the chancery court. Later, two years were spent at Brownsville, Ark., from which place he removed to Helena, in the same state. Here he became prominently identified with affairs and was elected judge of the circuit court in 1860. This office he continued to hold until the breaking out of the Civil war. While not a man in sympathy with slavery, his education and environments had been such as to imbue him with the principles of the south. He was a firm believer in state sovereignty and when his adopted state seceded from the Union he gave his support to the Confederate cause. He enlisted in the army of the south and for one year continued in the service. At the expiration of this time his health failed and he soon after received his discharge from the service and returned home, where he remained until the close of the war. For a time after the close of the great struggle he remained in the south, but he soon realized that it was a poor country in which to strive for a fortune and position and after a few years he determined to seek newer fields in the far west where there were fairer chances for reward. In the year 1868 he came to the city of Portland. On reaching here he was without a dollar in the world, but he was not of the sort that give up and become disheartened. He was determined to succeed and at once opened a law office. From the first he received his share of the public's patronage and as time passed and people learned of his ability his practice grew until at the time of his death there were none that commanded a more extensive clientage, and his legal attainments placed him in the very front rank of the Oregon bar. For three years he was associated with Hon. John Catlin as a partner and for ten years was a member of the firm of Dolph, Bronaugh, Dolph & Simon. In 1882, owing to failing health, he removed with his family to St. Clair county, Cal., where he remained for two years. On his return to Portland he became a partner in the law firm of Whalley, Bronaugh & Northup. The senior member of this firm retired in 1889, and from that time until the death of Mr. Bronaugh, the style of the firm was Bronaugh & Northup. At a meeting of the members of the Portland bar soon after the death of Mr. Bronaugh there was a large attendance and many of the leading attorneys of the city delivered a number of scholarly and eloquent orations. It was said at the time there was never before a like meeting where so many sincere and able addresses were given. The committee on resolutions, in addition to a sketch of his life, presented the following eulogy, which was adopted by the meeting: "As a lawyer, Judge Bronaugh had few if any superiors at the Oregon bar. Some might excel him in eloquence, others in powers for skillful cross examination, but no one in the knowledge of the law or accuracy of statement. No case entrusted to him was lost through his want of car, research or ability. It has been said of him that no man could make a better record in a cause for appeal to the supreme court, and no lawyer saw the controlling questions in a case with more clearness than he . Before a jury he was an exceedingly dangerous antagonist. Always in earnest himself in what he did, he never failed to impress those whom he addressed with the sincerity of his views. Persuasive in speech, logical and forceful in argument, with a play often of quiet and graceful humor and gentle wit, of which he used to please and not to wound, it was not surprising that he should have been a great verdict winner. Those whom he vanquished in forensic contest never felt the sting of their defeat intensified by any boasting on his part or the detraction of the abilities or conduct of his adversary. In defeat he was always calm, courteous and brave; fertile in resources but fair in action. It is not the language of mortuary panegyric, but the plain simple truth, which everyone in the community in which for thirty years has lived and labored, will attest to say of him that his name was the synonym of uprightness and honor, and that he was in the estimation of everyone, whether client or adversary, esteemed and respected as an honest man. "Priceless indeed is that legacy of a good and honored name that he bequeathed to his family which he loved so well, and for whom he so cheerfully labored. He was a devoted husband and father; a kind and generous neighbor; a plain and simple gentleman of the old school; unaffected in manner, speech and dress; sincerely devoted to his profession and unmindful of the strife and contentions of public life. He did not mingle much in public, was retiring and modest, and preferred the quiet home, the grave decorum of the court room, and the desk and library of his office. He was a man of strong religious convictions, and deeply sensible of the sufferings of the human race. The loss of seven children in their childhood and youth gave a touch of sorrow to his face, and the gravity of life and its issues made a profound impression upon his whole career. And yet he was a most hopeful man in the promises of the faith he professed. The hope of a simple, sincere Christianity animated his life and efforts. To him this life was but a preparation for that to come. It was therefore doubly earnest to him, for as Longfellow wrote, he felt -- 'Life is real, life is earnest, And the grave is not its goal; Dust thou art, to dust returneth Was not spoken of the soul.' "Although his star of life is no longer seen, yet it has set as sets the morning star in beauty, which goes not down behind the darkened clouds of the west, but melts away in the pure radiance of Heaven. Let us emulate his virtues and follow his example." Mr. Bronaugh had a deep and abiding faith in the cardinal principles of the Christian religion. Though reared in the Presbyterian faith, later in life he identified himself with the Christian Adventist denomination, and became an earnest worker in the cause. He was a man of unsullied reputation, pure minded, generous hearted, and always adhering strictly to the principles which he laid down for his self-government, when, as a thoughtful and reasoning creature, he first decided to champion the cause of the Master of the hearts and lives of men. He contributed liberally of his means for the furtherance of the Gospel, and his benevolence aside from church work was numerous, though very quietly conducted. The ethical system associated with the church was carried by him into his daily life, and in Masonry, in which he took an earnest and active interest, he found the fellow of the church. The time he had to spare from the practice of his profession was devoted to the study of the Bible; it was his recreation, and many of the Biblical articles from his pen have been published in different sections of the country. ******************* Submitted to the Oregon Bios. Project in April 2006 by Diana Smith. Submitter has no additional information about the person(s) or family mentioned above.