Robert E. Bromwell, M.D.

By Fred Kelso Oxford, PA

 
First Port Deposit Telephone

Robert E. Bromwell was born February 28, 1827, on the family farm in the Seventh District of Cecil County, Maryland.  He was the son of William Bromwell, a native of Philadelphia, who spent the greater part of his life in Baltimore.  The grandfather’s name was also William, and he resided for many years in Cecil County.  William Jr. was long engaged in the lumber business in Baltimore, and came to Cecil County in 1825, when he purchased the family homestead.  William Jr. died in 1827, at the age of 49, and his wife passed away in 1858, aged 66 years.   Robert was the youngest of eight children - the others were George, Thomas, Martha, Mary, Beulah, Deborah, and Samuel.

 Robert was reared on the farm, and attended first the common schools, and later the West Nottingham Academy.   He began teaching at the age of eighteen, and followed that profession for eighteen months, during which time he commenced reading medicine with Dr. Henry B. Broughton.  In 1848 he entered the medical department of the University of Maryland, and in 1850 he was graduated from that institution.  In the winter of 1851 he pursued post-graduate study at the same institution, and throughout his career he was a close student of his profession.  He has always made his home upon his farm, which comprises 75 acres, and personally superintends its cultivation.

 In 1860 Dr. Bromwell married Miss Josephine Evans, daughter of Levi H. Evans.  Their three children were Mary, who died at the age of ten; William, who was graduated from Johns Hopkins University with a Ph.D. in chemistry and became a professor; and Florence, who was graduated from Mrs. Carey’s College and Southern Home School of Baltimore.

 Dr. Bromwell was a member of the Cecil County Medical Society.  He was elected County Commissioner as a Democrat in 1873.

Info. taken from Portrait and Biographical record of Harford and Cecil Counties Maryland, Chapman Publishing Co., New York, 1897.