Publisher's Synopsis
Jefferson Davis Brodhead (January 12, 1859 - April 23, 1920), also known as J. Davis Brodhead and Joseph Davis Brodhead, was a Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania. J. Davis Brodhead (son of Richard Brodhead) was born in Easton, Pennsylvania. He attended the public schools, studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1881 and commenced practice in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania. He was elected as district attorney of Northampton County, Pennsylvania in 1889. He was a delegate to the Democratic National Conventions in 1892 and 1904. Brodhead was elected as a Democrat to the Sixtieth Congress. He was an unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1908. He resumed the practice of law in South Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. He was appointed judge of the courts of record of Northampton County in 1914. He died in Washington, D.C. in 1920. Interment in Easton Cemetery in Easton.... Richard Harding Davis (April 18, 1864 - April 11, 1916) was an American journalist and writer of fiction and drama, known foremost as the first American war correspondent to cover the Spanish-American War, the Second Boer War, and the First World War.[1] His writing greatly assisted the political career of Theodore Roosevelt and he also played a major role in the evolution of the American magazine. His influence extended to the world of fashion and he is credited with making the clean-shaven look popular among men at the turn of the 20th century. Davis was born on April 18, 1864 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.His mother Rebecca Harding Davis was a prominent writer in her day. His father, Lemuel Clarke Davis, was himself a journalist and edited the Philadelphia Public Ledger. As a young man, Davis attended the Episcopal Academy. In 1882, after an unhappy year at Swarthmore College, Davis transferred to Lehigh University, where his uncle, H. Wilson Harding, was a professor.While at Lehigh, Davis published his first book, The Adventures of My Freshman (1884), a collection of short stories. Many of the stories had originally appeared in the student magazine the Lehigh Burr. In 1885, Davis transferred to Johns Hopkins University. After college, his father helped him gain his first position as a journalist at the Philadelphia Record but he was soon dismissed. After another brief position at the Philadelphia Press, Davis accepted a better-paying position at the New York Evening Sun where he gained attention for his flamboyant style and his writing on controversial subjects such as abortion, suicide and execution.He first attracted attention in May to June 1889, by reporting on the devastation of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, following the infamous flood and added to his reputation by reporting on other noteworthy events such as the first electrocution of a criminal (the execution of William Kemmler in 1890). Davis became a managing editor of Harper's Weekly, and was one of the world's leading war correspondents at the time of the Second Boer War in South Africa. As an American, he had the opportunity to see the war first-hand from both the British and Boer perspectives. Davis also worked as a reporter for the New York Herald, The Times, and Scribner's Magazine. He was popular among a number of leading writers of his time, and is considered the model for illustrator Charles Dana Gibson's dashing Gibson man, the male equivalent of his famous Gibson Girl. He is also mentioned early in Sinclair Lewis's book Dodsworth as the example of an exciting, adventure-seeking legitimate hero. Davis had success with his 1897 novel Soldiers of Fortune that he turned into a play written by Augustus Thomas. His novel was later filmed twice, once in 1914 and again in 1919 by Allan Dwan. The 1914 version starring Dustin Farnum was shot on the Cuban locations that Davis used in his novel and Davis was present during the filming.....
