The early to mid-19th century was a great time to be alive for many Americans. An era of expansion both geographically and economically, new social adventures for men and women blossomed as many communities were transformed from largely rural, agrarian ones to bustling business centers boosted by the dawn of the nation’s Industrial Revolution.

For healthcare practitioners like Hiram Brobst, the era also offered unprecedented opportunities for professional development as higher education institutions up and down the East Coast opened or expanded their existing training programs for physicians and dentists in response to new state requirements for practitioners and the development of new patient diagnostic and treatment procedures.

As a result, he had the chance to make history by becoming a leader in his field within the greater Lehigh Valley. Decades after his passing, his name would still be used synonymously with the word “progress” by Allentown newspaper reporters when describing his city’s growth.

Formative Years

Born on 10 November 1824 in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania and christened in Whitehall Township’s Jordan Evangelical Lutheran Church on Christmas Day, Hiram Brobst was a son of Lynn Township, Lehigh County native and farmer, Daniel Brobst (1795-1868) and Salome Sarah (Schreiber) Brobst (1800-1883).

During the 1830s and 1840s, he resided in Lynn Township with his parents and siblings, Louisa Elizabeth (1826-1910), Amos (born sometime around 1828), Ephraim (1831-1867), Flora Ann (1838-1920), and Melecina Brobst (1844-1911).

Before the latter decade had ended, he had begun his own family and work life. Embarking on a career in healthcare, he married Margarethe Stein (alternate spellings “Margaretha”, “Margaretta”, “Margaret”) in Lehigh County sometime between 1845 and 1848. They then greeted the birth of son Charles M. (born on 4 December 1846) and daughter Anna (born sometime around 1848 and shown in later records as “Ann” or “Annie”).

* Note: Although one present day source indicates that Hiram Brobst married Margarethe Stein on 7 November 1848, that year appears to be incorrect. Based on the birthdate shown on the grave marker of their oldest son, Charles (born 4 December 1846), they would most likely have wed during or before 1846.

By 1850, the young family was residing in the Borough of Allentown, where Hiram Brobst had become one of the first dentists to serve the growing city, according to his son’s 1917 obituary. Numerous entries in the Lehigh Valley Register newspaper throughout the late 1840s and 1850s mentioned his successful practice, frequently describing his patient care abilities as “superior.”

* Note: According to the American Dental Association, Hiram Brobst may have used ether when caring for patients requiring surgical interventions since use of this anesthetic was first demonstrated successfully by dentist William Morton in 1846. He also would likely have inserted cohesive gold foil as filling for cavities using a technique originated by Robert Arthur in 1855.

Son Walter further brightened Brobst’s life with his arrival sometime around 1851, followed by daughters, Mary and Sallie (born respectively on 15 June 1854 and 15 August 1856).

By 1860, Hiram Brobst and his wife were shown on the federal census as residents of Allentown’s 3rd Ward. Living with them at the time were their children, Charles (aged 13), Ann (aged 11),  Walter (aged 9), Mary (aged 6), Sallie (aged 4), and George (aged two months). Like many Allentonians, they watched as relations between America’s North and South continued to worsen that year, and worried about their future as South Carolina led one state after another into secession, beginning in December of 1860.

Civil War

A 36-year-old family man and successful Lehigh County dentist at the time of Fort Sumter’s capture by Confederate forces in mid-April 1861, Hiram Brobst could have remained safely at home while others were heading off to end the Rebellion by America’s southern states. Instead, he opted to become one of the state’s early defenders, enrolling for military service at Allentown on 4 September 1861.

He then officially mustered in for duty at Camp Curtin in Harrisburg, Dauphin County on 18 September as a Private with Company G of the 47th Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry.

* Note: The initial recruitment for members to fill G Company of the Pennsylvania Volunteers’ 47th Regiment was conducted in Allentown, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, the hometown of the regiment’s founder, Colonel Tilghman H. Good. Staffed by 95 men from across the Lehigh Valley, Company G was initially led by Captain Charles Mickley, a miller-merchant and native of Mickleys near Lehigh County’s Whitehall Township.

Hiram Brobst’s oldest child, Charles M. Brobst also ran off to join the war sometime that same year. Too young to be accepted for service by people who knew his real age, he headed for Ohio and, at the age of 14, enlisted as a private with Company B of the 49th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and served for the duration of the war, including during the Battle of Chickamauga.

Following a brief light infantry training period at Camp Curtin, Private Hiram Brobst and his company were sent by train with the 47th Pennsylvania to Washington, D.C., where they were stationed at “Camp Kalorama” on Kalorama Heights near Georgetown, about two miles from the White House, beginning 21 September. Military records at the time described as being 5’9” tall with black hair, gray eyes and a fair complexion. Henry Wharton, a Musician with the regiment’s C Company, penned an update the next day to his hometown newspaper, the Sunbury American:

After a tedious ride we have, at last, safely arrived at the City of ‘magnificent distances.’ We left Harrisburg on Friday last at 1 o’clock A.M. and reached this camp yesterday (Saturday) at 4 P.M., as tired and worn out a sett [sic] of mortals as can possibly exist. On arriving at Washington we were marched to the ‘Soldiers Retreat,’ a building purposely erected for the benefit of the soldier, where every comfort is extended to him and the wants of the ‘inner man’ supplied.

After partaking of refreshments we were ordered into line and marched, about three miles, to this camp. So tired were the men, that on marching out, some gave out, and had to leave the ranks, but J. Boulton Young, our ‘little Zouave,’ stood it bravely, and acted like a veteran. So small a drummer is scarcely seen in the army, and on the march through Washington he was twice the recipient of three cheers.

We were reviewed by Gen. McClellan yesterday [21 September 1861] without our knowing it. All along the march we noticed a considerable number of officers, both mounted and on foot; the horse of one of the officers was so beautiful that he was noticed by the whole regiment, in fact, so wrapt [sic] up were they in the horse, the rider wasn’t noticed, and the boys were considerably mortified this morning on dis-covering they had missed the sight of, and the neglect of not saluting the soldier next in command to Gen. Scott.

Col. Good, who has command of our regiment, is an excellent man and a splendid soldier. He is a man of very few words, and is continually attending to his duties and the wants of the Regiment.

…. Our Regiment will now be put to hard work; such as drilling and the usual business of camp life, and the boys expect and hope an occasional ‘pop’ at the enemy.

As a unit of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteers, Company G became part of the federal service when the regiment officially mustered into the U.S. Army on 24 September. On 27 September – a rainy day, the 47th Pennsylvania was assigned to Brigadier-General Isaac Stevens’ 3rd Brigade, which also included the 33rd, 49th and 79th New York regiments. By that afternoon, the 47th Pennsylvania was on the move again. Ordered onward by Brigadier-General Silas Casey, the Mississippi rifle-armed 47th Pennsylvania infantrymen marched behind their regimental band until reaching Camp Lyon, Maryland on the Potomac River’s eastern shore. At 5 p.m., they joined the 46th Pennsylvania in moving double-quick (165 steps per minute using 33-inch steps) across the “Chain Bridge” marked on federal maps, and continued on for roughly another mile before being ordered to make camp.

The next morning, they broke camp and moved again. Marching toward Falls Church, Virginia, they arrived at Camp Advance around dusk. There, about two miles from the bridge they had crossed a day earlier, they re-pitched their tents in a deep ravine near a new federal fort under construction (Fort Ethan Allen). They had completed a roughly eight-mile trek, were situated fairly close to General W. F. Smith’s headquarters, and were now part of the massive Army of the Potomac. Under Smith’s leadership, their regiment and brigade would help to defend the nation’s capital from the time of their September arrival through late January when the men of the 47th Pennsylvania would be shipped south.

Once again, Company C Musician Henry Wharton recapped the regiment’s activities, noting, via his 29 September letter home to the Sunbury American, that the 47th had changed camps three times in three days:

On Friday last we left Camp Kalorama, and the same night encamped about one mile from the Chain Bridge on the opposite side of the Potomac from Washington. The next morning, Saturday, we were ordered to this Camp [Camp Advance near Fort Ethan Allen, Virginia], one and a half miles from the one we occupied the night previous. I should have mentioned that we halted on a high hill (on our march here) at the Chain Bridge, called Camp Lyon, but were immediately ordered on this side of the river. On the route from Kalorama we were for two hours exposed to the hardest rain I ever experienced. Whew, it was a whopper; but the fellows stood it well – not a murmur – and they waited in their wet clothes until nine o’clock at night for their supper. Our Camp adjoins that of the N.Y. 79th (Highlanders.)….

We had not been in this Camp more than six hours before our boys were supplied with twenty rounds of ball and cartridge, and ordered to march and meet the enemy; they were out all night and got back to Camp at nine o’clock this morning, without having a fight. They are now in their tents taking a snooze preparatory to another march this morning…. I don’t know how long the boys will be gone, but the orders are to cook two days’ rations and take it with them in their haversacks….

There was a nice little affair came off at Lavensville [sic], a few miles from here on Wednesday last; our troops surprised a party of rebels (much larger than our own.) killing ten, took a Major prisoner, and captured a large number of horses, sheep and cattle, besides a large quantity of corn and potatoes, and about ninety six tons of hay. A very nice day’s work. The boys are well, in fact, there is no sickness of any consequence at all in our Regiment….

Sometime during this phase of duty, as part of the 3rd Brigade, the 47th Pennsylvanians were moved to a site they initially christened “Camp Big Chestnut” for the large chestnut tree located within their lodging’s boundaries. The site would eventually become known to the Keystone Staters as “Camp Griffin,” and was located roughly 10 miles from Washington, D.C. While en route, according to historian Lewis Schmidt, “Pvt. Reuben Wetzel, a 46 year old cook in Capt. Mickley’s Company G,” climbed up on a horse that was pulling his company’s wagon while his regiment was engaged in a march from Fort Ethan Allen to Camp Griffin (both in Virginia). When the regiment arrived at a deep ditch, “the horses lost their footing and the wagon overturned and plunged into the ditch, with ‘the old man, wagon, and horses, under everything.’”

Fairly soon after this sad incident (which ultimately cost their comrade his life), men from the 47th Pennsylvania had pitched their tents at Camp Griffin. By 11 October 1861, they were engaged in the Grand Review of Union troops at Bailey’s Cross Roads. In a letter home around this time, C Company Captain John Peter Shindel Gobin reported that companies D, A, C, F and I (the 47th Pennsylvania’s right wing) were ordered to picket duty after the left wing companies (B, G, K, E, and H) had been forced to return to camp by Confederate troops. In his letter of 13 October, Henry Wharton described their duties, as well as their new home:

The location of our camp is fine and the scenery would be splendid if the view was not obstructed by heavy thickets of pine and innumerable chesnut [sic] trees. The country around us is excellent for the Rebel scouts to display their bravery; that is, to lurk in the dense woods and pick off one of our unsuspecting pickets. Last night, however, they (the Rebels) calculated wide of their mark; some of the New York 33d boys were out on picket; some fourteen or fifteen shots were exchanged, when our side succeeded in bringing to the dust, (or rather mud,) an officer and two privates of the enemy’s mounted pickets. The officer was shot by a Lieutenant in Company H [?], of the 33d.

Our own boys have seen hard service since we have been on the ‘sacred soil.’ One day and night on picket, next day working on entrenchments at the Fort, (Ethan Allen.) another on guard, next on march and so on continually, but the hardest was on picket from last Thursday morning ‘till Saturday morning – all the time four miles from camp, and both of the nights the rain poured in torrents, so much so that their clothes were completely saturated with the rain. They stood it nobly – not one complaining; but from the size of their haversacks on their return, it is no wonder that they were satisfied and are so eager to go again tomorrow. I heard one of them say ‘there was such nice cabbage, sweet and Irish potatoes, turnips, &c., out where their duty called them, and then there was a likelihood of a Rebel sheep or young porker advancing over our lines and then he could take them as ‘contraband’ and have them for his own use.’ When they were out they saw about a dozen of the Rebel cavalry and would have had a bout with them, had it not been for…unlucky circumstance – one of the men caught the hammer of his rifle in the strap of his knapsack and caused his gun to fire; the Rebels heard the report and scampered in quick time….

Sometime around 18 October 1861, Private Hiram Brobst noticed that the sniffles he had been experiencing throughout much of the 47th Pennsylvania’s march from Washington to Virginia had developed into a severe cold. Regimental physicians later attributed his illness to the frequent rain storms and slushy roads he had encountered along the way, as well as to damp nights spent in his regular tent. Upon arrival at Camp Griffin, Virginia, Private Brobst was taken to the 47th Pennsylvania’s regimental physician, Elisha W. Baily, M.D., who determined that Brobst’s lungs had been affected, and that he was also was suffering from diarrhea, a worrisome complication with the potential to kill the ailing soldier. (According to researchers at the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, diarrhea and dysentery were the leading causes of death during the Civil War, killing men at a higher rate even than the war’s bloodiest battles.)

As a result, Private Brobst was hospitalized at Camp Griffin while his comrades engaged in a Divisional review on 22 October – an impressive spectacle described by historian Lewis Schmidt as massing “about 10,000 infantry, 1000 cavalry, and twenty pieces of artillery all in one big open field.” In late October, according to Schmidt, Private Brobst’s G Company comrades were awakened at 3 a.m. with their fellow 47th Pennsylvanians from B and H Companies B, directed to assemble a day’s worth of rations, were marched four miles from camp, and relieved the 49th New York Volunteers of their picket duties:

Company B was stationed in the vicinity of a Mrs. Jackson’s house, with Capt. Kacy’s Company H on guard around the house. The men of Company B had erected a hut made of fence rails gathered around an oak tree, in front of which was the house and property, including a persimmon tree whose fruit supplied them with a snack. Behind the house was the woods were the Rebels had been fired on last Wednesday morning while they were chopping wood there.

In his letter of 17 November, Henry Wharton revealed still more details about life at Camp Griffin:

This morning our brigade was out for inspection; arms, accoutrements [sic], clothing, knapsacks, etc, all were out through a thorough examination, and if I must say it myself, our company stood best, A No. 1, for cleanliness. We have a new commander to our Brigade, Brigadier General Brannen [sic], of the U.S. Army, and if looks are any criterion, I think he is a strict disciplinarian and one who will be as able to get his men out of danger as he is willing to lead them to battle….

The boys have plenty of work to do, such as piquet [sic] duty, standing guard, wood-chopping, police duty and day drill; but then they have the most substantial food; our rations consist of fresh beef (three times a week) pickled pork, pickled beef, smoked pork, fresh bread, daily, which is baked by our own bakers, the Quartermaster having procured portable ovens for that purpose, potatoes, split peas, beans, occasionally molasses and plenty of good coffee, so you see Uncle Sam supplies us plentifully….

A few nights ago our Company was out on piquet [sic]; it was a terrible night, raining very hard the whole night, and what made it worse, the boys had to stand well to their work and dare not leave to look for shelter. Some of them consider they are well paid for their exposure, as they captured two ancient muskets belonging to Secessia. One of them is of English manufacture, and the other has the Virginia militia mark on it. They are both in a dilapidated condition, but the boys hold them in high estimation as they are trophies from the enemy, and besides they were taken from the house of Mrs. Stewart, sister to the rebel Jackson who assassinated the lamented Ellsworth at Alexandria. The honorable lady, Mrs. Stewart, is now a prisoner at Washington and her house is the headquarters of the command of the piquets [sic]….

Since the success of the secret expedition, we have all kinds of rumors in camp. One is that our Brigade will be sent to the relief of Gen. Sherman, in South Carolina. The boys all desire it and the news in the ‘Press’ is correct, that a large force is to be sent there, I think their wish will be gratified….

On 21 November, the 47th participated in a morning divisional headquarters review by Colonel Tilghman H. Good, followed by brigade and division drills all afternoon. According to Schmidt, “each man was supplied with ten blank cartridges.” Afterward, “Gen. Smith requested Gen. Brannan to inform Col. Good that the 47th was the best regiment in the whole division.”

As a reward – and in preparation for bigger things to come, Brigadier-General John Milton Brannan obtained brand new Springfield rifles for every member of the 47th Pennsylvania.

Meanwhile, the condition of Private Hiram Brobst continued to deteriorate. As one year waned and another dawned, Dr. Baily determined that Private Brobst’s case was fatal, discharged him on a Surgeon’s Certificate of Disability effective 18 January 1862, and sent him home to die.

Illness, Death and Interment

Hiram Brobst’s condition was so severe, in fact, that he survived just one month after his return to the Lehigh Valley in late January 1862. Diagnosed by his longtime family physician, C. L. Martin, M.D., as having an advanced case of consumption, he died at his home in Allentown on 26 February 1862.

In an affidavit filed later for the U.S. Civil War Widow’s Pension application of Margarethe Brobst, Dr. Martin noted for the record that Brobst died “of consumption, which soldier did not have before enlisting.”

Adding that he had known the Brobst family for a number of years, he stated that Hiram Brobst had been healthy and “robust” prior to his enlistment for Civil War service, and also noted that when Brobst arrived in Allentown, he “returned home sick, disabled and in an advanced state of consumption sometime in the latter part of 1862….” Furthermore, Dr. Martin said that he “attended him … from the time of his return from the service … until the time of his death, he died after a lingering illness on the 26th day of February 1862 … of Consumption, at his residence in said City of Allentown.”

An affidavit filed by one of Hiram Brobst’s superior officers – 2nd Lieutenant George W. Huntsberger – confirmed that Brobst had been certified by military physicians as healthy at the time of his enlistment. Lieutenant Huntsberger then went on to explain that while marching in intense rain along slushy roads from Washington to Virginia:

Hiram Brobst commenced complaining of a severe cold on or about the 18th day of October A.D. 1861. There being no hospital the sick were compelled to sleep in their tents. That on or about the ___ day of ___ A.D. 1861 [no data was filled in on blanks] when they had arrived at Camp Griffin Va. … [Huntsberger] took the said Hiram Brobst to Doctor Baily the Chief Regimental Physician of the said 47 Regt. who said his lungs had become affected, that he, the said Hiram Brobst also had diarrhea and pronounced his case fatal. That on or about the 18th day of January A.D. 1862 the said Hiram Brobst was sent home on the recommendation of said Doctor Baily and his discharge for disability was sent to him whilst at home.

The court also recorded that “deponent [Huntsberger] further said that the said Hiram Brobst was a man of temperate habits and always willing to do duty, that his said disease was contracted whilst in the service of the United States in the war of 1861 and in his line of duty.”

Interment

Following his untimely passing in Allentown, Hiram Brobst was laid to rest at the Union-West End Cemetery in that city.

What Happened to His Parents, Siblings Widow and Children?

Hiram Brobst was survived by his parents and several siblings, as well as his wife and all of his children except for his youngest son, George, who was shown only on the 1860 federal census (and who had apparently died in infancy).

Hiram Brobst’s brother, Ephraim, also suffered an untimely death, passing away in 1867, while their father, Daniel, continued to work the family farm until passing away in Cetronia, South Whitehall Township, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania on 10 December 1868. Their mother, Salome Sara (Schrieber) Brobst, survived another 15 years before she too died in Cetronia – on 12 December 1883. Researchers have confirmed that Daniel Brobst rests at the Cedar Church Cemetery in Allentown, Lehigh County.

Hiram Brobst’s sister, Louisa Elizabeth, wed Thomas Hartzell, and built a life with him on their family farm in Cetronia, Lehigh County. When she passed away in 1910, she was survived by five of their children: Mrs. Monroe Farringer, with whom she resided at the time of her passing, Oscar Hartzell, Percival Hartzell of Allentown, Mrs. Samuel Hoch, and Mrs. William Muse of Cetronia. Like her parents, she was interred at Allentown’s Cedar Church Cemetery.

Hiram Brobst’s sister, Flora Ann, wed and raised a family in Allentown with Willoughby Hartman. When she died from kidney disease in Allentown on 10 February, 1920, she was survived by her sons John Daniel (1862-1926), Henry W. (1866-1952), and Hiram E. Hartman (1868-1948), and daughter Sarah Medina (Hartman) Butz (1864-1940), who was more commonly known as “Sallie.” Like her father and sister Louisa, Flora (Brobst) Hartman, was laid to rest at the Cedar Church Cemetery in Allentown.

Hiram Brobst’s sister, Melecina, wed and raised a family with Calvin Ruch in Coplay, Lehigh County. Among their children were son Samuel and daughters Florrie, Hattie, Medina, and Sarah. Following her passing on 22 February 1911, she was laid to rest at the Egypt Cemetery in Egypt, Lehigh County.

The same year that Hiram Brobst’s father died (1868), his widow, Margarethe (Stein) Brobst, was awarded a pension of $8 per month plus an additional $2 per month on 29 December for her two youngest surviving daughters, Mary and Sallie (the only two children still young enough to be eligible for such support).

By 1870, Margarethe Brobst (also known as “Margaret”) was still residing in Allentown’s 3rd Ward with her children, Charles (a 23-year-old mill worker), Annie (a 20-year-old machine operator), Walter (an 18-year-old laborer), Mary (a 16-year-old shoe factory employee), and Sallie (a 13-year-old student in the local schools). Also residing at the Brobst home at this time was Margaret’s mother, Eliza Stein. The personal estates of the Civil War widow and her mother were valued by the census taker that year at, respectively, $200 and $2,800.

In 1880, she was shown on the federal census as a 54-year-old widow residing in Allentown’s 5th Ward with only her seven-year-old granddaughter, Lizzie, a student in the local schools.

By this time, daughters Mary and Sallie had grown up to wed, respectively, a Schwartz and an Albright while her son Charles M. Brobst had begun his own family life. Employed by the Allentown Rolling Mills and the Albright pipe factory for a significant period of his adult life, he also served his community as a charter member of the Liberty Fire Company, which was founded on 6 January 1870. Married to Sarah McLoughlin, they were the parents of three daughters and two sons, including Hiram Brobst, namesake of the Civil War veteran profiled in this biographical sketch, and Charles M. Brobst, Jr. Their daughters, following their respective marriages, were known as: Mrs. Alfred Williamson, Mrs. Charles Guldin, and Mrs. Charles Fluck.

Hiram Brobst’s widow joined him in death sometime before the turn of the century (c. 1885), but his son Charles, who had survived his teenage Civil War enlistment, lived on to witness the tremendous advancements of the early 1900s. According to his 1917 obituary:

Charles M. Brobst, a well-known Civil War veteran, died at 6:30 o’clock this morning in a chair at his home, 138 North Lumber Street. Mr. Brobst had been ill for the last six weeks with dropsy. He arose early this morning and later feeling tired seated himself in a chair, where he peacefully fell asleep. He age was 70 years, 7 months and 5 days.

He was a son of the late Dr. Hiram Brobst of Allentown, who was the earliest dentist in this section. Mr. Brobst enlisted for three years of service in the Civil War on August 12, 1861, and served as a Private in Co. B, 49th Ohio Volunteer Infantry. He was discharged on February 28, 1864, after a second enlistment in the same command which then became known as the Ohio Veteran Infantry. His regiment saw service throughout the extreme southwestern states and was mustered out of service November 30, 1865, in Victoria, Texas.

He enlisted in Ohio, because being only 14 years old, they would not let him join the army at home. He saw hard service with Rosecrans’ army, fighting in the battle of Chickamauga and many other bloody engagements.

Some years after the war, his commander, Colonel Gibson, made a campaign speech in the old Hagenbuch opera house, during the course of which he made eloquent reference to the bravery of Comrade Brobst.

After the war he was for a time employed at the Allentown Rolling Mills and for many years he worked at the Albright pipe factory.

He was one of the oldest members of the Liberty Fire Company, which as a charter member he helped to found. The date of his membership in the Liberty goes back to Jan. 6, 1870, a matter of more than 47 years. The company will hold a special meeting tomorrow evening to take action on his death. He is survived by his wife, Sarah M., (nee McLoughlin), and these children: Mrs. Alfred Williamson, Mrs. Charles Guldin, Mrs. Charles Fluck, and Charles, Jr., Allentown, and Hiram, Palmerton. Two sisters, Mrs. Mary Schwartz and Mrs. Sallie Albright, also survive. The funeral will be held on Thursday afternoon at 2 o’clock from his late home, Rev. Victor Boyer officiating, and interment will be made in West End Cemetery.

 

Sources:

1. Bates, Samuel P. History of Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1861-5. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: B. Singerly, State Printer, 1869.

2. Brobst Family Birth, Baptismal, Marriage, Death and Burial Records, in Allentown Evangelical Congregation and Jordan Evangelical Congregation Church Records. Allentown and Whitehall Township, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, 1800-1920.

3. Brobst, Hiram, in Civil War Veterans’ Card File, 1861-5. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State Archives.

4. Civil War Veteran Dies in a Chair: Being Only 14 Years Old, Chas. M. Brobst Had to Go to Ohio to Enlist (obituary). Allentown, Pennsylvania: The Allentown Leader, 9 July 1917.

5. Hiram Brobst (child) and Daniel and Salome Brobst (parents), in Birth and Christening Records of Jordan Lutheran or Evangelical Lutheran Church, Whitehall Township, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania (FHL microfilm 940,906). Salt Lake City, Utah: Family History Library, 10 November and 25 December 1824.

6. Hiram Brobst (dental office advertisement). Allentown, Pennsylvania: Der Lecha Caunty Patriot, 18 April, 1850.

7. Hiram Brobst and Margaretta/Margaretha/Margarethe, Mary and Sally Brobst, in U.S. Civil War Widows’ and Orphan’s Pension Files. Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, 1862-1917.

8. History of Dentistry Timeline. Chicago, Illinois: American Dental Association, retrieved online, 1 July 2017.

9. U.S. Census. Washington, D.C. and Pennsylvania: 1830, 1840, 1850, 1860, 1870, 1880.