Henry Marie Brackenridge

Who was Henry Marie Brackenridge?

Henry Marie Brackenridge was an American writer, lawyer, judge, and Congressman from Pennsylvania.

He was born the son of the writer and judge Hugh Henry Brackenridge in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on May 11, 1786. Educated by his father and private tutors, he attended a French academy at St. Genevieve, Louisiana. He studied law and was admitted to the Pennsylvania bar in 1806, then practiced in Somerset, Pennsylvania.

He moved to St. Louis, Missouri, where he was a lawyer and journalist. He was appointed deputy attorney general of the Territory of Orleans, and district judge of Louisiana in 1812.

He played an intelligence role during the War of 1812, and in 1814 published a history of the war. In 1817 he was appointed secretary of a mission to South America. Brackenridge in 1821 entered the diplomatic service of General Andrew Jackson, who was the new commissioner of Florida. Through Jackson's influence, he served as U.S. judge for the western district of Florida 1821–32.

Brackenridge returned to Pennsylvania in 1832 and became owner of a large tract of land upon which he founded the town of Tarentum, 22 miles northeast of Pittsburgh on the Allegheny River. The adjacent Allegheny County borough of Brackenridge is named for him.