Born at Brockneyville, Jefferson County, Pa., April 28, 1834. He was eight years old when his father moved to Iowa, in May, 1842, locating near the village of Cone, Muscatine County. There were no roads, no schools, no churches, no mills; the country remaining just as the Lord had finished it, beautiful and unmarred by what men call improvements. Under those circumstances young Brockway grew to manhood, battling with all the privations of a new country, and longing for an education which it was impossible to get, except as his parents taught him, or at the district school taught in the room of some neighbor's house. In the spring of 1857 he rafted lumber from Black River Falls, where his oldest brother was extensively engaged in the lumber business, for the purpose of improving his farm. On September 11, 1860, he married Miss Rowena Letts. In the spring of 1866 he sold his farm in Muscatine County, and moved to Washington County. Soon after removing to the county he was elected County Supervisor from Highland Township, and served two terms. In the fall of 1873 he was elected to represent the county in the Legislature, with B. F. Brown as his colleague. This was the ever memorable "Granger" House which passed the railroad tariff bill, and at which two weeks were spent in electing a Speaker, the House voting on it 144 times. In the fall of 1874, he was elected President of the Washington County Agricultural Society. Mr. Brockway is decidedly a home man, and, surrounded by his family, he enjoys life, as a man of wealth and intelligence should. Friends are always welcome beneath the hospitable roof.