Brackenridge was born in
Campbeltown a small town on the Kintyre peninsula in Scotland. In 1753, when he was 5, his family emigrated to
York County, Pennsylvania, near the
Maryland border, then a frontier. At age 15 he was head of a free school in Maryland. At age 19 he entered the College of New Jersey, now
Princeton University, where he joined
Philip Morin Freneau,
James Madison, and others in forming the American Whig Society to counter the conservative Cliosophic, or
Tory, Society. (Today these are conjoined as the
American Whig–Cliosophic Society.) Freneau and Brackenridge collaborated on a satire on American manners that may be the first work of prose fiction written in America, ''
Father Bombo's Pilgrimage to Mecca . They also wrote The Rising Glory of America'', a prophetic poem of a united nation that would rule the North American
continent from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. Brackenridge recited it at the
commencement exercises of 1771. After his graduation, Brackenridge remained another year to study divinity. In 1772 he became headmaster of
Somerset Academy in
Somerset County, Maryland, with Freneau as his assistant. He went back to Princeton for a Master's degree, and then served in
George Washington's army as a chaplain, preaching fiery patriotic sermons to the soldiers of the
American Revolutionary War. He started the
United States Magazine in
Philadelphia in 1778, where he published poems by his friend Freneau, but its lagging subscriptions convinced him to change his profession. He took a law degree, studying under
Samuel Chase in
Annapolis, Maryland, and was admitted to the bar in Philadelphia in 1780 at age 32. Of Philadelphia he wrote, "I saw no chance for being anything in that city, there were such great men before me". Four months later he struck out for the frontier, 300 miles to the west, over the
Appalachian Mountains. In 1781 Pittsburgh was a village of 400 inhabitants, most
Scots, like himself,
Scots-Irish, and
Germans. His aim, he wrote, in "offering myself to the place" was "to advance the country and thereby myself". In Pittsburgh he helped establish the first western newspaper, the
Pittsburgh Gazette, in 1786. He was elected in 1786 to the Pennsylvania state assembly, where he fought for the adoption of the federal Constitution, and obtained state endowments in 1787 for the establishment of the Pittsburgh Academy (
University of Pittsburgh), modeled on
Benjamin Franklin's
Academy of Philadelphia (
University of Pennsylvania). He also played a role in the little-known
Westsylvania dispute, siding with Pennsylvania that the western lands should not become a 14th state. He lost a bid for re-election because he opposed popular sentiment in supporting federal controls. At a dinner hosted by Chief Justice
Thomas McKean, Brackenridge stated that "the people are fools; if they would let
Mr. Morris alone, he would make Pennsylvania a great people, but they will not suffer him to do it". Another legislator at the party,
William Findley, published an account of the remarks, and the subsequent controversy led to Brackenridge's electoral defeat. Brackenridge also nearly lost his life when he attempted to mediate the
Whiskey Rebellion. He ran for the
United States Congress in 1794, but finished 4th of 5 candidates with
Albert Gallatin winning. The formation of
Allegheny County is largely due to Brackenridge's efforts. In December 1799 Governor
Thomas McKean appointed him a justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, on which he served until his death. He corresponded with other politically active men such as
Alexander Addison, a major figure in the Whiskey Rebellion. In 1815 he completed
Modern Chivalry, his rambling satirical novel. Widely considered the first important fictional work about the American frontier and called "to the West what
Don Quixote was to Europe", the third and fourth sections of the book appeared in 1793 and 1797, and a revision in 1805, with a final addition in 1815.
Henry Adams called it "a more thoroughly American book than any written before 1833" Brackenridge died June 25, 1816, in
Carlisle, Pennsylvania, where he is buried in the Old Graveyard along with
John Bannister Gibson, who succeeded him on the state supreme court. The Allegheny County
borough of
Brackenridge, Pennsylvania, is named for his son, the lawyer, judge, and writer
Henry Marie Brackenridge (1786–1871). ==Works==