This well known gentleman is one of Wyoming's honored pioneers, having been actively identified with the industrial history of the Great West from 1867. He is an American by adoption, being a native of England where his birth occurred in 1827. His father John Brookman, was a blacksmith for the greater part of his life residing in the city of Newport, England, where he enjoyed the reputation of an able and skillful mechanic. The mother died when David was two years old after which he lived with a Sister, Mrs. Griffins, for some years, later making his home with an aunt, also a Mrs. Griffins. When still young he began to learn blacksmithing, in which he soon acquired more than ordinary efficiency and skill, working at his trade in various places and carefully husbanding his earnings with the thought of emigrating to the United States, of which country he had read much and heard many favorable reports, and in 1849 he took passage on a vessal bound for the New World and in due time reached his destination, where he entered upon a new career under conditions radically different from those of England. Being master of an honorable and useful calling, from the time of his arrival until 1861 he worked at his trade in Pennsylvania. When the Civil War occurred Mr. Brookman was one of the first young men of the place of his residence to tender his services to the government, enlisting in 1861 in Co. D, Fifty-sixth Pennsylvania Regiment, with which he shared the fortunes and vicissitudes of war for three years and three months, taking part in the noted campaigns of the Army of the Potomac, demonstrating his loyalty to the flag of his adopted country in some of the bloodiest battles known to history, prominent among them being the great battle of Gettysburg, where his hearing was permanently impaired. In all the trying scenes through which he passed he never shirked a responsibility, however onerous, nor shrank from duty even though its performance were attended by danger and the immediate prospect of death. At the close of the war Mr. Brookman returned to Pennsylvania and engaged in mining until about 1867, when he came to Wyoming. The year following his arrival he passed in Carbon and then changed his abode to Rock Springs, with the industrial growth and development of which he was for many years actively identified. He has been largely interested in mining and was one of the pioneers of this industry in Sweetwater County. He has seen the industry grow from an insignificant beginning to its present mammoth proportions and not only has he been a witness of the remarkable development but he has been largely instrumental in bringing about the results which have made this part of Wyoming foremost among the rich mining regions of the west. In all material improvements which have marked the last quarter century of the county's growth, he has left the impress of his strong individuality upon public and private institutions as well as upon the industrial developments. In a large measure he has paved the way that others might follow, having been a pioneer in many avenues, as well as an early settler. For a number of years Mr. Brookman took a lively interest in politics and was one of the Republican leaders in Rock Springs and Sweetwater County, but has never been an aspirant for political honors, although called from time to time to local offices in which his course was marked by duty ably and conscientiously discharged. Since 1898 he has been living in honorable retirement, enjoying the fruits of his many years of honest toil. His home in Rock Springs is presided over by an amiable wife and devoted helpmeet to whom he was united in wedlock in 1894. Mrs. Brookman's maiden name was Elizabeth Buchanan; she is the daughter of John and Elizabeth (Hazleton) Buchanan, natives of Ireland and at the time of her marriage to Mr. Brookman was the widow of Robert Harvey, who departed this life in the Emerald Isle in 1890.
