MANDAN Historical Society

Working to Preserve & Promote Mandan's Heritage since 2004

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Ag Stn Centennial

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The 1880s

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1958 Lincoln Stamp FDC

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1st of the 21st

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Area Landmarks

Cary Bldg - Mandan Drug

CCC Camp Chimney

Christ the King Church

Collins Av Civic Bldg

First Lutheran Church

First National Bank Bldg

First Presbyterian Church

Great Plains Academy

Great Plains Expermt Stn

Lewis & Clark Hotel

Mandan Hill

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MV Produce Warehouse

Methodist Church

NP Beanery

NP "Colonial" RR Depot

NPRR Freighthouse

NP Rail High Bridge

Roughrider Statue

St Joseph Church

WWar Memorial Bldg

Youth Correctional Center

Gone Forever

Central School

Collins Ave Courthouse

Cummins Building

Deaconess Hospital

Eielson Field

Emerson Inst/Opera House

First St Federal Building

Havana Club

Hotel Nigey

InterOcean Hotel

Liberty Memorial Bridge

Mandan Creamery & Produce

Mandan Flour Mill

Merchants Hotel

NP "Queen Anne" Depot

Original Passenger Depot

Palace Theatre

Peoples' Hotel

Rock Haven

Topic Theatre

Young's Tavern

Heritage Homes

Altnow-Smith Home

Dunlap-Harris Home

Ellis-Uden Home

Freeburg-Esser Home

Lyon-Weigel Home

McGillic Home

Olson-Brick Home

Parkins-Cooley Home

Stutsman-Wyatt Home

Swanson-Reichman Home

Welch-Ness Home

Endowment Fund

Genealogy Links

Biographies A-C

J D Allen

Franklin Anders

Richard Baron

James Bellows

George Bingenheimer

Margaret Bingenheimer

Philip Blumenthal

Elijah Boley

Frank Briggs

Leo Broderick

William Broderick

Frank Bunting

Lyman Cary

James Clark

Henry Coe

Viola Boley Coe

Daniel Collins

Elizabeth Custer

George Custer

Biographies D-L

Alice Dahners

Henry Dahners

C E V (Charles) Draper

Esther Davis

Tony Dean

Joseph Devine

Ronald Erhardt

John Forbes

Palma Fristad

Gilbert Furness

Aloysius Galowitsch

Frederic Gerard

Zalmon Gilbert

Charles Grantier

James Hanley Jr

James Hanley Sr

Mary Harris

C Edgar Haupt

Michael Lang

William Langer

Albert Lanterman

William Lanterman

Richard Longfellow

Rolland Lutz

Hiram Lyon

Biographies M-R

George Marback

Gary Miller

Lee Mohr

Margaret Naylor

John Newton

Anton Ness

John Osterhouse

George Peoples

Arthur Peterson

Nels Romer

Hoy Russell

Walton Russell

Antonie Rybnicek

Ervin Rybnicek

Hynek Rybnicek

Biographies S-Z

Margaret Schaaf

George Shafer

Benjamin Shaw

William Simpson

Anna Knox Stark

Mary Stark

Benjamin Stephenson

J O Sullivan

John Sullivan

Era Bell Thompson

Andrew E Thorberg

Ida Thorberg

C L Timmerman

George Toman

Earle Tostevin

Edwin A Tostevin Sr

Edwin D Tostevin Jr

Walter Tostevin

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A B Welch

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Philomena Yunck

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What's New

Leo Charles Broderick (1884-1953)
Leo Charles Broderick was born in Winona, Minnesota on December 27, 1884 to Michael and Anna (Quinn) Broderick.  He graduated from the Winona High School.   However, upon his father's death in 1902, his mother moved the family to Minneapolis to a home just off University Avenue.  The exposure to the city and the University area would resurface later in his life. 

Leo taught himself shorthand and typing and searched for a clerk position.  He initially came to Mandan in 1907 and found a job as a court reporter for district Judge Harry L. Berry who presided over most of the southwest part of the state.

The McDonald House boarders in 1907. Leo Broderick is second from the left on the first row.
Living arrangements were different in the early 1900's.  Apartment buildings were rare and boarding houses were the norm.  The McDonald boarding house, located at 207 St NW, seemed to attract the young professionals of the day  Leo Broderick was among the many who would take meals there.

Recognizing a potential keen legal mind, local attorney John Sullivan encouraged the young Broderick to return to law school and get his law degree.  Both Sullivan and Judge Berry were graduates of the University of Minnesota's law school and Leo was already familiar with that area of Minneapolis.

Leo Broderick received his law degree from the University of Minnesota. He was admitted to the Minnesota Bar in 1909. He returned to Mandan later that year and was admitted to the North Dakota State Bar in 1910.  He joined the Hanley and Sullivan law firm for about ten years.

Genevieve O'Neal Stapleton McDonald Metcalf was originally from Argusville, ND.  She had left home to find her way in the world in the western North Dakota boomtown of Medora working as part of the "courthouse gang."  However a friend convinced her that ample opportunities also existed in the "more civilized" city of Mandan.  So she moved, took up residence near the McCormick boarding house and worked as the bookkeeper for Bingenheimer Mercantile.  Leo Broderick had resumed his practice to take his meals there upon his return from law school while awaiting marriage to a woman he had met in Minneapolis.  Despite Leo's engagement, the two did see each other socially.  But Broderick was completely faithful to his fiance.

Fate intervened. Leo had returned to Minneapolis at the appointed date and time for his pending nuptials. During the ceremony, the bride rejected Leo on the basis of their mixed religions.  Devastated by the turn of events, fellow lawyer John Sullivan consoled his friend in true Irish fashion and convinced Broderick to return to Mandan.  With the path clear to one of the most eligible bachelors in town, Genevieve scheduled evening after evening after evening with Leo, assuring he was never at the boarding house when his former-fiance attemped to call and recant her rejection of him.  Eventually, Broderick proposed to her and they were married in June 28, 1915. 

Upon the death of Judge Berry in July 1944, Leo Broderick was appointed Judge of the Sixth Judicial District  the following month by Governor John Moses to serve out the remaining term.  With the help of Gaylord Conrad (current US Senator Kent Conrad's grandfather), he won re-election to the post in his own right 3 months later.  He served in that capacity until his death.

He and his wife Genevieve had six children: Jane (Budekke), William, John, Margorie (Brumbaugh), Mary (Harris) and Florence (Craychee)
. The family lived on the west side of historic home district in Mandan at 209 7th Ave NW.  He died on February 18, 1953 at the age of 68. He and his wife are buried in Union Cemetery, Mandan.

The Society would like to thank MHSoc life member Mary Broderick-Harris for sharing this information on her father with us.

The MHSoc's museum and office is located at 3827 30th Avenue NW; PO Box 1001; Mandan, ND 58554
Contact us at info@mandanhistory.org


Last Updated 03/28
/23    ©  2007-2023  Mandan Historical Society   All rights reserved