was the eldest son of John Jordan Linderman, M. D., and Rachel Brodhead. He was born in Pike county, Pennsylvania, the 25th of December, 1825. The elder Dr. Linderman was one of the most noted physicians in northeastern Pennsylvania, and practiced medicine for nearly half a century in the valley of the Delaware, in this State, and New Jersey. He was a graduate of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, of New York, where he had studied under the famous Dr. Valentine Mott. Dr. Linderman’s grandfather, Jacob von Linderman, came to this country during the disturbed period of the Austrian War of Succession, during the first half of the last century, and settled in Orange county, where he purchased a tract of land. The property is still in the possession of the family. Jacob von Linderman was the cadet of an ancient and honorable family of Saxony, which had been distinguished for two centuries in the law and medicine, several of his ancestors having been counsellors and physicians to the Elector. He was a descendant of the same family as Margaretta Linderman, the mother of the great Reformer, Martin Luther. Of this paternal stock, Dr. Henry R. Linderman was, by his mother, a nephew of the late Hon. Richard Brodhead, Senator of the United States from Pennsylvania; grandson of Richard Brodhead, one of the Judges of Pike county, and great-grandson of Garrett Brodhead, an officer of the Revolution, and a great-nephew of Luke Brodhead, a Captain in Col. Miles’ Regiment, and of Daniel Brodhead, Colonel of the 8th Pennsylvania Regiment of the Continental Line; the latter was afterwards a Brigadier-General, was one of the original members of the Cincinnati of this State, and Surveyor-General of the Commonwealth when the war closed. His only son Daniel was a First Lieutenant in Colonel Shee’s Battalion, was taken prisoner by the British, and died after two years’ captivity. General Brodhead married Governor Mifflin’s widow, and died in Milford, Pike county, in 1803. The nephew of these three brothers, Charles Wessel Brodhead, of New York, was also in the Revolutionary army, a Captain of Grenadiers. They all descended from Daniel Brodhead, a Captain of King Charles II.’s Grenadiers, who had a command in Nichol’s expedition, which captured New York from the Dutch in 1664. Captain Brodhead was of the family of that name in Yorkshire, which terminated in England so recently as 1840 in the person of Sir Henry T. L. Brodhead, baronet.
Dr. Henry R. Linderman, after receiving an academic education, entered the New York College of Physicians and Surgeons. When barely of age he graduated, returned to Pike county and began practice with his father, and earned a reputation as a skillful and rising physician.
In 1855 his uncle, Richard Brodhead (United States Senator), procured his appointment as chief clerk of the Philadelphia Mint. He held this position until 1864, when he resigned and engaged in business as a banker and broker in Philadelphia. In 1867 he was appointed Director of the Mint by President Johnson. In 1869 he resigned. In 1870 he was a commissioner of the Government to the Pacific coast to investigate the San Francisco and Carson Mints, and to adjust some intricate bullion questions. In 1871 he was a commissioner to Europe, to examine the coinage systems of the Great Powers. In 1872 he was a commissioner, with the late Dr. Robert E. Rogers, of the University of Pennsylvania, for fitting up the Government refinery at the San Francisco Mint. In the same year he wrote an elaborate report on the condition of the gold and silver market of the world. “In this report he called attention to the disadvantages arising from the computation and quotation of exchange with Great Britain on the old and complicated Colonial basis, and from the undervaluation of foreign coins in computing the value of foreign invoices and levying and collecting duties at the United States Custom Houses.” He was the author of the Act of March 9th, 1873, which corrected the defects above referred to. His predictions in this report on the decline in the value of silver as compared to gold were fulfilled to the letter.
He was thoroughly familiar with the practice, science, and finance of the Coinage Department of the Government, and about this time he wrote the Coinage Act of 1873, and secured its passage through Congress. General Grant, then President, considered him as the fittest man to organize the new Bureau, and, though a Democrat, appointed him first Director under the new Act; the Director being at the head of all the Mints and Assay Offices in the United States.
For the remainder of his life until his last illness, which began in the fall of 1878, he worked incessantly. Under his hands the Bureau of the Mints and the entire Coinage and Assay service were shaped in their present form. Much is due to his official subordinates, but his was the master mind, his the skillful and methodical direction, the studious and laborious devotion to the duties and obligations of his high position at the head of the Coinage Department of this great nation, which have given the United States the best coinage system in the world. It was Dr. Linderman who projected the “trade dollar,” solely for commerce, and not intended to enter into circulation here. It was a successful means of finding a market for our great surplus of silver, which Dr. Linderman sought to send to Oriental countries rather than flood our own and depreciate its fickle value. The old silver dollar by the Coinage Act of 1873 was abolished. The codification of all the legislation of Congress since the foundation of the Mint in 1792 was thus accomplished. Other needed legislative enactments were passed by Congress on his recommendations.
In 1877 Dr. Linderman wrote, and Putnam published, “Money and Legal Tender in the United States,” a valuable and interesting contribution to the science of finance, which was favorably received abroad as well as here. The same year his official report presented one of the most exhaustive, profound, and able efforts which has ever emanated from the Government press. The fact that several of his reports were in use as text books of technical information in some of the technical schools (notably that at Harvard University), will serve to show the estimation in which the late Dr. Linderman was held as an authority upon coinage, mining, and finance. When the Japanese established their mint, that government made him the liberal offer of $50,000 to stay in their country one year and organize their mint service.
When M. Henri Cernuschi, the eminent financier and the Director of the French Mint, was in this country in 1878, he said, “Dr. Linderman’s name is as celebrated on the continent of Europe in connection with his opinions on the double standard of metallic currency, as that of Garibaldi in connection with the Italian revolution.”
In 1877 Dr. Linderman was appointed a commissioner, with power to name two others, to investigate abuses in the San Francisco Mint and Custom House. He appointed ex-Governor Low, of California, and Mr. Henry Dodge, and this commission sat as a court of inquiry in San Francisco in 1877. He returned to Washington in the autumn of that year. His report of the commission was duly approved, and all the changes it advised were made by the Government authorities.
In 1853 Dr. Linderman married Miss Emily Davis, a highly accomplished and talented lady, daughter of George H. Davis, one of the pioneer coal operators of the Wyoming and Carbon districts. Dr. Linderman died at his residence in Washington in January, 1879, after a long illness superinduced by his self-sacrificing care and solicitude for public interests. His conscientious and valuable aid and advice in counsel, his conception of public duty, which so entirely guided his conduct in all his official relations connected with our present monetary system, established through his efforts, justly entitle him to be held in grateful remembrance for the benefits he conferred upon his fellow countrymen.[20]