John Bragg Sr & Mary Newport | |
Peter Newport Bragg b.1763 | Richard Bragg b.1762 |
Hosea Bragg b.1804 | Hugh Lewis Bragg b.1795 |
Walter Newport Bragg | William Bragg b.1834 |
Peter Newport Bragg b.1887 | Frank Martin Bragg b.1867 |
Peter Newport Bragg b.1920 | Orval Bishop Bragg b.1895 |
Don Cicero Bragg b.1920 |
During WW II Peter N. Bragg, a civilian chemical engineer on the famous the Manhattan Project, worked in the Philadelphia Navy Yard at the Thermal Diffusion Unit [1]. On Sept. 2, 1944 a tragic accident occurred as Peter and his fellow researchers attempted to unclog a tube filled with high-pressure steam near a flow of "liquid uranium hexafluoride." [2] "Without warning, at 1:20 PM, there was a terrific explosion. As the tube shattered, the liquid uranium hexafluoride combined with the escaping steam and showered the two engineers with hydrofluoric acid, one of the most corrosive agents known."[3] Peter N. Bragg and a fellow researcher, Douglas Paul Meigs, were killed instantly. Five other workers were critically injured in the explosion.
As noted above, this same accident took the life of Douglas Paul Meigs. Meigs just happens to be the 4th cousins 3 times removed of the famous "Quartermaster General of the U.S. Army during and after the American Civil War," Gen. Montgomery Cunningham Meigs.[4] This family also has a somewhat convoluted connection with our Bragg family. [5]Gen. Meigs' 3rd cousins 1 time removed, Rebecca Meigs, was married to a man by the name of David Bragg. He was a 3rd cousin 1 time removed to James Bragg, whose wife, Orpha Munson, was our Dad's 3rd cousins 4 times removed. This is how the connection appears:
John Meigs and Sarah Wilcoxson | ||
John (No. 11*) Meigs b.1670 | Capt. Janna Meigs b.1672 | Ebenezer Meigs b.1675 |
John Vincent Meigs b.1697 | Return Meigs b.1708 | Ebenezer Meigs b.1703 |
Dr. John Meigs b.1725 | Josiah Meigs b.1757 | Nathaniel Meigs b.1741 |
Dr. Phineas Meigs b.1760 | Dr. Charles Delucena Meigs b.1792 | Rebecca Meigs b.1773 [Wife of David Bragg (b. 1786)] |
Charles Meigs b.1793 | Major Gen. Montgomery C. Meigs b.1816 | Ebenezer Bragg (b. 1810) |
Benjamin Franklin Meigs b.1831 | ||
Charles Pembroke Meigs b.1882 | ||
Douglas Meigs b.1919 |
Note: the three individuals on line two of the chart above (John, Janna, and Ebenezer) are all brothers.
This would also make Ebenezer Bragg (b.1810, the oldest son of Rebecca Meigs and David Bragg) [6] the 4th cousin 3 times removed of Douglas Meigs (chart above) who died in the same accident that killed Peter Newport Bragg on Sept. 2, 1944 in the Philadelphia Navy Yard's Thermal Diffusion Unit.
This same Ebenezer Bragg (b. 04 Mar 1810) is also the 4th cousin 1 time removed of James L. Bragg b.1833 (first chart below), who is also our 4th cousin 4 times removed (second chart below).
Nicholas Bragge and Sara Langbrady | |
John Bragg b.1659 | Henry Bragg b.1659 |
Thomas Bragg b.1685 | Alexander Bragg b.1689 |
John Bragg b.1717 | Nicholas Bragg b.1732 |
Nathaniel Bragg b.1743 | James Bragg b.1784 [married Orpha Munson b.1793] |
David Bragg (b. 1786) [married Rebecca Meigs b.1773] | James L. Bragg b.1833 |
Ebenezer Bragg b. 1810 |
Samuel Munson & Martha (Mary) Farnes | |
Solomon Munson b.1688 | Waitstill Munson b.1697 |
Samuel Munson b.1717 | Samuel Munson b.1724 |
Samuel Munson Jr. b.1763 | Waitstill Munson b.1760 |
Isaac Munson b.1802 | Orpha Munson b.1793 |
Joel Munson b.1846 | James L. Bragg b.1833 |
Elvira Belle Munson b.1871 | |
Gladys Gilbreath b.1898 | |
Gladys Gilbreath b.1898 | |
Don Cicero Bragg b.1920 |
[1] http://www.mphpa.org/classic/VET_ARCHIVES/MPVA_07.htm#bragg
[2] http://www.mphpa.org/classic/FH/PH/The_Incident.htm
[3] Ibid.
[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montgomery_C._Meigs
[5] District of Columbia Deaths, 1874-1959 for Douglas P Meigs
[6] Rebecca Meigs (b. 23 May 1787, d. 01 Sep 1847
Photographs:
1 Peter Newport Bragg Jr.
2 Douglas Paul Meigs