Did You Know? #38

Peter Newport Bragg, Jr. and Dad (4th cousins 1 time removed) were both born in 1920 and both served our country during the dark days of WW II, one in the military and the other in a laboratory? But only one would survive that war.

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

Footnotes:
[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