Daniel Breck, civil engineer of Louisville, son of Rev. Robert L. Breck, was born in Richmond, Kentucky, July 27, 1861, and graduated from Central University in 1880. He went to Leadville, Colorado, and spent some time in prospecting and hunting before taking a postgraduate course in the California University, concluding in 1883. He made a special study of civil engineering in both of these universities, and while in California built a sea wall at San Luis Obispo; assisted in the construction of a railroad from Port Harford, Cal., and also a railroad in Oregon; returned to Kentucky and accepted a prominent position in the engineering department of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad Company with headquarters in Louisville; promoted to roadmaster on the Short Line Division; from that to superintendent of the Owensboro Division, and is at present in the office of the president of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad Company at Louisville.

His father, Rev. Robert L. Breck, D. D., was born in Richmond, Kentucky, May 8, 1827, and after graduating from Center College at the age of seventeen years, he attended Princeton College, New Jersey, graduating from the theological seminary and has since received the degree of Doctor of Divinity from Princeton College. He preached his first sermon in the old church on “Woodburn Farm” in Woodford County, since which time his name and’ work have been identified with the history of the Presbyterian Church and with Center College and Central University as one of the leading ministers in the church and as an educator of young men; was moderator of the General Assembly when the sectional division took place; took an active part in the historic events of those stirring times; was the prime mover in the organization of Central University and was its first chancellor, wielding a great influence and occupying a prominent place in ecclesiastical bodies and especially in the educational work of the church.

Daniel Breck is a grandson of Judge Daniel Breck, a member of Congress and judge of the Court of Appeals of Kentucky; a great-grandson of Major-General Green Clay of the War of 1812; also a great-grandson of General Levi Todd of the Indian Wars. His ancestors were intimately connected with the early history of Kentucky.

Source: Biographical Cyclopedia of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. John M. Gresham Company, Chicago, Philadelphia, 1896.