 He was the eldest son of Urban Hanlon Broughton and Cara Leland (née Rogers) Broughton.His father was a British civil engineer who had gone to the United States to represent the hydro-pneumatic sewerage system of Isaac Shone.While he was installing the sewerage system in Fairhaven for Henry Huttleston Rogers, oil tycoon and one of the world's wealthiest men, he met and married Rogers' widowed daughter.