COL. LABAN J. BRADFORD, a native of Bracken County,
Ky., was born June 26, 1815, and is a son of William and Elizabeth
(Johnson) Bradford, natives respectively of England and Virginia.
William Bradford, a farmer, immigrated to Bracken County, Ky., in 1791.
He served as high sheriff in the county under the old constitution, and
also as magistrate. His wife was a daughter of Thomas Johnson, who was
private secretary of George Washington, served in the war of the
Revolution, and died in Virginia. William Bradford died in Bracken
County in 1830. The subject's grandmother was a cousin of John Wesley.
Laban J. Bradford received a high-school education (remaining on the
farm until fifteen years of age), and two years later became a clerk at
Augusta. When twenty years of age he became a partner in a general
merchandise business, in which business he continued for forty years. He
was engaged in boating from New Orleans to St. Martinsville, La., and
Cincinnati for four years. In 1855-56 he represented Bracken County in
the Legislature, and was chairman of the Committee on Penitentiary.
During that session he obtained an appropriation of $5,000 to establish a
State agricultural society, of which society he was president for seven
years. In 1858 he established a tobacco fair at Louisville which
existed ten years, Mr. Bradford being president for seven years. He was
appointed by Gov. Bramlette as president of the board of visitors to the
State University at Lexington, which position he held until the
separation of the State college from the university, when he became one
of the trustees of the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Lexington.
For a number of years he was president of the National Tobacco
Association, and was selected by the State Board of Agriculture to appear
in Washington and petition Congress not to tax leaf tobacco, in which
he was successful. But during all this time he was
connected with planting, and rearing of stock, writing essays on
tobacco, hemp and horticulture, and the choice of professions, etc. In
the struggles that agitate society he is never narrow. He had his own
views and they were firmly held. In all that was personal but few
possessed the same attractive traits of character. His home is the scene
of refined hospitality and happiness. "We learn that his large library,
which his long life has been spent in gathering, is to be donated to
the State College of Kentucky. He moved to Covington in 1874, has dealt
in real estate, and now owns 6,000 or 8,000 acres of land. In March,
1844, he married Miss Jane M. Jewell, daughter of Benjamin and Sarah
Jewell. The former was a merchant in Charleston for many years, and the
latter was a native of Richmond, Va. Our subject was married in Pointe
Coupee, La., and six children were the result of his marriage, of whom
four are living, viz.: Emma Eldridge, of Cincinnati;
Sallie, who married A. G. Roulstone, of Tennessee; Alexander Jewell, a
merchant in Bracken County, a member of the last Legislature, and
chairman of the educational committee, who died in June, 1887; and
Jennie, who is at home. Mr. Bradford is a member of the Methodist
Episcopal Church South.
Kentucky: A History of the State by William Henry Perrin
DR. WILLIAM A. BRADFORD was born in Pendleton County, Ky., in 1849,
and is a son of Hugh and Margaret (Chalfant) Bradford. Hugh Bradford
was also a native of Pendleton County, was born in 1818, and was a
farmer. William A. Bradford received his preliminary education in the
common schools of Pendleton County, pursued subsequently, the ordinary
literary and preparatory course of study, and then entered the
Cincinnati College of Medicine, from which he graduated with the degree
of M. D. In 1871 he located in Morgan, Ky., followed his profession
there two years, and then removed to Saline County, Mo., where he
practiced two years, and then returned to Pendleton County, Ky., and
settled in But
ler, where he is still actively engaged in practice. November 16,
1872, he married Miss Mildred A. Morris, a native of West Virginia, born
February 12, 1850, and a daughter of William and Julia (Mitchell)
Morris. To this marriage have been born three children: Lamah, Nellie
and W. Hugh. The Doctor represented Pendleton County in the Legislature
in the session of 1883-84; has been a member of the town board of Butler
several times, and in addition to his medical practice is partner with
C. C. Hagemeyer in the manufacture of lumber, and in dealing in grain
and flour. He has also been engaged in the tobacco trade since 1879, and
owns a large warehouse in Butler; beside these activities he owns and
cultivates a farm of 265 acres in Pendleton County. The Doctor is a
Democrat in politics, and in religion a Baptist, being a member of the
congregation of that denomination at Butler. He is also Worshipful
Master of Bostwick Lodge, No. 508, A. F. & A.
M.
Kentucky: A History of the State by William Henry Perrin
