My Genealogy Hound

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.