Hon. Philip B. Bradley 1879

BRADLEY, CARPENTER, WASHINGTON, ADAMS, BAKER, BOOTH, FORD, WILSON

Posted By: LuAnn Goeke (email)
Date: 4/29/2010 at 19:28:46

HON. PHILIP B. BRADLEY, Andrew; born at Ridgefield, Fairfield Co., Conn., Jan. 5, 1809; his grandfather, Philip Burr Bradley, was also a native of Ridgefield, a lawyer, and a graduate of Yale; during the Revolutionary war he was a Colonel in active service, and his commission is still preserved; he was a warm and trusted personal friend of Washington, and was appointed by him, when President, Marshal of the District of Connecticut, an appointment renewed in Washington's second term, and also under President Adams; his son, Jesse Smith Bradley, was also a graduate of Yale, and highly esteemed as a classical scholar; he was elected by the Legislature one of the Judges of Fairfield Co., an office retained until his death in May, 1833; his wife, Elizabeth Baker, the daughter of D. Amos Baker, a physician of note, was also a native of Ridgefield. The eldest son of these parents, Philip B. Bradley, pursued his studies at Ridgefield Academy until 1820, when he entered Union College at Schenectady, N.Y., from which he graduated in the Class of '29; in 1830, he commenced the study of law, at Danbury, in the office of Reuben H. Booth, Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut; in 1835, he removed to Galena, Ill., then the most enterprising town in the Northwest; there he was admitted to the bar by the Hon. Thomas Ford, afterward Governor of Illinois; in 1830, Mr. Bradley was appointed Prosecuting Attorney; in 1837, he received the appointment of Postmaster at Galena, which position he resigned in 1839; in the autumn of the same year, he moved to Clinton Co., Iowa, where he was elected the first Probate Judge in that county in 1840; in 1842, he removed to this county; in 1843, he was appointed Clerk of the District Courts by Judge Thomas S. Wilson, and in April, 1845, was elected to the Territorial Legislature, and represented the counties of Jackson, Dubuque, Delaware and Clayton; in 1846, he was elected a member of the Senate of the First General Assembly for four years, and in 1850 was Secretary of that body; in 1857, he was elected a member of the House of Representatives for two years; in 1861, he was elected County Judge, and made the most efficient guardian of the public interests to whom they were ever intrusted[sic]; in 1877, he was again elected a member of the House of Representatives for two years. In all the relations of life Judge Bradley has few, if any, superiors; he is a public-spirited, enterprising citizen, and one whose honesty and fidelity to public and private trusts is unimpeachable; he is an excellent scholar, a close reader and deep thinker, and is eminently qualified by nature and education to be a leader in public affairs. Judge Bradley married in Galena, Ill., in 1835, Miss Lucinda, daughter of Samuel D. Carpenter of that city; they have nine children. - 1879 History of Jackson County Iowa, pg. 725.