History of Vermilion, (Erie County) Ohio United States of America

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Edward Payson Bradstreet was born, June 5th, 1830, at Vermilion, near Sandusky, Ohio. He is a lineal descendant in the seventh generation from Simon Bradstreet, one of the colonial governors of Massachusetts, who came over with his wife, the noted poetess, Anne Bradstreet, in 1630, from England in the "Arabella Stuart." The subject of this sketch was the second son of the late Rev. Stephen I. Bradstreet, the pioneer clergyman of Cleveland, the founder and long minister of the First Presbyterian Church in that city, who removed there from his home in Pelham, New Hampshire, with his young wife while Cleveland was a small village, and lived and labored there and elsewhere in northern Ohio, for the glory of God and the welfare of his fellow-men, till his early death, in 1837, among those who knew and loved him best. His widow, one of the Dana descendants, survived him but one year. Intelligent and beautiful, endowed with all that Christian grace can bestow, she was the centre of affection of her family and friends and the worthy companion of her loving husband in all his labors and trials, and their memory is fresh in the hearts of the Lake Erie pioneers, among whom in the Cleveland Cemetery they have long rested. The three children were separated by this bereavement, and Edward was reared in the family of Alexander Garton, a farmer near Oberlin, till he was sixteen years old, when he determined to obtain a liberal education at all hazards, and commenced to attend the Elyria High School, then a prominent institution in northern Ohio. Here he fitted himself for college, working his way as best he could, his inheritance being but little more than an unsullied and beloved name. Leaving there with the highest honors, he, in 1849, entered Western Reserve College, founded by his father, and pushed his way on till a quarrel among the professors, followed by many of them resigning, induced him and others to go elsewhere, and he chose old Yale, entering the same grade class which he left, after the usual severe examination. He graduated in 1853. Returning West he taught the academy in Talmadge, Ohio, for a year, and then went to Cincinnati in 1854 and commenced reading law with the firm of Ferguson & Long, teaching in the daytime in the public schools and studying at night. He was admitted to the bar in 1856. After several months' attention to office practice with his preceptors, he commenced, in 1857, as partner of Henry Snow, Esq., which firm continued successfully for over two years, when Mr. Bradstreet removed to St. Joseph, Missouri, for his future home. In 1860 he was married to Mrs. Dolabella Fraisse, of Vicksburg, who died in August, 1867, lamented by all who knew her. The certainty of coming war induced his return to Cincinnati, late in 1860, where he has since resided, practising his profession. A leading object of his life has been to aid and promote all proper attempts to advance religion, morality and the general welfare of his fellow-men. Early in his residence in Cincinnati he was an active member of the Young Men's Christian Association, and one of the founders and early presidents of the Cincinnati Gymnasium. In 1866 he was elected a member of the Board of Education, and aided in the plans and movements for establishing the present public library. In 1867-68 he was a member of an association of gentlemen whose object was to create a public sentiment in favor of enforcing law and order on Sunday, and with his associates devoted much time and labor to the cause in a quiet way, with excellent results. From 1869 to 1871 he was one of the trustees of the Homoeopathic Free Dispensary. In 1871-72 he was President of the Ohio Department of the National Capital Life Insurance Company, till it was merged in the Penn Mutual Company. In the same year he was chairman of a private organization whose object was to unite all good citizens to vote for the best candidates for city offices, regardless of politics. He has been for years a director of the Young Men's Bible Society of Cincinnati. In 1865 he was appointed Superintendent of St. Paul's Episcopal Church Sunday-school, and has remained so ever since, gathering around him a corps of remarkable teachers, till the school has become celebrated for successful efficiency. During the same period he was elected and served as vestryman, but declined re-election. In 1870 he was one of the founders of the Church Guild of Cincinnati, and continued one of its foremost members and officers, especially in mission work, during its three years of successful existence. In 1872 he was among the first to aid in establishing the Cincinnati Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and has ever since been one of its officers, devoting his time and professional services gratuitously. He has been for years one of the trustees of the famous Kilwinning Chapter of Royal Arch Masons. In 1872 he was again elected Director of the Gymnasium, and since 1874 has been its President, and has aided in making it now the largest and best in the country and one of the prominent features of the city. During the yellow fever plague in Memphis he devised and superintended in Cincinnati and incited in New York and other cities the "Ballot-box charities" on election day, by which about $20,000 was realized for the orphans and sufferers, and afterwards also a large sum in Cincinnati for the victims of the great Southern flood. In 1875 he was elected President of the Yale Club. To attend to these various interests, in addition to the demands of a large practice, has left little time for rest except in summer vacations. In politics, his party has until lately offered small inducements to seek for personal preferment, but in 1874, when the new Ohio Constitution seemed about to be adopted, he was a prominent conditional candidate for Common Pleas Judge, and no doubt would have been nominated and elected had the constitution been adopted. There are few harder or more successful workers at the bar, and he finds in rotation of outside duties the recreation that too many seek only in the foibles of fashion and the dissipations of city life.

From: The Biographical Encyclopedia of Ohio of the Nineteenth Century. Columbus, OH, USA: Galaxy Publishing Co., 1876.

History of Vermilion, (Erie County) Ohio

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