History of Gallipolis, (Gallia County) Ohio United States of America

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Biographies:

Lawyer and Legislator, Joseph Bradbury was born, September 7th, 1807, in the town of Exeter, Penobscot county, Maine, and is the fifth of ten children, whose parents were Joseph and Elizabeth (Stevens) Bradbury, who was a farmer by occupation, and who removed to Ohio, where he settled in Gallia county towards the close of that year, and where he resided until his death, September 1st, 1828. His wife survived him some nine years; she was a native of Andover, Massachusetts, a daughter of Peter Stevens, and of English descent. Joseph, the younger, labored on the farm until he was about seventeen years of age, attending the district school during the winter season. He then worked in a distillery for some four years, and when of age returned to farming, occupying his leisure hours, for about eight years, in the study of law. In 1836, having been previously examined, he was admitted to the bar, and at once entered upon the practice of his profession, having his office on his farm, where he resided, and pursuing his avocation in the counties of Meigs, Athens, Gallia and Jackson. In 1852 he located in Cheshire township, Gallia county, at Kygerville, where he opened his office, remaining there until 1875, when he removed to Gallipolis, where he has since resided, and has established an excellent practice. He was elected a Representative to the Ohio Legislature in 1861, and re-elected in 1863. In 1865 he was chosen to the Ohio Senate. He was again a candidate for the lower House in 1869, and elected, and a second time re-elected in 1871; thus having been for ten years a member of the General Assembly. During his term of service he took a very active part in the indorsement of the Fifteenth Amendment to the Federal Constitution, through the legislation of Ohio. Politically, he is a Republican of the radical school. His religious creed is that of the New Jerusalem Church as founded by Emanuel Swedenborg. He is, as may be seen from the foregoing record, emphatically a self-made man, and has raised himself from comparative obscurity to the prominent positions he has filled and to the practice he now controls. He was married, January 11th, 1829, to Eliza, daughter of Elijah Strong, a pioneer settler of Meigs county, Ohio.

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

Henry Safford Neal, representative, was born in Gallipolis, Ohio, Aug. 25, 1828; son of Henry H. and Lydia (Safford) Neal; grandson of John Neal, resident of Parkersburg, Va., and of Dr. Jonas and Joanna (Merrill) Safford, who immigrated to Gallipolis, Ohio, in 1811; a descendant of James O'Neill, a native of Ireland, who immigrated to Virginia with two brothers before the Revolution, changed his name to "Neal" and was captain in the 13th Virginia regiment in the Continental army, and also a lineal descendant of Thomas Safford, who came to Ipswich, Mass., from England in 1641. Henry Safford Neal graduated from Marietta college in 1847, engaged in mercantile business as his father's clerk, studied law under Simeon Nash, state senator and a prominent jurist of southern Ohio, and settled in practice in Ironton, Ohio, in 1851. He was prosecuting attorney of Lawrence county, 1853-57; a state senator from the eighth district, 1862-66; U.S. consul to Lisbon, Portugal, from July, 1869, to January, 1870, and charg? d'affaires to that kingdom from December, 1869, to July, 1870. He was chairman of the commission appointed in 1871 to investigate alleged frauds under the treaties with the Chippewa Indians, and a member of the Ohio constitutional convention of 1872-73. He was a Republican representative from the eleventh district of Ohio in the 45th, 46th and 47th congresses, 1877-83, and served as chairman of the committee on the District of Columbia and as a member of the committee on territories. He was solicitor of the U.S. treasury, 1883-85. He was married in 1861 to Mary J., daughter of John Campbell, an iron manufacturer of Ironton, Ohio, and secondly to Mrs. L. C. Gibbs of Zanesville, Ohio. He was a resident of Ironton in 1902.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

Robert Safford Newton, surgeon, was born in Gallipolis, Ohio, Dec. 12, 1818. He was educated first at Gallia college, and was graduated in medicine at the University of Kentucky in 1841. He practised in his native city four years, and then removed to Cincinnati, where he acquired a high reputation as a physician and surgeon. He was professor of surgery in Memphis university in 1849-51, and from 1851 to 1862 filled the same chair in the Eclectic Medical Institute of Cincinnati. He removed to New York in 1863. He had already assisted in organizing a National Eclectic Medical society, and he now organized a similar one for New York State, and in 1865 founded the Eclectic Medical college of the City of New York, of which he was president from 1875 till his death. He also occupied the professorship of surgery. For nearly forty years he made investigations in cell pathology, and he invented many improvements in surgery and several instruments. He made a special study of cancerous diseases. The circular operation for removal of the breast was first performed by him. Dr. Newton edited and published successively the Eclectic Medical Journal and the Eclectic Medical Review. The latter, in 1874, was merged in the Medical Eclectic. He contributed to the United States Eclectic Dispensatory, edited Chapman on Ulcers (1853); Eclectic Practice of Medicine (1854); Diseases of Children (1854); Syme's Surgery (1856); and Pathology of Inflammation and Fever (1867); and was the author of A Treatise on Antiseptic Surgery (1876). His son, Robert Safford, born in 1855, followed the father's profession, was educated largely in Europe, and became professor of diseases of the eye, throat and skin in the New York Eclectic college, and edited medical periodicals. The elder Dr. Newton died in New York city, Oct. 9, 1881.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

Augustus Donnally, retired Steamboat-man, was born at Gallipolis, Ohio, February 2d, 1820. His father dying when he was a child he had early to shift for himself, so obtained the most valuable part of his schooling among men in the business world. Until he was eighteen years of age he worked on a farm and otherwise for the support of his mother's family. Now thinking that he could better his condition by some river occupation, the Ohio river then being the great trade channel for the surrounding country, he commenced his eventful career as deck-hand on the steamer "Tribune," working two years in this position. Being temperate, industrious and trustworthy, at the end of this hard service he was made watchman on the "Tribune." From this time he gradually worked along from the various steamboat ranks until, in 1842, he became commander of the "Wm. Phillips." When a mere boy he had formed the determination to be a captain of one of the beautiful floating palaces on the Ohio; at this his good mother laughed, thinking it a boy's dream, yet the good lady lived long after he had gained the desired goal. The "Wm. Phillips" he ran for two seasons on the Wabash and Kanawha rivers, owning a small interest in her through the instrumentality of friends. Selling his interest in this boat, he immediately purchased another, building, equipping and running, in all, on the Ohio, Mississippi and their tributaries, nineteen boats, over a space of twenty-two years. In 1863 he went to Pittsburgh and built the "Paragon," at a cost of $66,000. This boat he at once put, without insurance, into the Missouri river trade, running from St. Louis to Fort Leavenworth, chiefly in private business. In 1864, having had a fortunate season, he sold the "Paragon," realizing handsomely on her. Now having accumulated enough to satisfy a reasonable man, and risks being very great on available steamers, the captain determined to retire from river business; accordingly he purchased his present fine farm near Morrow, Ohio. This is said to be the finest farm in Warren county. Having his farm in the most desirable condition, and having gathered every convenience and comfort around a quiet and happy home, he found himself at the expiration of ten years yearning for a little of the old excitement and fascination of the river; accordingly, in 1874, he bought the "Mary Miller." Captain Donnally thinks that hard work, correct habits, strict economy, with the exercise of a few grains of common sense, have more to do with the accumulation of wealth than lucky stars or so-called strokes of fortune. His was not an even plain road to fortune; twice he lost all that he had gathered in years of toil, and his history is that of few other men of his trade; although some have made fortunes, few have served apprenticeships in all the hard grades of this craft. He married Elizabeth Smith, of Marietta, Ohio, and has six children living.

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