That Charles Bradburn is a merchant long and honorably known in the commercial history of Cleveland, and that he still retains a prominent place in the business circles which he entered thirty-three years ago, are undeniable facts. And yet, the great feature of Mr. Bradburn's busy life, and that of which he is justly most proud, is not his business successes, but his connection with the public schools of this city. His money, made by anxious care in his warehouse and among business men, was freely spent to promote the cause of education, and the labor, solicitude and anxiety with which he prosecuted his business, great as they necessarily were, must be counted small compared with his sacrifices of time and labor in the effort to extend and improve the school system and make the school houses of the city a source of gratulation and pride to the citizens. But whilst his hardest labor was in the service of the schools, it was purely a labor of love, whilst his work on the river was a labor of business, and therefore he must, in this record of Cleveland's noted men, take rank among his commercial brethren.

Mr. Bradburn was born at Attleborough, Massachusetts, July 16th, 1808. His father was a cotton manufacturer when that great industrial interest was in its infancy. The first manufacture in this country of several articles of twilled fabrics was in his factory.

At the age of seven years Charles Bradburn had the misfortune to lose his mother, a lady highly esteemed by all who knew her. This loss was a serious one, as it left him almost entirely to his own resources. When sixteen years old he entered the Lowell machine shop as an apprentice, and after a service of three years, graduated with a diploma from the Middlesex Mechanics Association. He served as a journeyman for two years, when, feeling that his education was not adequate to his wants, he left the mechanic's bench for the student's desk, entering the classical school of Professor Coffin at Ashfield, in the western part of the same State. Subsequently he resumed his mechanical labors, which he continued until 1833, part of the time as a journeyman, but during the greater part as a manufacturer on his own account. At that date he changed his business from manufacturing to commerce, opening a store in Lowell.

In 1836, he decided to remove to the West, and in that year brought his family to Cleveland, where he commenced the wholesale and retail grocery business in the wooden building now standing, adjoining the old City Buildings, which were not then finished. The next year he rented the two stores adjoining in the then new City Buildings, of which but a portion now remains. In 1840, he built the warehouse now standing at the foot of St. Clair street and moved his business to that place, abandoning the retail branch. At the same time he established a distillery on what was then known as "the island," on the west side of the river. In 1854, he removed to the spacious warehouses, 58 and 60 River street, now occupied by him and his partners under the same name, "C. Bradburn & Co.," that graced the walls of the City Buildings in 1836. During his long commercial life Mr. Bradburn has enjoyed largly theturnpikesnce and esteem of the commercial community and is now one of the most energetic business men of the city.

But it is in his devotion to the cause of knowledge and popular education that Mr. Bradburn appears especially as a representative man. He was one of the first officers of the Mercantile Library Association, and in its early history took much interest in its prosperity. His great work, however, lay in the schools. In a letter to a friend recently written, he, with characteristic modesty, writes: "After a life almost as long as is allotted to man, the only thing I find to glory in is having been able to render some service to the cause of popular education; to be called by so many of our ablest educators the father of our public schools, was glory enough, and ample compensation for many years of hard labor and the expenditure of much money in the cause."

Mr. Bradburn was in 1839 elected to the City Council from the Third ward. As chairman of the Committee on Fire and Water he reorganized the Fire Department, which was then in a wretched condition, and, with the assistance of Mr. J. L. Weatherly, who was made Chief Engineer, and the aid of new laws, made it one of the most efficient of any at that time existing in the country. As chairman of the Committee on Streets, at that time an office of much responsibility and labor, he rendered the city valuable service.

In 1841, he was elected a member and made chairman of the Board of School Managers. This body was merged into the Board of Education, and for several years he filled the office of president. For thirteen consecutive years he served as member of the Board of School Managers and of the Board of Education, during much of which time he had almost unaided control of the educational affairs of the city. Mr. Bradburn succeeded in getting through the Legislature a bill authorizing the establishment of a High School, the first institution of the kind, connected with the public schools, in the State of Ohio. A school of this character was started in June, 1846, and maintained in spite of fierce opposition. But there was no building to receive it, and its earlier years were spent in the basement of a church on Prospect street, the room being fitted up by Mr. Bradburn and rented by the city for fifty dollars per annum.

Feeling strongly that he could render better service to the cause of popular education in the City Council than he could in the Board of Education, in 1853 he resigned his seat in the latter body and was elected to the City Council. When Ohio City was united with Cleveland, he was chosen president of the united Councils.

Having, on taking his seat in the Council, been appointed to a position on the Committee on Schools, his first and continuous efforts were directed to bringing the Council to provide suitable buildings, not only for the High School, but for all the schools of the city. In consequence of his earnest and persistent labors an ordinance was passed authorizing a loan for school purposes of $30,000. The loan was negotiated at par without expense to the city. Mr. Bradburn, and the Building Committee, of which he was chairman, immediately made plans for the Central High School, and the Mayflower, Eagle and Alabama street Grammar schools, all of which were put under contract without delay, and finished under their supervision to the entire satisfaction of the Council and Board of Education. The teachers of the public schools in gratitude for his services in the cause of education, induced Mr. Bradburn to sit to Allen Smith, Jr., for his picture, which was then hung in the hall of the Central High School. At a subsequent date the High School teachers presented him with a massive gold-headed cane, engraved with a complimentary inscription, but this highly prized token was unfortunately lost, together with a number of other cherished mementoes and all the family pictures, in a fire which destroyed his residence in February, 1868. In the fire also perished a valuable library of over four hundred volumes, the result of a lifetime's collection, and Mr. Bradburn barely escaped with his own life from a third story window, being badly injured in the descent.

In public matters he has done but little during the past few years, devoting himself entirely to his business, but he may be seen on all occasions where the cause of popular education can be benefited by his presence. In 1848, he was the Whig candidate for Mayor, but, being ill at the time, gave the canvass no personal attention, and was defeated by a few votes, the opponents of the High School, of whatever party, voting against him.

To Mr. Bradburn the credit belongs of procuring, after a hard battle against parsimony and prejudice, the establishment of the first free High School in the West.