Charles H. Bratten
Charles H. Bratten was born in Newcastle County, Delaware, on the bank of Brandywine Creek, near the Dupont mills, on the seventeenth of April, 1833. His father was Robert Bratten, whose grandparents came from the North of Ireland. His mother was Hannah Maria Carr, a descendant of the early Irish and Swedish settlers in Delaware. Some of her near relatives in the ancestral line fought in the Revolutionary War. His parents removed to Philadelphia when he was but two years old, and at the age of eight years, he went to work in the woolen mills and worked there until he was fifteen. At that time, his parents moved to a farm on the Schuylkill, which is now a part of the city of Philadelphia. The son accepted a position as toll-gate tender near the city limits where he worked for a year. During the time from his eighth to his sixteenth year, the only schooling he received was when the mills in which he was engaged had to close for repairs, and during this time he attended school. He was taught to read by his mother before he attended school. His father, at this time, took the Western fever, and emigrated to Highland County, Ohio, in 1850, locating near Sugar Tree Ridge.
Our subject located in Adams County in 1854 in Locust Grove and served a four years' apprenticeship at the blacksmith trade, at which he has worked ever since at the same place.
In 1859, he married Caroline Leedom, daughter of Thomas Leedom, who at that time kept the old tavern which stood in the north end of Locust Grove. They have four sons and three daughters, all of whom are living and have reached maturity.
When the Civil War began, our subject joined the home guard, and on September 15, 1861, he enlisted in Battery F, First Ohio Volunteer Light Artillery. He remained with the battery until July 22, 1865. This battery was engaged in the battles of Corinth. Stone River, Perryville and Chickamauga and Shiloh. After the war. he returned to Locust Grove, which has been his home ever since.
Mr. Bratten is a voluminous reader, and in that way has acquired a great deal of information. He is a radical Republican, and has been since the founding of the party, but never sought office. He is an excellent mechanic and possesses no small amount of inventive genius Three or four years before the Civil War, he and James McCrum, the old gunsmith of Locust Grove, conceived the idea of putting rifles in cannons to increase their effectiveness. Having some doubt as to the success of their proposed invention, Mr. McCrum suggested that they write to Gen. Scott for his opinion of its probable success. They did this and Gen. Scott expressed the opinion that it would not work, so they dropped it. But to their surprise, they learned that in a short time that Hotchkiss had patented the very thing they were at work on. They sometimes thought that General Scott had given the idea to Hotchkiss. They claim that the idea was original with them, though an European had invented a cast iron breech-loading rifled cannon in 1846.
Mr. Bratten is noted for his integrity and is adverse to going into debt. It has been his aim to give his children what was denied to him in his childhood, a common school education. In his early manhood, he was a giant in strength, being five feet ten and a half inches high, and weighing over two hundred pounds, with a symmetrical build. He has no tolerance for dishonesty. He is a man highly respected for his sterling qualities.
From History of Adams County, Ohio from its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time - by Nelson W. Evans and Emmons B. Stivers - West Union, Ohio - Published by E. B. Stivers - 1900