Samuel Grimes Bradford
Samuel Grimes Bradford was born in West Union, Dec. 3, 1813. His father was Samuel Bradford and his mother, Ruth Shoemaker. They were married Aug. 11, 1811, by Job Dinning. Her father was Peter Shoemaker, who lived below the iron bridge, and whose will was recorded in 1799. Samuel Grimes Bradford was Sheriff of Adams County in 1812 and 1813.
In October, 1810, he was appointed Recorder of Adams County to succeed General Darlinton. On the seventh of July, 1813, he was Captain of a militia company. He left a deed partly recorded and started with his company for the war. He never returned. He died Aug. 13, 1813, in the army and is buried at Urbana. His widow was married June 1, 1815, to Col. Samuel R. Wood, by whom she had five children, Mrs. Rev. Lock, of Illinois; Mrs. Herdman, of Iowa; David Wood, of Newport, Ky., and Frank Wood, of Urbana, Ohio. David, the brother of our subject, who married a daughter of Rev. John Meek, lived and died in West Union. He, his father, General Bradford and his mother, Barbara Grimes, are buried in the stone enclosure in Branson's field just north of the village cemetery at West Union. General David Bradford was one of the most important factors in the early settlement of Adams County. He owned a number of lots in the town of Washington and resided there while it flourished, and when it collapsed he went to West Union. When West Union was located he bought lots 10, 11, 18, 19, 65, and 75 at the opening sale. He built the Bradford House in 1804 and, from that time until his death, kept tavern there. He was Country Treasurer of Adams County from June 6, 1800, until June 6, 1832. As he died in 1834 at the age of sixty-nine, he very nearly had the treasurer's office for life. In 1804, he was made a Quartermaster General of the militia. He was a very popular man, and form holding the County Treasurership so long without any complaint, must have been a very honest one, but we must get back to our subject, his grand-son, Samuel G. Bradford. He clerked in an iron store in Cincinnati when he was about nineteen years of age for James M. Baldridge. When he was twenty years of age, he returned to West Union. He was married here on Nov. 6, 1834, to Amanda M. T. Tapp. By her, he had six children, Francis A. wife of Henry B. Woodrow, of Cincinnati; James H. Bradford of Winchester; Jennie, the wife of Gabriel McClatchy; Matilda, who died a young woman; Harriet, widow of Capt. George Collings, of Indianola, Iowa, and Samuel N. Bradford, who lives in West Union. In the same year, he succeeded to the management of Bradford's Tavern, now the Downing Hose. He conducted it until 1840, when he leased it. He contributed $200 to the erection of the Maysville and Zanesville Turnpike. In 1835, he took a drove of horses to Mississippi and sold them. On his return, he purchased the George Darling farm, formerly owned by Major Finley and moved there. His wife died May 2, 1847. In 1849, he returned to West Union and engaged in the tannery business with Edwards Darlinton.
On Oct. 29, 1850, he was married to Miss Sarah W. Smashea who survives him. He continued the tannery business until 1851, when he drove a notion wagon through the country until 1853. From that date until 1863, he traveled and sold tinware for A. F. Shriver at Manchester. In 1864, he went into the sutler business with Thomas Ellison and remained with him until the end of the war. Then he went to Mississippi and raised cotton until 1868. After that, he engaged in the grocery business at West Union with his son, Samuel N. Bradford. After continuing that business for a short time, he took the mail contract between West Union and Winchester and drove a hack on it for four years. After that he conducted a livery stable in West Union until his death which occurred Nov. 29, 1890.
In politics, he was a Whig and afterward a Republican. He was a large, fine looking man in old age, and in youth, he was handsome. He was genial and companionable. He was always ready to do a kind act for a friend. He was esteemed highly by all who knew him as a good man and upright citizen. What characterized him above his fellow men was his love of children and of horses. When surrounded by children and encouraging their amusement, he was never happier. He was always pleased to have good horses and to be looking after them. He was in his feelings and in his thoughts a relic of the older time in which he was always delighted to dwell. He passed away in peaceful sleep - "as one who wraps the drapery of his couch about him and lies down to pleasant dreams.
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