Part of the Indiana Biographies Project
Abner M. Bradbury
Abner M. Bradbury was born July 8, 1798, in Shakerstown, Warren Co., Ohio. He spent his youth on a farm, and when about seventeen years of age he began working at the fuller's trade in a mill built by his father, David Bradbury, on Morgan's Creek. At the end of three years he accepted a position as clerk in a dry-goods store, where he remained some time, after which he served as Deputy Sheriff under Abraham Elliott.
He was married in March, 1821, to Mary, daughter of Rev. Samuel Boyd. Soon after his marriage Mr. Bradbury bought a tannery, which he carried on fourteen years. In 1824 he purchased a small farm of fifteen acres of land near Jacksonburg, and in 1834 he bought another farm of 160 acres, to which he removed the same year. In 1852 he engaged in the dry-goods business in Jacksonbnrg, running a store for one year, when he sold his stock. Mr. Bradbury was elected Lieutenant-Colonel of the Thirty-seventh Indiana Militia in 1823, but thinking himself not fitted for the position he resigned. In 1829 he was elected Justice of the Peace, but at the end of a year resigned and was elected to the Legislature three years in succession — 1832-'33-'34. In 1836 he was elected to the State Senate for two years, and in 1841 was again elected to the Senate for a term of three years, and during the same year was appointed a delegate to the Whig National Convention, held at Philadelphia.
Mr. and Mrs. Bradbury were the parents of fourteen children, eleven of whom survive, all being married with the exception of one.
Source:
History of Wayne County, Indiana. Chicago: Inter-State Publishing Co. 1884. Volume 2