JOHN A. BRADNER. By the death of this honorable and upright citizen Fostoria and Seneca county, and indeed the state of Ohio, sustained an irreparable loss and were deprived of the presence of one who had come to be looked upon as a guardian and friend. Death often removes from our midst those whom we can ill afford to lose, those whose lives have been exemplar of the true and good and who are therefore really great citizens. Such a man was John Alonzo Bradner, whose entire career, both business and social, served as an inspiration to the aged and as a model to the young. His work as a member of the legal profession, and more especially as a railroad builder, was of the greatest benefit to the state, and his usefulness and general benevolence he created a memory whose perpetuation does not depend upon sculptured stone or elaborate mortuary crypt, but rather upon the spontaneous and freewill offering of a grateful and enlightened people. His connection with Fostoria's development and growth and with the cumulative work of material improvement was largely instrumental in placing the city in the proud position it today occupies.

Mr. Bradner was born August 13, 1833, at Niagara Falls, New York, a son of William and Laura (Everingham) Bradner. He spent his early life in the place of his nativity, pursued his education in the Lewiston Academy, and in 1849 removed with his parents to Perry township, Wood county, Ohio. His father established a store at West Mill Grove and he became a salesman therein. After clerking for six years he bought the store from his father and for two years carried on the enterprise individually. In 1859 he removed to Fremont, Sandusky county, where he was manager of a warehouse for the ensuing four years. In March, 1863, Mr. Bradner arrived in Fostoria, where he established a warehouse and stove business, conducting the same with adequate success for a period of nine years, or until 1872, when the demands made upon his attention by other business enterprises caused him to dispose of the store to devote his entire time to the development of other interests.

For thirty-five years Mr. Bradner was engaged in railroad building. He aided in securing the right of way, and was engaged in the construction of the Hocking Valley, the Ohio Central and the Nickel Plate Railroads; and he also took the contract for the construction of nineteen miles of the old Mansfield, Coldwater and Lake Michigan Railroad and thirty-five miles of the Clover Leaf Railroad. Thus, as a railroad contractor, he was closely associated with the work of improvement, for no other one agency has so direct or so important bearing upon the upbuilding and progress of a country as the introduction of railroads. He also secured the right of way for the Toledo, Fostoria & Findlay Electric Railroad, and at the time of his death he was the secretary and treasurer and the general manager of the Ohio & Northwestern Electric Railroad. In the winter of 1900-01 he secured for this corporation the right of way from Fostoria to Jerry City, and while engaged in that work was taken ill, passing away on the 9th of July, 1901, at the age of sixty-eight years.

When the state had been largely supplied with railroads for transportation by the power of steam, his progressive spirit led him to take up the new methods of travel by the aid of electrical power, and thus he was associated with the upbuilding of interurban lines. This, however, did not comprise the extent of Mr. Bradner's connection with business interests. He macadamized the principal streets of Fostoria; was engaged in the stone and lime business, having been a large stockholder and president of the Fostoria Stone and Lime Company; was one of the organizers of the first gas company here; and in all ways was known as a progressive, public spirited and influential citizen. He was a man of keen sagacity, capable of looking beyond the exigencies of the moment to the possibilities of the future. He labored, not alone for himself or for his own generation but also for posterity, for through many years to come his efforts will benefit those who follow him. His interests were of important order and of great magnitude, and although his business career was so successful as to seem almost phenomenal, it but represented the fit utilization of his powers along the lines where mature judgment led the way, and his prosperity was the result of his own efforts. While he was engaged in building the Hocking Valley Railroad Mr. Bradner was associated with Mr. Ransom Crocker in the founding and platting of a town in Wood county, located on the line of this railroad, and the same was named in honor of the subject of this memoir. Bradner is now a very attractive and prosperous town of about two thousand population, being located in the center of the oil belt and having before it an unmistakably auspicious future.

On the 3rd of March, 1856, Mr. Bradner was united in marriage to Miss Catherine Phillips, a daughter of Samuel and Sarah Phillips. Of Jerry City, Ohio, and unto them were born the following named children, Catherine, the eldest, is the wife of Samuel Lynn, of Toledo; May, became the wife of Pliny Jones, of Fostoria, and is now deceased; Rosa, who was the wife of Brice M. Stout, of Fostoria, is likewise deceased; Martin who was editor of the Evening N ews, of Fostoria died at the age of twenty-seven years leaving a wife and two children, John A. and Frederick; Jessie is the wife of Edward Cooper, of Denver, Colorado; Franc, is the wife of Frank Stout. a furniture dealer in Fostoria, which city like- wise continues to be the home of one other son, John R. ; and Harry E., now resides in Fremont, Ohio.

In addition to all his other interests John A. Bradner studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1879, and he became the first city solicitor of Fostoria For twenty-one years he was incumbent of the office of justice of the peace and his rulings were ever fair and impartial. He served for seven consecutive terms in that office in Loudon township, and was elected for the eighth term For six years he was the mayor of Fostoria, and his executive duties were so ably and faithfully performed that one could readily have believed that he had no extraneous interests, and was giving his entire time to the interests and administration of the municipal government. He was a man remarkable in the breadth of his wisdom, in his indomitable perseverance and in his strong individuality. His entire life had not one esoteric phase, being an open scroll, inviting and challenging closest scrutiny. True his were "massive deeds and great" in one sense, and yet his entire life accomplishment but represented the result of the exercise of the intrinsic talent which was his and the directing of his efforts along those legitimate and prolific lines where mature judgment and rare discrimination led the way. A man of indefatigable enterprise and fertility of resource, he carved his name deeply on the records of the industrial and professional history of this section of the great state of Ohio, which owes much of its advancement to his labors. Though he had no personal political ambition, Mr. Bradner was a stalwart Republican in his political adherency, and was ever signally true to the duties of citizenship while his religious faith was that of the Presbyterian church. His home life was ideal in character, and those to whom he was nearest and dearest find in the grateful memory of his noble and useful life a perpetual benediction; his widow survived him and maintained her home in Fostoria until her death on the 22nd of February, 1904.




Page 582-584
History of Seneca County, Ohio
by A. J. Baughman