JOHN T. BRADBURY was born in Harrison county, West Virginia, March 4, 1840. His father is James Lee Bradbury, born in Virginia in 1816. He was reared on the farm and when he was twenty-three he went to Kentucky and engaged in teaching for some forty years. He came to Illinois in the fall of 1847, bringing his wife and two children. They came across the country in a lumber wagon and a horse team. It took them about thirty days to make the trip. Mr. Bradbury soon secured a school in Brown county. They soon moved into Mt. Sterling, where they lived until 1858. Mrs. Bradbury died in 1857, in the prime of her life, thirty-six, leaving five children to mourn her loss, namely: John T.; Nancy, deceased; James R., carpenter; Margaret Mallory; William, a farmer on the bluffs of the Illinois river.
John was brought up to be industrious and was well educated. At sixteen he began to study under Dr. Witty at Mr. Sterling. In summer he took charge of the farm, but in the winter studied under the instruction of the able Dr. Witty. In 1859 he went to the Missouri Medical College at St. Louis, and graduated in 1861. He opened his first office in Ripley, but very soon closed it and went to Hiawatha, Kansas, in the spring of 1861. Here he remained, practicing until 1863, when he returned home and enlisted in the One Hundred and Nineteenth Illinois Infantry, Company D. He was in the service three years, but most of the time as hospital surgeon. He was mustered out at Mobile, Alabama. In the spring of 1865 he returned to Missouri, at Parke, in Sharon county, and opened an office, where he practiced for about a year, when he returned to Versailles, in Brown county. Here he opened an office and drug store. In 1872 he sold out and came to Cooperstown, where he has resided since. He has had a large practice these many years and has felt the need of rest at times. He has been Postmaster during the Harrison administration.
He was married in 1861, in Mt. Sterling, to Viola Hatcher, daughter of E. and Maria N. (Brisbin) Hatcher, the former from North Carolina, the latter from Lancaster county, Pennsylvania. She was born in Madison, Indiana. The family came to Illinois in 1856.
Mr. and Mrs. Bradbury have had seven children, only three of whom are now living: Samuel E. married to Ellen Logsden, two children; James Mitchel married Kate Hurlett; George Anderson, a youth of fifteen. They have all been educated. Dr. Bradbury is an Odd Fellow and a stanch Republican. He and his wife are very estimable people and are highly respected by all.