In 1836, he decided to remove to the West, and in that year brought his
family to Cleveland, where he commenced the wholesale and retail grocery
business in the wooden building now standing, adjoining the old City
Buildings, which were not then finished. The next year he rented the two
stores adjoining in the then new City Buildings, of which but a portion
now remains. In 1840, he built the warehouse now standing at the foot of
St. Clair street and moved his business to that place, abandoning the
retail branch. At the same time he established a distillery on what was
then known as "the island," on the west side of the river. In 1854, he
removed to the spacious warehouses, 58 and 60 River street, now occupied
by him and his partners under the same name, "C. Bradburn & Co.," that
graced the walls of the City Buildings in 1836. During his long
commercial life Mr. Bradburn has enjoyed largly theturnpikesnce and esteem
of the commercial community and is now one of the most energetic business
men of the city.

But it is in his devotion to the cause of knowledge and popular education
that Mr. Bradburn appears especially as a representative man. He was one
of the first officers of the Mercantile Library Association, and in its
early history took much interest in its prosperity. His great work,
however, lay in the schools. In a letter to a friend recently written, he,
with characteristic modesty, writes: "After a life almost as long as is
allotted to man, the only thing I find to glory in is having been able to
render some service to the cause of popular education; to be called by so
many of our ablest educators the father of our public schools, was glory
enough, and ample compensation for many years of hard labor and the
expenditure of much money in the cause."

Mr. Bradburn was in 1839 elected to the City Council from the Third ward.