As chairman of the Committee on Fire and Water he reorganized the Fire
Department, which was then in a wretched condition, and, with the
assistance of Mr. J. L. Weatherly, who was made Chief Engineer, and the
aid of new laws, made it one of the most efficient of any at that time
existing in the country. As chairman of the Committee on Streets, at that
time an office of much responsibility and labor, he rendered the city
valuable service.

In 1841, he was elected a member and made chairman of the Board of School
Managers. This body was merged into the Board of Education, and for
several years he filled the office of president. For thirteen consecutive
years he served as member of the Board of School Managers and of the Board
of Education, during much of which time he had almost unaided control of
the educational affairs of the city. Mr. Bradburn succeeded in getting
through the Legislature a bill authorizing the establishment of a High
School, the first institution of the kind, connected with the public
schools, in the State of Ohio. A school of this character was started in
June, 1846, and maintained in spite of fierce opposition. But there was no
building to receive it, and its earlier years were spent in the basement
of a church on Prospect street, the room being fitted up by Mr. Bradburn
and rented by the city for fifty dollars per annum.

Feeling strongly that he could render better service to the cause of
popular education in the City Council than he could in the Board of
Education, in 1853 he resigned his seat in the latter body and was elected
to the City Council. When Ohio City was united with Cleveland, he was
chosen president of the united Councils.

Having, on taking his seat in the Council, been appointed to a position on
the Committee on Schools, his first and continuous efforts were directed