Bradley Barlow
Bradley Barlow (May 12, 1814 – November 6, 1889) was a United States Representative from Vermont. He was born in Fairfield, Vermont. He attended the common schools and then engaged in mercantile pursuits in Philadelphia until 1858, when he moved to St. Albans, Vermont.
Barlow was a delegate to the state constitutional conventions in 1843, 1850, and 1857, acting as assistant secretary in 1843. He was a member of the Vermont House of Representatives in 1845, 1850–1852, 1864, and 1865. He engaged in banking and in the railroad business 1860-1883. He was chairman of the school committee in St. Albans; president of the village corporation and treasurer of Franklin County 1860-1867. He served in the Vermont Senate 1866-1868. He was elected as a Greenbacker to the Forty-sixth US Congress (March 4, 1879 - March 3, 1881) but was not a candidate for renomination in 1880.
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[edit] Scandals
Bradley Barley was implicated [1][2][3] in the Star Route mail scandal of 1876 in which he was identified as one of the most successful mail contractors in the country.[4]
He was called to testify before Congress several times regarding the scandal. One of his first was in 1876, where he was accused of bribing Congress in 1872 with $40,000 to stop the initial investigation of the forty-second congress.[5]
[edit] Later Years
Bradley Barlow was President of the Vermont National Bank in St Albans when it failed in 1883 as a result of an unsuccessful attempt to sell his Southeastern Railway Company of Canada and an economic downturn. He declared bankruptcy, assigned all of his personal property over to the bank and reported that he was penniless. The bank failure had severe repercussions for the town.[6] He was also accused of refusing to pay Vermont state taxes that year.[7]
In 1885, a Judge in Montreal, Canada rendered a judgement against Bradley Barlow and others for $1,550,929 for unrecovered promisary notes relating to the Southeastern Railway Company, in which Barlow was President.[8]
His house, known as Villa Barlow, was taken over by the Congregation of Notre Dame based in Montreal, which had established a convent and school in St. Albans in 1869. In 1903 the American-born Eliza Healy (Sister Mary Magdalen) was appointed Mother Superior at the convent and school, both of which she managed for 15 years.
Barlow died in Denver, Colorado in 1889. His remains were buried in Greenwood Cemetery, St. Albans, Vermont.
[edit] Links
- Findagrave memorial for Bradley Barlow
- Bradley Barlow at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
[edit] References
- ^ The Congressional Record of the 3rd Session of the 45th Congress, 1878-1879, The Government Printing Office 1879
- ^ The New York Times, March 20th, 1876
- ^ The New York Times, May 9th, 1881
- ^ Barlow Genealogy
- ^ The New York Times, March 20th, 1876
- ^ The New York Times, August 7th, 1883
- ^ The New York Times, January 22nd, 1883
- ^ The New York Times, January 21st, 1885
