That Charles Bradburn is a merchant long and honorably known in the commercial history of Cleveland, and that he still retains a prominent place in the business circles which he entered thirty-three years ago, are undeniable facts. And yet, the great feature of Mr. Bradburn's busy life, and that of which he is justly most proud, is not his business successes, but his connection with the public schools of this city. His money, made by anxious care in his warehouse and among business men, was freely spent to promote the cause of education, and the labor, solicitude and anxiety with which he prosecuted his business, great as they necessarily were, must be counted small compared with his sacrifices of time and labor in the effort to extend and improve the school system and make the school houses of the city a source of gratulation and pride to the citizens. But whilst his hardest labor was in the service of the schools, it was purely a labor of love, whilst his work on the river was a labor of business, and therefore he must, in this record of Cleveland's noted men, take rank among his commercial brethren. Mr. Bradburn was born at Attleborough, Massachusetts, July 16th, 1808. His father was a cotton manufacturer when that great industrial interest was in its infancy. The first manufacture in this country of several articles of twilled fabrics was in his factory. At the age of seven years Charles Bradburn had the misfortune to lose his mother, a lady highly esteemed by all who knew her. This loss was a serious one, as it left him almost entirely to his own resources. When sixteen years old he entered the Lowell machine shop as an apprentice, and after a service of three years, graduated with a diploma from the Middlesex Mechanics Association. He served as a journeyman for two years, when, feeling that his education was not adequate to his wants, he left the mechanic's bench for the student's desk, entering the classical school of Professor Coffin at Ashfield, in the western part of the same State. Subsequently he resumed his mechanical labors, which he continued until 1833, part of the time as a journeyman, but during the greater part as a manufacturer on his own account. At that date he changed his business from manufacturing to commerce, opening a store in Lowell.