Isaac Brayton
Isaac Brayton was born at Nantucket, Mass., in 1801. Having early lost his father, he entered the family of a relative, Hon. Hezekiah Barnard, then Secretary of the State of Massachusetts, where superior advantages were given him. As did nearly all Nantucket boys at that period, he early followed the sea, shipping on board a whaling vessel when nineteen years of age, where his activity and intelligence led to rapid promotion. In 1825 he married Love Mitchell, who died in 1869, beloved by all who knew her. In 1827 he commanded a ship which conveyed some of the first missionaries to the Sandwich Islands, and upon a subsequent visit he united with the church of Honolulu, and immediately established a family altar and Bible class on ship board. Capt. Brayton abandoned the sea in 1833, and was soon elected to the Legislature of Massachusetts at the time Horace Mann was Superintendent of Public Schools. Coming to Ravenna in 1839, greatly interested in education, he was potent in the establishment of a high school, which then seemed to many unnecessary. He became Associate Judge when Hon. Benjamin F. Wade was chief upon the bench. Judge Brayton removed to Newburg (now a ward of the city of Cleveland) in 1853, where he was elected to the Ohio Legislature and was afterward charged with important duties by Gov. Salmon P. Chase. He labored with the Sanitary Commission during the war, being stationed at Nashville, Tenn., and was afterward appointed Superintendent of the National Soldiers' Home while it was at Columbus, Ohio, before coming under military control. He returned to Ravenna in 1873, and has since led a quiet home life in the family of his son-in-law, F. W. Woodbridge.
From History of Portage County, Ohio, Warner, Beers & Co., Chicago, 1885