Obituary and Biographical Sketch for John T. Brasee
The Gallipolis Journal
November 4, 1880

     Hon. John T. Brasee died at his residence in Lancaster, Ohio, Oct. 27th, aged seventy-nine years, ten months and three days. He was a lawyer of superior attainments. The first few years of his professional life were spent in this city. From a sketch of his life, written at his dictation by one of his grandsons, we copy what follows. After reading law two years with Joseph Dana, Athens, Mr. Brasee, in 1826, came to Gallipolis. The sketch proceeds:

     “The next thing for me to do was to select a place to settle. I selected Gallipolis as a place where I thought I could make some money sooner than elsewhere. Thomas Irvin, who lived there, had, during the winter prior, been elected President Judge, and Samuel F. Vinton, a very able man, was then and continued for several years afterward a member of Congress.
     “I provided myself with a fine young horse, for which I paid $55, and other necessary articles, and left Athens for Gallipolis, having paid off all my debts except $160 due General Brown, for which I gave him my note. I went to Gallipolis, and remained there until the Supreme Court came to Burlington, in Lawrence county (it having failed to stop at Gallipolis), where I went and was examined by Judges Peter Hitchcock and Jacob Burnett, and was admitted to the bar.
     “Returning to Gallipolis, I opened an office and put out my sign as a lawyer. I attended all the courts regularly in the counties of Gallia, Lawrence, Scioto, Pike, Jackson, Athens, Washington and Meigs, and also at Pt. Pleasant, Virginia, four miles above Gallipolis. I soon got into good practice, far exceeding my expectations. At the fall term of the Court of Common Pleas at Athens that year I took money and paid off my note to General Brown. And by the fall term of 1829 I purchased a fine river lot, paid for it and commenced the building of a small two story dwelling house.* In November, that year, I was married to Mary Jane, daughter of Judge Scofield, at Lancaster. We boarded the first winter, with the widow of Edward W. Tupper, and in the spring following, as soon as my house was completed, we moved into it and commenced housekeeping.
     “It became a custom with us to visit Lancaster once a year after my courts were over. When there in 1832, Judge Scofield’s youngest daughter having recently married James R. Stanberry, the Judge importuned me to move to Lancaster, which I at first declined, saying I had a valuable practice where I was; that I would be compelled to sell my property at a sacrifice; that the bar at Lancaster was very able and crowded, and that I would have no business there for a long time. He replied that he had more property there than I had at Gallipolis, and that the time would come soon, if I remained where I was, when his property would have to be sacrificed; that the country where I was was poor compared with Fairfield county; that he had a large house sufficient for his family and mine (we having only two children, Ellen and John), and that it seemed to him, unless one of his daughters was with them, the great purpose of their lives was ended; that we could all live together at his house, where he had no fears there would be any difficulty between his wife and mine.
     “We went home, leaving matters wholly unsettled as to our future movements, but the more I thought of it the better I thought of it, and at the end of a few weeks, I had concluded to move to Lancaster, and so advised Judge Scofield. I found a purchaser for my property at Gallipolis, and prior to my removal made a public sale, at which I disposed of all my personal property except my library and our bedding.
     “In the spring of 1833, being ready, we went to Portsmouth on a steamer, thence up the canal to Circleville, where I hired a carriage to take us to Lancaster, where we arrived to the great joy of Judge Scofield’s family and my own. We continued to live there as one family very harmoniously until the death of the Judge and his wife, which occurred in November, 1841.”
*This lot and house is the one now occupied by Mr. W. H. Johnson, on Front street.

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