Background
Joseph Henry Brigham was born on December 12, 1838 at Lodi, Ohio, the son of Winfield Scott and Mary Elizabeth (White) Brigham.
Joseph Henry Brigham was born on December 12, 1838 at Lodi, Ohio, the son of Winfield Scott and Mary Elizabeth (White) Brigham.
When Brigham was fourteen years old the family moved to a farm in Fulton County and there he grew to manhood and began a public career rather typical of the more successful who reached maturity in Ohio on the eve of the Civil War. When that struggle began he enlisted as a private in the 12th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, later becoming a captain in the 15th Ohio and still later a colonel in the 69th Ohio.
Military prestige gave him civil leadership in the years following the war and although he returned to his farm he was seldom without some public office. Three times sheriff in his own county, he was, in 1880, elected to the state Senate and from that time to his death, through loyal service to the Republican party, he constantly held elective or appointive positions.
In 1882 he was chosen a member of the state board of agriculture; in 1887 he was made a member of the board of control of the state experiment station and also of the board of trustees of the state university; in 1894 he was appointed a member of the board of managers of the Ohio penitentiary and in 1897 President McKinley called him to Washington as assistant secretary of agriculture.
In the early 1890's when western farmers were inclined to seek relief from economic ills through union with the Populist party, Brigham insisted on the "absolute political and religious freedom of the individual" within the order and denied the right of the group to bind the individual, --a move which probably saved the organization from dissension and ruin.
Three times sheriff in his own county, Joseph Brigham was, in 1880, elected to the state Senate and from that time to his death, through loyal service to the Republican party, he constantly held elective or appointive positions. As state senator Joseph Henry Brigham was largely responsible for the establishment of the Ohio Agricultural Experiment Station. Also for about three years he was president of the Wool Growers' and Sheep Breeders' Association. His services to the National Grange were particularly notable. Brigham was early active in the Patrons of Husbandry, rendering efficient service as an Institute lecturer, then he served as the Worthy Master of the Ohio State Grange, and in 1889 became Worthy Master of the National Grange, an office to which he was reelected four times. His annual addresses were practical and his administration efficient.
Consistently interested in agriculture, Joseph Brigham always supervised his own farms and his greatest efforts in public life were for the improvement of the farmer. He urged the farmers to gain and keep control of the boards of the state experiment stations; he advocated rural free delivery of mails; he insisted that the state and national departments of agriculture should be kept close to the "dirt farmer" both in personnel and program.
Joseph Brigham was a member of the Wool Growers' and Sheep Breeders' Association.
Joseph Henry Brigham was married in 1863 to Edna Allman.
1815–1863
1849–1934
1840–1862
1842–1898
1879–1934
1867–1868
1840–1903
1850–1936
1814–1906
