DUDLEY W. BRATTIN, for thirty-eight years a prominent factor in
mercantile circles in Brazil and also prominent in the public interests of
the city, has left his impress upon its development and progress in many
lines. A native of Chillicothe, Ohio, he was born October 26, 1845. His
parents were Thomas S. and Sarah Brattin, both born near Staunton,
Virginia, and the father was known in business circles as a carriage
blacksmith and civil engineer. The great-grandfather of our subject in
the Brattin line came from the north of Ireland to America while this
country was still numbered among the colonial possessions of Great Brit-
ain, and the grandfather served in the American army in the Revolu-
tionary war, while Thomas S. Brattin with equal loyalty defended the
interests of the country in the war of 1812. The maternal great-grand-
father was also a soldier of the Revolution and was with Washington
during the memorable winter at Valley Forge, where the troops suffered
such hardships and were so in need of supplies that the snow was often
marked by the bloody footprints of the soldiers. The grandfather, John
Wiseman, was a Methodist minister for forty-nine years, being ordained
by Francis Asbury, the first American bishop, in 1785, When the his-
tory of the Wiseman family was published in 1887, mention was made of
more than one thousand descendants, not one of whom was addicted to
the use of intoxicating liquors—a record of which they have every reason
to he proud.
    D. W. Brattin pursued his early education in a country school in
Ross county, Ohio, about twenty-four miles from Chillicothe, and at the
age of fourteen years he left the farm to go to Greencastle, Indiana, there
to learn the watchmaker's trade. His school days were limited to six
yens in a country school, but reading, experience and observation have
greatly broadened his knowledge in later years. He remained in Green-
castle until 1870, when he removed to Brazil and embarked in business
on his own account as a jeweler. Later he extended the scope of his
activities by adding a stock of books and art goods and thus for thirty-
eight years he has figured in the commercial interests of the city, ever
sustaining an unassailable reputation for business integrity as well as
enterprise and progressiveness.
    On the 28th of May, 1878, in Brazil, Mr. Brattin was married to
Miss Harriet C. McClelIand. Her father, James W. McClelland. was
one of the pioneer coal operators in Clay county and her brother, James
H.  McCIelland, is and has been president of the Brazil Block Coal Com-
pany for many years. Their children are: Mrs. Anna Scofield, who was
born February 26, 1882; Dudley H., born August 11, 1884; Harry A.,
January 19, 1887; and Lucy H., March 26, 1889.
    Mr. Brattin is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic. Al-
though he was only twenty years of age at the time the war closed, he
had done faithful service with the Fifty-fifth Indiana Infantry, with the
One Hundred and Sixth Indiana Infantry and the One Hundred and
Third Indiana Infantry, continuing at the front until the expiration of his
term of service. In addition to his membership relations with the Grand
Army of the Republic, he has been a member of the Knights of Pythias
for nearly forty years, of the Masonic fraternity for thirty-eight years
and of the Odd Fellows Society and the Ancient Order of United Work-
men for nearly an equal length of time. He likewise affiliates with the
Knights and Ladies of Honor, the Knights and Ladies of Security and the
Benevolent & Protective Order of Elks, and that he is a valued repre-
sentative of these organizations is indicated by his election to various
offices. He is now a past chancellor commander of the Knights of Pythias,
a past master workman of the Ancient Order of United Workmen and a
past exalted ruler of the Elks lodge. His fellow townsmen have expressed
their confidence in his public spirit and integrity of citizenship by electing
him their chief executive on two different occasions. He was first called
to the office of mayor in 1884 and again in 1896, and in both terms gave
a public-spirited and businesslike administration, characterized by prog-
ress and improvement. For three -years he was a member of the Brazil
school board and in 1896 he was chairman of the Republican organiza-
tion during the campaign. Such in brief is the history of Dudley W.
Brattin. In whatever relation of life we find him, in official service, in
political circles, in business or in social life, he is always the same honor-
able and honored gentleman, whose worth well merits the high regard
which is uniformly given him.