#26 John Brough

John Brough

Born: September 17, 1811

Died: August 29, 1865

Political Party: Union & Democrat

Term of Office: January 11, 1864-August 29, 1865

Buried: Woodland Cemetery Cleveland, Ohio

No. 35 of 58

     John Brough was born in Marietta, Ohio in 1811. He was orphaned at the age of 11 and became an apprentice to a local newspaper shortly after. He studied at Ohio University in Athens while working at the Athens Mirror newspaper. At the age of 20, he bought his first newspaper-  the Marietta based Democratic newspaper the "Washington County Republican". This was more then 20 years before the words Democrat and Republican would come to be opposites of each other.

    Brough would eventually sell Washington County Republican to buy the Lancaster Eagle-another Democrat newspaper with whom his brother was a partner. As the Eagle gained state wide recognition, Brough starter to get more and more involved in politics. In 1835, Brough became clerk of the Ohio State Senate. Then in 1838, he was elected to the Ohio House of Representatives. From 1839-1845 he served as state auditor. In 1844, Whigs had a good election year in the state and drove most Democrats out of office, including Brough.

    Brough left politics in 1845 and bought another newspaper with his brother, the Cincinnati Advertiser. They renamed it the Cincinnati Enquirer. This newspaper became very successful. In the years leading up to the Civil War, the Cincinnati Enquirer was a very popular Democratic newspaper out west. Around this time he also served as the president of the Madison and Indianapolis railroad. Brough was known as such a large, hard working man, that the railroad company named one of their train's the "John Brough".

    As the Civil War hit, the Union party arose in Ohio. The Union party consisted of both Democrats and Republicans who found common ground on their opposition to the South seceding from the Union. And although Brough was a life long Democrat, who ran many Democrat newspapers, he joined the Union party and became their candidate for Governor in 1863. He won by such a large margin that it was the most decisive victory of any state's Governor elections up to that point.

As Governor, Brough assembled troops for the war effort, as well as offering the state militia to the federal government for whatever service they deemed necessary. He improved conditions in military hospitals and pushed for a tax that would aid military families. In the Presidential election of 1864, Brough supported the reelection of Republican President Abraham Lincoln instead of his Democratic challenger General George McCellan. When the war ended, the alliance of Republicans and war Democrats that made up the Union party in Ohio had dissolved. With the party platform that swept him into office in 1863 now gone, Brough decided to not seek reelection in 1865.

    During a walk on the Statehouse grounds one day, Governor Brough fell and bruised his hand and badly sprained his ankle. Gangrene eventually set into his ankle injury and killed Governor Brough about 4 months before the end of his term. 

   John Brough's gravesite was the 2nd of 6 new Governor grave visits that I made on a day trip to Cleveland in late March 2017. After visiting the gravesite of Governor Frank Lausche in Clevelands Calvary cemetery we went to Clevelands Woodland cemetery. In Woodland cemetery there are 2 Governors buried. John Brough was the first one that we came to. The next one was Reuben Wood. 

Governor Brough, my kids and I