John Bradford, Kentucky's pioneer journalist, was born near Warrenton,
Virginia, in 1749. He saw service in the Revolutionary War, and came
to Kentucky when thirty years of age. He fought against the Indians at
Chillicothe, and, in 1785, brought his family out from Virginia to
Kentucky, locating at Cane Run, near Lexington. Two years later he and
his brother, Fielding Bradford, founded _The Kentucke Gazette_, the
first issue of which appeared Saturday, August 18, 1787--the second
newspaper west of the Alleghanies. The following year John Bradford
published _The Kentucke Almanac_, the first pamphlet from a Western
press; and this almanac was issued every twelvemonth for many years.
Fielding Bradford withdrew from the _Gazette_ in May, 1788, and "Old
Jawn," as he was called, carried the entire burden until 1802, when
his son, Daniel Bradford, assumed control. In March, 1789, under
instructions from the Virginia legislature, Bradford discarded
"Kentucke" for "Kentucky," one of the many interesting facts connected
with the _Gazette_. John Bradford was the first state printer; and the
first book he published was the laws passed by the first Kentucky
legislature, which assembled at Lexington in 1792. The Bradfords
published many of the most important early Western books, and a
"Bradford" brings joy to the heart of any present-day collector of
Kentuckiana. The column in the _Gazette_ devoted to verse, headed
"Sacred to the Muses," preserved many early Western poems; but the
little anecdotes which seldom failed to be tucked beneath the verse,
were nearly always coarse and vulgar, giving one a rather excellent
index to the editor's morals or the morals of his readers. Bradford
appears to have taken a great fancy to the poems of Philip Freneau
(1752-1832), the first real American poet, for he "picked up" more
than twenty of them from the _Freeman's Journal_. The most complete
files of the _Kentucky Gazette_ are preserved in the Lexington Public
Library, though the vandals that have consulted them from time to time
have cut and inked out many valuable things. John Bradford was a
public-spirited citizen, being, at different times, chairman of the
town trustees, and of the board of trustees of Transylvania
University. He was a profound mathematician, astronomer, and
philosopher, his contemporaries tell us, and in proof thereof they
have handed down another of his sobriquets, "Old Wisdom." Though his
fame as the first Kentucky editor is fixed, as an author his
reputation rests upon _The General Instructor; or, the Office, Duty,
and Authority of Justices of the Peace, Sheriffs, Coroners, and
Constables, in the State of Kentucky_ (Lexington, Ky., 1800), a legal
compilation; and upon his more famous work, _Notes on Kentucky_
(Xenia, Ohio, 1827). These sixty-two articles were originally printed
in the _Gazette_ between August 25, 1826, and January 9, 1829. Upon
this work John Bradford is ranked among the Kentucky historians. At
the time of his death, which occurred at Lexington, Kentucky, March
31, 1830, he was sheriff of Fayette county.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. No biography of Bradford has been written, but any
of the histories of Kentucky contain extended notices of his life
and work.