Honorable Bradley Barlow

Encyclopedia Vermont Biography
compiled and edited by Prentiss C. Dodge Ullery Publishing Co, Burlington Vermont, 1912

BARLOW, Bradley; Congressman 1879-1881; born Fairfield, May 12, 1814; son of Col. Bradley and Deborah (Sherman) Barlow; educated in the common schools; was clerk in a store in Philadelphia, then succeeded his father in business at Fairfield, until he moved to St. Albans, in 1857, to become cashier of the bank there, later becoming president. In 1860 became interested in the overland stage business of the West, continuing twenty years and retiring with a fortune. Returning to Vermont he put $40,000 into the Welden House, St. Albans, and was largely interested in the Southeastern Railway of Canada and Northern Vermont, but at a critical time he was forced to the wall, drawing his bank down with him. Represented Fairfield in the Legislature 1845, '50, '51, and '52, and St. Albans in 1864 and '65; member state senate 1866 and '68; the consitutional conventions of 1843, '50, and '57. A Democrat up to the war, then a Republican; was county treasurer 1860 to '67; director and president Vermont and Canada R.R. and director of Central Vermont and other companies.

In 1878 he was ambitious to go to Congress, but Gen. W.W. Grout received the nomination; a bolt was organized, and a convention held to endorse the nomination which had been given him by the Greenbackers, the bulk of the Democrats aiding his support. Grout's election was defeated at the first trial, and Barlow was easily elected at the second, serving only one term.

In 1837 married Caroline Farnsworth of Fairfax.

He died on November 06, 1909  / True death date should be October 31, 1889

Home of Bradley Barlow

Barlow - On Thursday, October 31, at 10 p.m, Hon. Bradley Barlow, late of Vermont, aged 75 years. FUneral and intement at St. Albans, Vt.

Bradley Barlow, for many years conspicuous in the political and the banking world, died on Saturday last at Denver, Col., where he had recently gone from Vermont. The early life of Mr. Bradley, who was born at Fairfield, Vt., May 12, 1814, was spent upon the farm of his father, near that place. His early training imbued him with a fondness of agricultural pursuits, which he cultivated assiduously. In 1858, however, he abandoned that calling in life, and removing to St. Albans, Vt., he engaged in banking and other large business interests. At one time he was President of the Vermont national bank. He held strong views in opposition to national bank circulation and advised, for their notes, "the substitution of legal tenders to the amount of $1,000,000,000."

Mr. Barlow was a member of the firm of Barlow & Sanderson, which was heavily interested in the overland stage and express business in the West, but he sold out his interest in this business in 1877, retiring with a large fortune. He also invested a great deal of money in Washington real estate; in marble quarried in Vermont, and in railroads. He bought the Southeastern Railway (which now forms part of the Canadian Pacific system) but the venture proved disastrous.

In 1883, he went into bankruptcy, with liabilities amounting to over $750,000, and his failure involved the Vermont National Bank and the St. Albans Trust Company, both of which institutions were compelled to close their doors.

Mr. Barlow represented the Third Vermont District in the Forty-sixth Congress, 1879-1880; was six times elected a member of the Vermont House of Representatives and twice to the State Senate. He also served twice in the Vermont State Constitutional Conventions, and for serveral years he held the office of County Treasurer.

   Death Certificate of Bradley Barlow

St Albans has become involved in still further litigation arising under the new tax law in force in Vermont. The Hon. Bradley Barlow, President of the Southeastern Railway, and of the mail route notoriety in Washington, is a resident of this place, owning a handsome residence on North Main Street, and is also the President and owner of a majority of the capital stock of the Vermont National Bank of St. Albans. In 1881 he made out and returned to the Listers an inventory of his taxable property, under oath, as required by law, in which he swore to debts offsetting the entire amount of his personal property. In 1882 the condition of his affairs had changed somewhat and he neglected to return an inventory. The Listers appraised his real estate and personal propery connected therewith, and his bank stock, and fixing upon the amount as the value of his taxable property, put into the list as the basis of assessments for taxes against him double the amount thus ascertained, as provided by law, being $404,650. THe who amount of taxes for the year assessed upon his property is about $6,600. Mr. Barlow declined to pay, and a few days since the Collector levied upon his horses, carriages, and valuable paintings and furniture in his house. Mr. Barlow, by his attorneys, Messrs. Edson, Start, and Cross, sued out writs of replevin against the officer and took back the property, giving bonds, with sureties, to pay the taxes and costs or return the property if the court should eventually decide the taxes were legal. Mr. Barlow intends to fight the taxes to the end, and will take advantage of every ascertainable flaw in the law or the assessment. The principal ground of his contention will be that under the law the Listers had no right to double his bank stock, and that other persons, notably the non-resident stockholders of the National Car Company, returned no inventories and that their stock was not doubled in the assessments, thereby creating an inequality of taxation to his injury. The suits are returnable to tne next April term of the County Court there.

"On the other hand, it is asserted that at the time of the assessment Mr. Barlow held nearly $1,750,000 of the new first mortgage bonds of the consolidation of roads now operated together as the Southern Railway, on which he should be taxed, and so his assessment was in reality a great deal smaller than it ought to have, or might have, been. Mr. Barlow's attorneys claim to be very confident that the law is invalid, and of their ability to defeat the collection of these taxes, notwithstanding that the Legislature last fall passed an act legalizing the grand list of St. Albans as a basis of taxation. Meanwhile two proceedings - a petition for a mandamus and a bill of interpleader - are pending to test the legality of about $12,000 of taxes assessed upon the stock of the National Car Company, owned by non-residents of the State.

The following article is from the New York Times, August 7, 1883: "The failure of the Hon. Bradley Barlow's bank at St. Albans shows how speedily speculation in railroads may sweep away the hard earnings of the most successful star route contractor. The explanation given also shows that Mr. Barlow's experiences as a contractor did not teach him how to conduct a bank with due regard for confiding depositors. What righ had this national bank to discount railroad paper to an amount exceeding its deposits, and to make loans upon railroad bonds which the market rejected? The fact is that the bank was part of Mr. Barlow's private estate, as those will remember who recall the star route investigation of 1876. In those days, Mr. Barlow was the king of the star mail service, engaged in developing the country. The annual pay for his routes was more than $1,000,000, and his liberality and generosity were sometimes severely taxed by inquiring persons whom he found it necessary to pacify. Phenomenally fortunate as a mail-carrier, he seems to have failed as a railway owner, probably because he found the methods by which he built up a large fortune as a contractor in the service of the Post Office Department not applicable to the management of a railway."

  Barlow, Sanderson & Company's Overland Stage Line

  Bradley Barlow and Jared L. Sanderson by Matthew Brady

   Bradley Barlow Locomotive