it was yet an English colony. His immediate ancestry were among the early settlers of Hocking valley. His father, a farmer, came to Hocking county in 1826, was a Whig, and after the formation of the Republican party an adherent of that, was very active in local politics, and died in 1872. Judge Bright's boyhood days were spent on the farm and in attending the district school. In April, 1864, he enlisted in the war for the Union, joining Company K, Fifty-eighth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and as quartermaster sergeant served in the Mississippi valley until the close of the war, a period of eighteen months. The Judge is now a member of James K. Rochester Post, Grand Army of the Republic, at Logan, of which he has served as commander.

After the war Mr. Bright taught school for the ensuing winter and spring, then attended the Ohio University a year and a half, and in 1867 took up the study of law in the office of C. H. Rippey, a prominent attorney of Logan, and was admitted to the bar by the distrsct court at Circleville in May, 1869. He began the practice of his profession in Logan, and has ever since devoted his energies almost exclusively to the practice of law. In 1872 he formed a partnership with R. F. Price, under the name of Bright & Price, which continued for one year. Then he was in practice alone for several years. and then with O. W. H. Wright several years, a former student in his office. He is the leading attorney in the county, in all-round practice.

Judge Bright married Lydia T. Allen, of Bradford county, Pennsylvania, and they have seven children. There are two sons grown: Pascal A., a teacher, and Samuel C., an attorney admitted to the bar in 1896 and an active Republican. Judge Bright is a prominent member of the Methodist Episcopal church.

J

OSEPH WARREN KEIFER, soldier, lawyer, and statesman.--There are few names amongst the many illustrious men of Ohio that stand forth more prominent than that of Joseph Warren Keifer. A true son of a great state, he has manfully fought the battle of life and won honors for his state and for his name on the battle-field, in the forum and on the floor of congress. He descended from an ancestry inured to the hardships of life on the border and he has grown with the state until his name and fame are indelibly engraved upon the roll of honor in the archives of the nation, as soldier and statesman.

His father. Joseph Keifer, was born at Sharpsburg, Maryland, December 28, 1784. He was a civil engineer and farmer, and came to Ohio in 1812, settling in Clark county, where he died April 13, 1850.

The wife of Joseph Keifer and mother of Joseph Warren Keifer was Mary (Smith) Keifer, born at Columbia, on Duck creek, now in Hamilton county, Ohio, January 31, 1799. She was descended from sturdy English stock, emigrating to the Northwest territory from New Jersey about 1790, and she died at Yellow Springs, Ohio, March 23, 1879.

Joseph Warren Keifer was born on Mad river, Clark county, Ohio, January 30, 1836, and grew to manhood within his native county, a son of the people, imbued with the spirit of liberty and equality which life on the farm amidst surroundings of an historic character are likely to awaken. In the possession of his family was the battle-field where was fought one of the battles with the Indians in the struggle which achieved the independence of the great northwest and broke forever the power of the Indian tribes. The birth-place of the great Indian warrior, Tecumseh, was the farm of John Keifer, his cousin, and from early boyhood it had been his pleasure to roam over the country and to locate the points connected with the early wars of the pioneers in their struggle to redeem the wilderness.

He attended the common schools and Antioch College, and taught a term of the county school in 1853, seeking, meanwhile, in every accessible channel, the means of self-improvement and education. He early determined to make the pursuit of the law his life work, and while attending to his duties on the farm, for three years up to 1856, he read law and acquired such other general information as books within his reach afforded him. In 1856 he entered the office of Anthony & Goode, lawyers of Springfield, and was admitted to the bar January 12, 1858, entering at once upon the practice.

General Keifer's early associations and education all tended to enlist his sympathy in the cause of the down-trodden and oppressed; his love of country and of liberty to attach him strongly to the state and his nation; on the opening of the war he was pronounced in his advocacy of the union of the states as an indissoluble bond, and on April 19, 1861, he enlisted in the army to fight for the maintenance of the government. His military career was long and brilliant. Our brief space forbids more than a summary of the events in which he was a participant. He was commissioned major of the Third Ohio Infantry, April 27, 1861, for three months, and June 12, 1861, for three years. He took part in the battle of Rich Mountain July 11, 1861, the first of the war; the same year he participated in engagements in Cheat Mountain and Elk Water, West Virginia; in November his regiment was attached to General Buell's army; February 12, 1862, he was commissioned lieutenant-colonel of his regi