16 Facts About John Brough

John Brough was a War Democrat politician from Ohio.

John Brough served as the 26th governor of Ohio during the final years of the American Civil War, dying in office of gangrene shortly after the war concluded.

John Brough rose to become a newspaper publisher in Marietta and then in Lancaster, where he and his brother Charles purchased the Ohio Eagle, a paper that espoused the views of the Democratic Party.

John Brough served two years as Clerk of the Ohio Senate.

John Brough was elected as a Democrat to the Ohio House of Representatives in 1837, representing the Fairfield-Hocking district, and served from 1838 to 1839, chairing the Committee on Banks and Currency.

John Brough then took office as State Auditor, serving until 1845, when the Whigs swept most of the state's Democrats out of office in the Election of 1844.

John Brough was a trustee of Ohio University from 1840 to 1843.

John Brough then moved to Indiana, where he entered the railroad business and became President of the Madison and Indianapolis Railway in 1848.

John Brough later presided over the Bellefontaine and Indiana Railway.

John Brough spent more than $300,000 on construction during two years, before the effort was stopped in 1855.

John Brough was a very large and corpulent man, as well as being a hard worker.

John Brough was elected to the governorship that fall on a pro-Union ticket, partly due to his stronger support than Tod of the anti-slavery direction that the Northern war effort was taking.

When Chase resigned as Secretary of the Treasury, John Brough was offered the position but declined it to remain as governor.

Later that summer, John Brough stumbled in the State House yard, bruising his hand and badly spraining his ankle.

John Brough died in office on August 29,1865,19 days short of his 54th birthday.

John Brough is honored with a full-size bronze depiction inside the Cuyahoga County Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument in Cleveland, Ohio for his service as governor during the Civil War.