BIOGRAPHY: Brayton, John M.
From the A.T. Andreas Illustrated Historical Atlas of the State of Iowa, 1875

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     Honorable JOHN M. BRAYTON.  --  Among those who have for the last 
twenty years been most prominently identified with the various 
interests, growth and development of Northern Iowa, there is no one 
more deserving of honorable mention than the subject of this brief 
sketch, the Honorable John M. Brayton, of Dehli, Iowa.   He was born at 
Newport, Herkimer County, New York, on the 15th day of September, 1851.  
When fifteen years of age he was admitted to the Whitestown Seminary, 
Oneida County, New York, where he pursued his studies for four years, 
and in 1850 entered the sophomore class of Hamilton College at Clinton, 
in the same State.  He completed the course and graduated from that 
institution with the highest honors of his class in 1853.  Honorable J. 
E. Burke, of Waverley, Iowa, a classmate, says of him: "He was always 
exceedingly studious and industrious, and was conceded to be the best 
scholar in his class."  Immediately after leaving college he entered 
the Clinton Law School, then under charge of Prof. T. W. Dwight, now of 
Columbia College, New York.  Completing his law studies the next year, 
he was admitted to the bar by the Supreme Court of the State in the 
Summer or Fall of 1854.
     The following November he left the home of his youth to seek a 
fortune on the western frontier.  He came to Delhi, Iowa, and by force 
of circumstances, rather than by voluntary choice, located, entered 
upon the practice of his profession, and became one of its prominent 
and most honored citizens.  His purity of character and worth as a 
lawyer and a man soon won for him numerous friends, and in February, 
1855, he formed a law partnership with Hon. A. E. House.  The firm 
receiving the confidence of the public soon secured a large business 
and three years later admitted George Wattson into the partnership.  In 
November, 1861, House retired from the firm, while Brayton and Wattson 
continued their business relations until the close of 1864.
     In the Fall of 1863 Mr. Brayton was elected to the State Senate, 
which position he held during the tenth and eleventh sessions of the 
Iowa General Assembly, rendering efficient service to the state and his 
constituency as a member of the Judiciary and other important 
committees.  In 1870 he was elected District Judge of the Ninth Iowa 
Judicial District, and took his seat on the bench January 1, 1871.  His 
health becoming greatly impaired by the arduous duties of his position, 
and an unusually large amount of business devolving upon him, he 
resigned in July, 1872, and resumed the practice of law.  During the 
eighteen months that he occupied a seat upon the bench he transacted a 
larger amount of important business than has ever before been performed 
during the same length of time and by his fair, impartial and straight-
forward conduct won hosts of friends, who would now gladly honor him 
with any position within their power for which he might ask.  He heard 
the noted cases of Richman vs. the D. & S. C. R. R. and Cobb, Blaisdell 
& Co vs. the I. C. R. R., in which two cases alone he rendered 
judgments for nearly half a million dollars, which judgments were 
sustained by the Supreme Court of the state.
     Although as yet a comparatively young man, probably no lawyer in 
the state has been connected with a larger number of cases during the 
same period, many of which have involved new and intricate law points 
and large amounts of valuable property.  During the year 1874 he 
obtained judgments amounting to over two hundred thousand dollars.
     His practice has always been large and engrossing, requiring close 
application and untiring energy, while real estate transactions have 
occupied his attention from time to time, and now he owns a large 
amount of improved and unimproved land.  Mr. Brayton is a public 
spirited, large hearted, generous man, and has done much to develop and 
utilize the material resources of his adopted country.
     On the 4th day of May, 1859, he was married to Miss Helen M. 
Martin, which union has been blessed with two children, only one of 
whom is now living, the youngest having died in 1872.