KENTUCKY: A HISTORY OF THE STATE (Battle, Perrin, & Kniffin) 6th ed., 1887 Henry Co.

DR. JOSEPH T. BRIGHT was born June 6, 1842, in Louisville, Ky. His father,
Dr. John W. Bright, a native of Virginia was brought to Kentucky by his
parents when but two years old, who settled at North Elkhorn near
Lexington, and lived there a short time, moving thence to Eminence, Shelby
[sic] County. Having studied medicine John W., in 1820, began to practice
in New Castle, and followed his profession until his death. In 1835 he
moved to Louisville, and thence, after twenty-three years, to Lexington,
where he died in July, 1879. He was one of the ablest physicians in the
State, and the author of the "Mother's Medical Guide," which was very
popular throughout the South. This work he afterward revised and issued
under the name of "Bright's Family Practice." In 1852 he wrote and
published a popular work on theology, called "Bright's Essay," which he
revised in 1876 and re-published as the "Philosophy of Christianity." His
next work written, but unpublished, was the "Philosophy of all Nations."
He was a self-made man, having mastered Greek, Latin and French. He was a
graduate of Transylvania University, was of English descent, a relative of
Jesse D. Bright, the statesman, and comes of the same family as John
Bright, the English statesman. He was the oldest practicing physician in
Kentucky at the time of his death. He was a mineralogist, and at one
time purchased the "Black marble land" of 2,000 acres in Arkansas, which
is now in possession of his son, William Bright, cashier of the National
Exchange Bank of Lexington. Dr. Bright's wife was Charlotte M. Raddie,
who was born in 1802 in New York. She is also of English lineage, being a
direct descendant of Lord Butler, Duke of Ormonde. She has had several
relatives of distinction in the naval and other departments of the
Government. She is now eighty-five years of age, and a resident of
Lexington. Our subject, Joseph T., the third of six children, was reared
in Louisville, and educated in Lexington and Millersburg. He began the
study of medicine, but before completing the course, entered, in 1862, the
Twenty-first Kentucky Infantry, Federal Army; was detailed from the ranks
as hospital steward, and was honorably discharged in 1863. In 1864-65
he attended lectures at Ann Arbor, Mich., and in the latter year graduated
from the University of Pennsylvania. In the fall of 1866 he located at
Moorefield, Nicholas Co., Ky., where he lived two years, moving thence to
Bourbon County, and returning in 1872 to Moorefield, where he remained
two years. He next moved to Pleasant Hill, Mo., where he remained four
years, but ill health caused him to move again, and this time he located in
East Union, Nicholas County, where he lived five years. He then settled in
New Castle, where he has since enjoyed a large practice. Since 1867 he
has been a member of the Christian Church; is an Odd Fellow and Royal Arch
Mason. In 1866 he married Miss Mary F. Berry, daughter of Milford Berry,
one of the oldest citizens of Nicholas County. To Dr. and Mrs. Bright
ten children were born: Louise, William Bell, John M. (deceased), James O.
(deceased), Lizzie (deceased), Mary M., Lewis Moyer, Sanford, Cleora
(deceased) and Mattie Gray.