lawyer, politician, b. Fitchburg, Mass. A nephew of Ebenezer Brigham (q.v.), he moved with his family to Wisconsin in 1839. He graduated from Amherst College (1845), returned to Madison where he taught school, studied law, and was admitted to the bar. In 1851 he moved to Milwaukee, established a law partnership with C. K. Wells, and in 1879 Horace A. J. Upham joined the firm. A Republican, he was city attorney of Milwaukee (1880-1882), state assemblyman (1877), and a member of the Milwaukee board of city fire and police commissioners (1885-1888). He was active in the YMCA, a trustee and secretary of the Layton Art Gallery, and a regent of the Univ. of Wisconsin (1870- 1875). H. L. Conard, ed., Hist. of Milwaukee (3 vols., Chicago [1896]); J. R. Berryman, ed., Bench and Bar of Wis. (2 vols., Chicago, 1898); Milwaukee Sentinel, Jan. 22, 1897; J. R. Brigham Papers.

The Wisconsin Historical Society has manuscripts related to this topic. See the catalog description of the Jerome Ripley Brigham Papers for details.

View newspaper clippings at Wisconsin Local History and Biography Articles.

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[Source: Dictionary of Wisconsin biography]