EDITOR’S NOTE: This is part of a weekly series on our region’s history coordinated by the Trumbull County Historical Society.

Edward Sutliff Brainard was the son of Lydia Sutliff Brainard and Edward J. Brainard, who were married Dec. 24, 1885, at her childhood home, which once stood on High Street in Warren.

Edward was born Aug. 7, 1896, and was the couple’s second child. Their first child, Mary, was named after Lydia’s older sister, who died in 1864. Unfortunately, Mary died the same day she was born on Aug. 13, 1893.

Edward was Lydia’s entire world. She kept a daily journal from 1896 to 1907 detailing Edward’s life. From everyday occurrences to holiday gatherings, Lydia wrote it all down in two cloth-bound notebooks.

On Dec. 25, 1898, Lydia wrote, “The little dear went to bed at the usual time tired out, but woke up after a while and heard us calling supper and called out ‘Mamma are you calling supper?’ I said Yes. he said, ‘Don’t Ebbard hab any supper’ I went and brought him out, and he sat in my lap and ate a little celery he called ‘candy.'”

Many of her entries depict Edward’s dialogue and his favorite things to do, such as making his Aunt Phebe build houses out of blocks, and then he would knock them down. Lydia wrote, “Babe has had Aunt Phe on the floor most of the time building houses for him. He will go up to her and say ‘Aunt Phe build houses, Pease?’ then he will knock them down with his ball and ask her to do it over again.”

Lydia lived at home, raising her son Edward until he was around 4 years old. Edward J. Brainard worked in Warren for the Griswold Oil Company. His son was around 4 when he was transferred to the American Linseed Oil Company in Toledo. The family of three lived in Toledo for a while before they moved to New Jersey, where Edward J. was transferred for work.

In 1906, while the family was living in Toledo, Lydia’s mother, Phebe Marvin Sutliff, wrote in her short autobiography entitled “Reminiscence” about her grandchild Edward that he “is a beautiful child bright and intelligent beyond his years it is the delight of his heart to come home to see his grandma and aunty Phebe.”

Edward continued to grow into an intelligent and dapper young man. He attended preparatory school in New Jersey and later attended Columbia University for two years before he left college to take a job at Western Electric Co. Laboratories in New York. Edward was drafted into the U.S. Navy during World War I in 1917. However, due to valvular heart issues, he could not actively serve. The U.S. Navy assigned him to do machine and wireless testing at the Brooklyn Naval Yard.

The following year, on Nov. 7, 1918, Edward passed away. After his death, his mother Lydia and his Aunt Phebe T. Sutliff established the Brainard Reading Room at the Old Library on High Street in Warren. Phebe also went on to establish the Edward Sutliff Brainard Prize at Lawrenceville School in New Jersey, which Edward attended in his youth and the Edward Sutliff Brainard Memorial Prize at Columbia University. Both awards are still given to this day, marking over 100 years of Edward’s memory being kept alive.