Harrison County IA Archives Biographies.....Bradley, Ed D. 1863 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ia/iafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Debbie Clough Gerischer Bare67deb@aol.com July 4, 2005, 3:51 am Author: A Narrative History of The People of Iowa A Narrative History of The People of Iowa ED D. BRADLEY was sixteen years of age when he first came to Missouri Valley, Harrison County, and found employment with the mercantile firm of Butler & Bradley, the junior member of which was his older brother, John Bradley, who was long one of the leading business men of this city, where he still maintains his home and where he is now living retired. Ed D. Bradley was later employed for a time in the City of Omaha, Nebraska, but Missouri Valley has represented his home the greater part of the time since he came as a youth to Iowa. On the 1st of March, 1903, he here organized the firm of Ed D. Bradley & Company, and in the corner building still occupied was opened a large and select stock of men's and boys' clothing and furnishing goods. The establishment has the largest and most complete stock of this kind in Harrison County, and progressive policies and effective service have gained and retained to the firm a large and representative supporting patronage. Mr. Bradley has proved himself a resourceful, reliable and enterprising business man, and his well ordered methods have been the potent force in the upbuilding of the substantial business of his firm. Though he continues to appear daily at the store, he has abated his activities to a large extent, though still maintaining a close supervision of the establishment that he founded. He has pronounced himself "retired," but the community still looks upon him as one of its leading business men and honored and influential citizens. Mr. Bradley is a director of the State Savings Bank of Missouri Valley and is the owner of 960 acres of valuable land in the southern part of the Province of Alberta, Canada. He has been at all times loyal and liberal in his civic attitude, and while he has never consented to accept political office he has been a staunch worker in behalf of the principles of the Democratic party. He was for several years a member of the board of education, and for thirty years he was assistant chief of the Missouri Valley fire department, besides serving a short period as chief, until a regular incumbent could be selected. In the Masonic fraternity he has attained to the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite, in the Consistory at Des Moines, an was a Noble of the Mystic Shrine he has membership in Tangier Temple in the City of Omaha. In the York Rite he is a member of the Blue Lodge and Chapter at Missouri Valley, and the Council of Commandery at Council Bluffs. He has membership also in the Modern Woodmen of America. He and his wife are zealous members of the Presbyterian Church in their home city and he has been a deacon in the same many years. Having given an outline of the business career of Mr. Bradley it is now consistent to touch briefly upon earlier phases of his life history. He was born in the fine little City of London, Ontario, Canada, May 10, 1863, as one of the ten children of James and Mary Jane (Flynn) Bradley, who were born in Ireland. James Bradley was reared and educated in his native land and was a young man when he came to America and established his residence in Canada, where he engaged in the work of his trade, that of cooper, and where he passed the greater part of the remainder of his life, though his death occurred in the City of Chicago, Illinois, in 1888, his wife having passed away in 1873, when her son Ed D. was a lad of ten years. The public schools of his native city afforded Ed D. Bradley his early education, and as before noted, he was sixteen years of age when he came to Missouri Valley, Iowa, a city that has since gained much through his business activities and civic liberality. In the City of Waterloo, Iowa, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Bradley to Miss Nellie McDermott, in the year 1880, and she continues as the gracious and popular chatelaine of their attractive home in Missouri Valley. They have no children, but their adopted son, Elmer Bradley, is now a leading young business man of Missouri Valley, where he is a member of the firm of Ed D. Bradley & Company. Elmer Bradley married Miss Irene Ryan, of Omaha, Nebraska, and their son, Ed, was named in honor of the subject of this review, who takes true grandfatherly pride in the youngster. The second child of Mr. and Mrs. Elmer Bradley was a daughter, who died in infancy, in the late summer of 1929. This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/iafiles/ File size: 5.0 Kb