Lake County IN Archives Biographies.....Bradford, James M. 1852 - 
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Author: T. H. Ball (1904)

JAMES M. BRADFORD.

    James M. Bradford has been prominently identified with the business
interests and public affairs of Hammond, Indiana, for over twenty-five years,
and is thus one of the old settlers, having come here when the town was in its
early stages of development and progress, which it has been his privilege and
lot to further and advance in many ways. He is everywhere recognized as a man of
great public spirit and enterprise, equally energetic in private and public
affairs, and willing to sacrifice time and money for the betterment of the civic
welfare and the institutions of the city which has for so many years been the
center of his activity.

    Mr. Bradford was born in Bradford county, Pennsylvania, July 6, 1852, being
a son of William T. and Sarah (Gardner) Bradford, natives, respectively, of
Bradford county and of Scranton, Pennsylvania. The Bradford family goes back to
the famous William Bradford who came over in the Mayflower. William T. Bradford,
the grandfather of James M. Bradford, was a native of Connecticut, but settled
in Pennsylvania at an early day. He ran sawmills in Bradford county. He had four
children.

    William T. Bradford, Jr., was a millwright, and moved from Bradford county
to Tompkins county. New York, where he followed his trade for some years, and
then moved to Wheeling, West Virginia, where he entered the regular army and
served five years, and for two years in the home guard. He was state major
drummer for the state of Pennsylvania about 1834. He died at Blair, Ohio, on
Christmas day, 1888, at the age of eighty-two years, and his wife died in 1885,
aged seventy-eight years six months and twenty days. Both were Methodists. The
father of Mrs. Sarah Bradford was Abraham Gardner, who was a native of
Pennsylvania, his father having come there from Massachusetts. He was a farmer,
and afterward moved to New York, where he died, in Danby, Tompkins county. He
was poormaster of the county for a number of years, and was also justice of the
peace and held other public offices. He was eighty-seven years old at the time
of his death, and had been twice married and had seven children. The name was
originally spelled Gardiner, and the family record goes back to Richard
Gardiner, who came to Massachusetts with the Pilgrims. William T. and Sarah
Bradford had ten children, five sons and five daughters, and the five now living
are: Lydia Ann, widow of Thomas Geddis, of Dryden, New York; John F., of
Cortland, New York; Charles E., of Harvey, Illinois; Delphine, wife of Orn S.
Cornelious of Dryden, New York; and James M., of Hammond.

    Mr. James M. Bradford lived in Tompkins county, New York, from the age of
two till twenty-seven. He attended the public schools of Danby, and in the
interims worked on a farm. At the age of thirteen he began learning the
painter's trade, which he followed as a journeyman until he was twenty-one, and
then began doing contract painting. In 1878 he came to Hammond, and from then
until 1901 did contract work and at the same time conducted a general
merchandise store. He owns city property in addition to his nice home at 358
South Hohman street.

    December 31, 1879, Mr. Bradford married Miss Martha Jane Watts, a daughter
of James and Mary Watts. There are three children of this union, Anna May, James
Franklin and Pearl. Anna May is the wife of Ray Wells. Mrs. Bradford is a member
of the Methodist church. Mr. Bradford affiliates with Garfield Lodge No. 569, F.
& A. M., and with Calumet Lodge No. 601, I. O. O. F. In politics he is a
Republican. A number of years ago he served the city as water trustee. He was
afterward appointed city commissioner by the circuit judge, and was elected
county commissioner in 1894, and re-elected in 1896, serving six years in all,
during which time he originated the movement for putting the new court house in
Hammond and was very instrumental in the successful outcome of that movement. He
was also at the head of the movement for securing the splendid gravel and stone
roads of the county, and has always been willing to give his assistance to any
like enterprises for the benefit of town or county. 


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

ENCYCLOPEDIA
OF
Genealogy and Biography
OF
LAKE COUNTY, INDIANA,
WITH A COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY 
1834—1904

A Record of the Achievements of Its People in the Making of a Commonwealth and
the Founding of a Nation.

REV. T. H. BALL
OF CROWN POINT, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
ILLUSTRATED
CHICAGO   NEW YORK
THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY
1904


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