BIO: William C. Bradley, Cumberland County, PA

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Judy Bookwalter

Copyright 2011.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/cumberland/
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History of Cumberland and Adams Counties, Pennsylvania.
Containing History of the Counties, Their Townships, Towns, Villages, 
Schools, Churches, Industries, Etc.; Portraits of Early Settlers and 
Prominent Men; Biographies; History of Pennsylvania; Statistical and 
Miscellaneous Matter, Etc., Etc.  Illustrated.  Chicago: Warner, Beers 
& Co., 1886.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/cumberland/beers/beers.htm
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                                PART II.

             HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

                               CHAPTER LX.

                       WEST PENNSBOROUGH TOWNSHIP.

575  WEST PENNSBOROUGH TOWNSHIP.

  WILLIAM C. BRADLEY, retired, P. O. Newville, was born near West 
Chester, Chester Co., Penn., in 1813, son of Joseph and Hannah 
(Carpenter) Bradley, who were the parents of eight children, of whom 
William C., Jason, Thomas, Caroline and Emmor are living.  Our subject 
received a liberal education, and his first venture in a business way 
was with Robert Coleman, at Martick Forge, in Lancaster County, in 
1836.  At that time the Colemans were the best known iron manufacturers 
in the State, and from a small beginning the business has grown, until 
now their interests are second to none in the United States.  For a 
number of years our subject was book-keeper, and afterward managed the 
business at Lebanon, Speedwell and Martick Forge.  From Speedwell he 
went to Oregon, Baltimore County; from there to Columbia, Lancaster 
County; and thence to Harrisburg, where he took charge of Mr. 
McCormick's iron works, and, later, was interested in the manufacture 
of iron near Harper's Ferry on the Potomac.  At numerous places in the 
Cumberland Valley and along the Potomac, he has managed the business of 
Hon. Thaddeus Stevens.  Mr. Bradley has chiefly been interested in the 
iron trade, and is well known by all the manufacturers.  He was 
married, in 1840, to Harriet Thomas, and this union was blessed with 
eight children, of whom five are living:  Sallie (wife of T. C. Babb, 
of Philadelphia, Penn.), Susie (wife of George C. Kelly, of Lewisburg), 
Caroline, Albina and Harriet, who reside with their father in the 
pleasant mansion near the borough of Newville.  Mrs. Bradley died in 
1879, and the daughters now make the old home pleasant for their 
father; and amid the many comforts which surround men of wealth and 
refined tastes, his days are serenely passed.  Our subject's life has 
been an active one, but his step is still elastic, though his hair is 
white as snow.  He has now retired from active business and bears a 
name never smirched with dishonor.