Ohio County, West Virginia Biography of William John BRADDOCK ************************************************************************** USGENWEB NOTICE: Material may be freely used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material, AND permission is obtained from the contributor of the file. These pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for non-commercial purposes, MUST obtain the written consent of the contributor. Submitted by Kerry Armour , March 2000 ************************************************************************** The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc. Chicago and New York, Volume II pg. 155 & 156 WILLIAM JOHN BRADDOCK is secretary, treasurer and general manager of the Wheeling Bronze Casting Company, a well ordered concern that contributes its quota to the industrial and commercial precedence of the West Virginia metropolis. He is one of the representative young business men of his native city his birth having occurred in Wheeling on the 17th of April, 1882. Mr. Braddock is a son of John and Ellen (McGrail) Braddock, the former of whom was born at Johnstown, Pennsylvania, in 1859, and the latter was born in Wheeling, West Virginia, in that same year, she being still a resident of her native city, where her husband died in the year 1891. John Braddock was reared and educated in the old Keystone State, where the family was founded in an early day, and he was a young man when he came to West Virginia and engaged in the work of his trade, that of iron-moulder, at Wheeling. Here he passed the remainder of his life, an upright and loyal citizen who commanded unqualified popular esteem. He was a democrat in politics and was a communicant of the Catholic Church as is also his widow. Of the two children, William J., of this review, is the elder, and Mary is the wife of Haven Robb, of Wheeling. The early education of William J. Braddock was obtained in the parochial schools of St. Mary's Church, in the Eighth Ward of Wheeling, and at the age of fourteen years he entered upon an apprenticeship to the moulder's trade at the Riverside Mills, Benwood, Marshall County, an establishment now owned and operated by the National Tube Company. Here he continued to be employed eight years, and in the meanwhile he became an expert artisan at his trade. In 1904 Mr. Braddock established a modest brass foundry of his own at 205 Twenty-ninth Street, Wheeling, and after continuing the enterprise in an individual way until 1917 he incorporated the business under the present title of the Wheeling Bronze Casting Company. The business has become one of substantial order, and in the autumn of 1921 it was removed from its original location to the fine new plant erected for its use at the corner of Thirty-sixth and McCulloch streets. Here is occupied a modern industrial building that was erected by the company and that is 200 by 100 feet in dimensions. The company gives special attention to the rolling of bronze rods for non-corrosive use, and its products are shipped into most diverse sections of the Union. The executive officers of this progressive corporation are as follows: President, J. W. Mulard, of Martins Ferry, Ohio; secretary and treasurer, William J. Braddock. Mr. Braddock takes lively interest in all that concerns the welfare of his native city, is independent in politics, is affiliated with the local lodge of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and he and his wife are communicants of the Catholic Church. In the World war period the plant of the Wheeling Bronze Casting Company was given over largely to the manufacturing of special parts for use in the equipping of submarine chasers, in the service of the International Ship Building Company and for the United States Emergency Fleet Corporation, and Mr. Braddock himself gave loyal support to the various patriotic activities centered in his home city and state. On April 6, 1904, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Braddock and Miss Virginia Baumann, daughter of John and Lizzetta (Stensel) Baumann, of Wheeling, where the father is a retired dairyman. Mr. and Mrs. Braddock have three children: Lizzetta, who was born in 1905, and who is now a student in Mount de Chantal Academy at Wheeling; John, who was born in 1907, and who is, in 1921, attending the Columbia Commercial College at Wheeling; and William, who was born in 1915. The family home is the attractive and modern residence property owned by Mr. Braddock at 212 Pierce Street.