Robert W. Bradford

    It is due to the efforts of such progressive, intelligent and enterprising agriculturist as Robert W. Bradford, of Van Buren Township, that Grant County has made such rapid strides in farming during the past several decades. With all the practicality of an old school of farmers, he has not been content to follow in the rut of hit-or-miss tilling of the soil, but by well directed application of scientific methods as advanced by the present generation has so systematized his operations as to make his farm one of the most productive of its size in his section of the county. Such methods are calculated to not alone advance his personal interests but to further those of his community as well and to thus give him prestige as one of his locality's most useful citizens. Mr. Bradford is a native of Grant County, having been born on the Otto Creviston farm in Washington Township, December 16, 1860, a son of George and Sarah (Gardner) Bradford.

    Daniel Bradford, the grandfather of Robert W. Bradford, was born in Virginia, from whence he migrated as a young man to Ohio. There he was married, and subsequently, during the thirties, came to Indiana, where, with his brother, George, he entered 160 acres of land, this property being later divided. His wife, Louisa Romine, was a native of Ohio. George Bradford, father of Robert W. Bradford, was born in Indiana in 1838, and was here educated, reared to agricultural pursuits, and married. he became the father of two sons, James T. and Robert W., the former of whom is now deceased, and was carrying on operation on a forty-acre property, where he had settled at the time during the Civil War in 1865. He joined the Indiana infantry, and not long after his enlistment contracted measles and pneumonia, and died in the army hospital at Pulaski, Tennessee.

    At the time of her husband's death, Mrs. Bradford took her tow small sons to the home of her father, George Gardner, and there Robert W. Bradford was reared, securing his education in the public schools. Mr. Gardner died in 1878, and at that time Mrs. Bradford purchased eighty acres of land, and with one horse and three cows, settled down to develop a farm. The boys, aged eighteen and fourteen years, cleared and ditched this land and put it into excellent shape. At the time of their grandmother's death they purchased what was known as the Plummer Farm, and here they worked together until 1899, when Robert W. Bradford bought what is now the Losure Farm, but soon sold this property in order to go into business in Van Buren. In 1905 he bought his present property of eighty acres, located in Section 10, van Buren Township, and this he now has in a high state of cultivation, having been improved by the most approved modern methods. Mr. Bradford manures heavily, restores soil with clover and alternates his crops, and constant cultivation. His large red barn measures forty by sixty feet, in addition to which he is now erecting another building twenty-four by sixty feet, and his residence and outbuildings are all substantial in character and handsome in architectural design. An excellent man of business, he is ever alert to grasp a favorable opportunity, but has never taken advantage of another's needs, and through upright and honorable dealing has established himself firmly in the confidence of the people of his community.

    Mr. Bradford was married in 1882 to Miss Alfaretta Dunwoodie, and six children have been born to this union: four who died in infancy; George, who died in February, 1909, at the age of twenty-five years; and Clay, born in October, 1888, and now engaged in farming with his father, married Delight Stockhouse, and has one son, Robert. Mr. Bradford has ever been a supporter of temperance and has given his vote to the Prohibition party for many years. With his family, he attends the Church of Christ, at Van Buren.

Centennial History of Grant County Indiana 1812-1912. The Lewis Publishing Co., 1914