William Penn Bradford
A preface is hardly needed for the following article concerning one of the ablest of Grant County farmer citizens, and a family which properly belongs among both the first and the best. As will be seen three generations have lived on Grant County soil, not including the children of William P. Bradford, so that Grant County really spells home to a large number of Bradford's. Theirs have been lives of fruitful toil, of unselfish sharing of burdens, and mutual helpfulness and esteem.
William Penn Bradford of Centennial Place in Washington Township -the farm having been his since 18786 -was born October 11, 1853, within a short distance of his present home, and his life has been spent in one neighborhood. He was married in 1875 to Miss Ida Alice Armstrong, who died May 6, 1886. The children born to them are: Mrs. Nora may Beekman, Mrs. Louella Burris, Charles J. Bradford, Albert E. Bradford, Mrs. Carrie Dell Maynard, Earl Blaine Bradford and Vernon Eber Bradford. Mrs. Bradford, the other of these children, was born after the death of her father, although James C. Stallings who married her mother, Mrs. Jane Armstrong, was always as a father to her, and as a grandfather to children. There was wide-spread belief that there was virtue in the breath of a woman who had never seen her father, and before and after marriage Mrs. Bradford was frequently importuned to blow her breath in the mouths of children afflicted with thrush -an idea kindred to another about measuring children for small growth, which prevailed in the country. While she never had a fee for such service, she performed the office for many who came to her with afflicted children.
Mr. Bradford was left with a family of small children, and the following year he was married to Miss Nancy Jane Moore, and their children are: Mrs. Rosa Ethel King, Mrs. Lily Esta Weaver, Wilbur Arthur Bradford, Mrs. Hazel Ann White, Homer Leroy, Nellie Marie, Minnie Belle, Merlie Gladys and Belva Bernice. Thus there were seven sons and nine daughters.
In the family of Mr. Bradford's grandfather, George Bradford, who had come into rant County soon after it was organized, were four sons and twelve daughters, all having the same mother, and all of whom lived to bring up families, and as all of the children of his family are living, and in the next generation are seventeen grandchildren, it is a large family circle when all are gathered at Centennial Place. While the seven older children had a different mother, Mrs. Bradford came into the home when they were small, and to them she is mother. All the children were given a common school education, the girls learning domestic science at home, and the boys learning up-to-date farming methods at Centennial Place -one of the best managed farmsteads in Grant County.
When Mr. Bradford went into debt for his farm in the Centennial year, he was young and determined to win and while has reared a large family and has had sickness and its attendant expenses, his ambition has been to make breadwinners of all his children, and they were thrown on their own resources early, and like the older generation of sixteen Bradford children, those who have taken up the struggle for themselves are winning the same success.
William Penn Bradford is a son of William R. Bradford, and Elizabeth (Gaines) Bradford, and his father who died in 1895, has reached seventy-nine years, while his mother who died in 1911, has been a octogenarian for four years. The old home of the family adjoins Centennial Place and is owned by H. L. Bradford. There are Bradford farms all around, and Mr. Bradford recently commented on the size of them. Only a few years ago they were all large farms, but in the process of settlement of estates, the shares of heirs causing the smaller farm areas, gradually Grant County is shifting into conditions surrounding older countries -broken farms on account of the division of property.
Mrs. Bradford is a daughter of Patterson and Amanda (Forest) Moore, and both are of pioneer Washington Township stock. While the name "William Penn" suggests Quaker parentage, many of the Bradford's are in fact Friends, but the W. P. Bradford family are members of the Methodist congregation at Morris Chapel, although Fairview Wesleyan Church overlooks Centennial Place. Fairview is the original Bradford farm -the farm now owned by Mrs. Nancy Bradford having been named from the church, and the Bradford family burying ground where all the family pioneers lie buried is near Fairview Church and in plain view from Centennial Place. there has never been a family in Grant County of stronger personal characteristics than the original Bradford family, and for years they have met in annual reunions, commemorating their ancestry and having pride in the Bradford family coast-of-arms in early American history.
There are many practical farmers in Grant County, but none have better understood the soil requirements and capabilities than Mr. Bradford who has always been a 'farm agent' on his own account. His crop rotation always includes oats which he thinks places the ground in better condition for a meadow instead of following corn with wheat, and in feeding out stock he finds oats worth as much as corn or any other grain, therefore, his meadow land is always level. Centennial Place is undulating and well adapted to meadow farming, and the stock kept there renders plenty of pasture a necessity. While Mr. Bradford is a conservative citizen and has no political ambition, he is abreast of the times and in favor of good road advantages. The farm is well supplied with buildings, and the modern house built in 1910 is one of the best arranged farm houses in the country. The daily mail and telephone keeps the family in touch with things, and water -soft and hard and warm and cold -only a faucet to turn, and natural gas in abundance with acetylene lights all over the house -why should the Bradford's move to town? All the improved machinery has been installed on the farm and all the conveniences are in evidence in the house, and as yet the domestic service or farm labor problems have not touched Centennial Place. the dinner-time guests will always fin the table well spread, and with young children in the home the future will take care of itself for many years.
Centennial History of Grant County Indiana 1812-1912. The Lewis Publishing Co., 1914.