BRADLEY FAMILY

William Czar Bradley (1782-1867), a lawyer, is the first member of this prominent Vermont family to appear in this collection. The Bradleys left Connecticut to settle in Westminster, Vt., in the 1770s. William Czar, following in his father's footsteps, became a lawyer and member of both the State Legislature and the U.S. Congress.

His son, Jonathan Dorr Bradley (1803-1862), like his father and grandfather before him, attended Yale College (graduating in the class of 1822) and read for the bar. He practiced law, first in Bellows Falls, Vt., and then in Brattleboro, and was active in civic affairs. In 1829, he married Susan Mina Crossman (1811-1892) and they had four sons: William Czar II, Richards, Stephen Rowe II, and Arthur.

William Czar Bradley II (1831-1908) graduated from Harvard College in 1851 and attended the Divinity School until illness forced his withdrawal and eventual return to Brattleboro. He later taught young men preparing for college and served as town librarian in Brattleboro, where he resided until his death. Stephen Rowe Bradley II (1836-1910) and Arthur Bradley (1849-1911) were involved in the manufacture of white lead in Brooklyn, New York; Arthur was instrumental in the discovery of a new manufacturing process for the metal. They both married, and Stephen Rowe Bradley had four children.

Richards Bradley (1834-1904) was briefly involved in business in New York, until his marriage in 1856 to Sarah Williams Merry (1834-1914), daughter of Robert D.C. Merry and Sarah Williams Merry of Boston. SWMB's father was a merchant who imported cotton, tobacco, notions, sugar, rum and other products, and who traveled to the south (primarily New Orleans) to conduct business. SWMB was orphaned at a young age and inherited significant wealth in a trust fund from her grandfather John D. Williams. This inheritance, the subject of several years of legal disputes (well documented in the collection), enabled RB and SWMB to construct the Bradley Home Place in Brattleboro in 1858, and to live in Brattleboro and Boston on the income from the trust fund. The Home Place remained in the family until the 1940s. They had five children: Susan (SBGII), Richards Merry (RMB), Jonathan Dorr II (JDBII), Emily (EBW) and Sally (SBT). A sixth child died in childhood.

Susan (Bradley) (SBGII) (b.1859) married Richard Grinnell and lived in New York City until her husband's asthma forced their removal to Colorado. Jonathan Dorr Bradley II (1864-1928) married Frances Kales and lived and worked in Chicago. Emily (Bradley) (1866-1943) married Dr. William F. Wesselhoeft; they lived in Boston with their four daughters. Sally (Bradley) (1868-1926) married Russell Tyson; they lived in Chicago, where Russell was in the real estate business with JDBII.

Richards Merry Bradley (1861-1943) attended St. Paul's School and graduated from Harvard College in 1882. He married Amy Aldis (1865-1917) of St. Albans, Vt., in 1892. She was the daughter of Asa Owen Aldis and Mary (Taylor) Aldis. The Aldis family had come to America in the 1630s, settling first in Massachusetts and moving to Vermont in the early nineteenth century. Asa Own Aldis, a prominent lawyer and judge, served in Washington on the commission to settle claims of citizens against the government arising from the Civil War, as well as on the French and Alabama Claims Commission. Amy's siblings were Helen, Owen Jr., Cornelia and Arthur. Before her marriage, AAB spent several years in Paris studying sculpture, and later sent several of her daughters to do the same.

RMB and AAB had five daughters: Amy Owen, Helen Aldis, Sarah Merry (married Clarence Gamble; see MC 368), Mary Townsend and Edith Richards. A son, Walter Williams, and a sixth daughter, Ruth, died in childhood. RMB founded a real estate business in Boston and often traveled to the midwest, west coast and Canada to buy land and make investments.

For further family history, particularly of the Bradley and Aldis families, see Series I of the Sarah Merry (Bradley) Gamble papers, MC 368. The Gamble collection contains papers pertaining to many of the individuals represented in the Bradley family papers, and #514 in Series IV is a family history that includes typescripts of journals and letters from the Bradley family papers. In addition, the Brattleboro Historical Society holds papers of the Bradley family.