Biography/History
Lewis Leonard Bradbury (circa 1823-1892), originally from Bangor, Maine, moved to Rosario, (Sinaloa) Mexico in the early 1860s. He began accumulating shares in the "Tajo" mines, eventually gaining controlling interests in 1873. He married Simona Martinez in Mazatlan, Mexico around 1867. In 1880, L.L. Bradbury moved his family to California, first settling in Oakland and then Los Angeles, where he began investing in California real estate. Around 1883, he acquired Rancho Azusa de Duarte in southern California which is now part of the present-day cities of Duarte and Bradbury (both incorporated in 1957) in Los Angeles County, California. Lewis Leonard Bradbury died in 1892.
Lewis Bradbury, Junior (circa 1881-1948) assumed control of the family business in 1902, and the Bradbury Estate Company was incorporated in 1904. Subsidiary companies were accumulated and created, beginning in 1910 with the purchase of the Bolaños Mining Company and the incorporation of the Mexican Mines Company (1910), the North American Venture Company (1910), and "Lewis Leonard Bradbury and Company" (1916). Other subsidiary companies in Mexico included Compañía Minera del Pacífico (1926) and Compañía Minera del Cañon de Bolaños (1926).
Inter-familial litigation took place between the six children and various grandchildren of L.L. Bradbury between the years of 1932 to 1938, in response to business and financial management practices and the disbursement of funds. The business and mining success of the Bradbury Estate Company declined thereafter. In 1956, Marion Winston Jenkins (niece of Lewis Leonard Bradbury, Jr.) arranged a contract and purchase option agreement with the San Francisco Mines of Mexico, but the sale was never culminated. The Bradbury Estate Company was dissolved in 1965.
From the guide to the Bradbury Family Papers, 1789-1989, (University of California, Davis. General Library. Dept.. of Special Collections.)
