Chittenden

BRADLEY, Harry

Vermont Historical Magazine, No XI, October 1867, pp 638-639 [The source of 
this information is given as "the family."] 

The first we know of the immediate ancestors of Mr. [Harry] BRADLEY, in 
connection with the State of Vermont, his grandfather, Capt. Joseph BRADLEY, 
in 1766, removed from Guilford [New Haven County], Connecticut, to Bennington 
County [Vermont] and settled at Sunderland. He, with his son Lemuel, the 
father of Harry, 29 March 1772, led the party who rescued Remember BAKER from 
MUNRO. [Additional information about this incident can be found in the 
Chittenden County, Vermont, biography of Remember BAKER.] He [Joseph?] 
represented Sunderland at the Convention at Dorset [Bennington County] in 
1776, where the organization of Vermont was determined upon, and was the 
first representative sent from the town of Sunderland to the first 
legislature held in the State.

Lemuel BRADLEY was born in February 1750 at Guilford [New Haven County], 
Connecticut; removed with his father to Sunderland, and in 1775 came to 
Burlington to settle. He purchased a tract of land on Winooski River, under 
a title from the New Hampshire grants. The broad bend below the town, for 
many years known as the "Bradley bend," was a part of this tract. He was 
sent as representative of Burlington to the convention at Dorset in 1776. 
["He" refers here to Lemuel. In the last sentence of the preceding 
paragraph, "he" seems to refer to Joseph BRADLEY. Joseph represented 
Sunderland and Lemuel represented Burlington at the convention in 1776?] A 
band of French and Indians came suddenly upon him, burnt his house, destroyed 
his furniture, and he [Lemuel BRADLEY] fled to the hill above, where he was 
compelled to see them bring out his bed, cut it open, and amuse themselves in 
scattering the feathers to the wind; then smashing a set of china, which he 
valued greatly; homeless, disappointed, the war at that time breaking out, he 
concluded to return to the more settled southern part of the State.

In 1777 we find him [Lemuel BRADLEY] enlisting under Col. WARNER, acting as 
aid to Gen. STARK at the battle of Bennington, and at the battle of 
Hubbardton. Serving in the capacity of private, lieutenant, captain, and 
major under Col. Seth WARNER, and in Col. HERRICK's regiment of rangers; on 
duty at different times during the years 1777, 1778, 1779, 1780, 1781, and 
1782, as the necessities of the times demanded. In January 1783 he [Lemuel 
BRADLEY] married Mercy, the daughter of Abisha WASHBURN, by whom he had six 
children.

Harry BRADLEY, eldest son and third child of Lemuel and Mercy BRADLEY, was 
born 23 March 1793 at Sunderland [Bennington County, Vermont], his father 
dying when he was but seven years of age, leaving a young and helpless 
family. His mother [Mercy BRADLEY], a woman of uncommon energy and ability, 
in a few years married Col. Eli BROWNSON, the same Lieut. BROWNSON who, on 
the death of Capt. COMSTOCK, at the battle of Bennington, led on his company 
to action.

Col. BROWNSON, though a wealthy man, had a family of children of his own, 
which made it necessary for young [Harry] BRADLEY to, while a mere boy, 
commence life for himself. At the age of fourteen he came to Burlington 
[Chittenden County, Vermont] and commenced work under Horace LOOMIS, Esq., to 
learn the business of tanner and currier. He remained with Mr. LOOMIS until 
he was twenty years of age, when he [Harry BRADLEY] formed a partnership with 
Luther LOOMIS, his brother-in-law, and removed to Williston [Chittenden 
County, Vermont], where he carried on the same business ten years. In 1817 
he [Harry BRADLEY] married [Miss] Maria MILLER, youngest child of Judge 
Solomon MILLER.

In 1827 he [Harry BRADLEY] gave up business at Williston and returned to 
Burlington, and again entered into partnership with Luther LOOMIS. While at 
Williston he took an active part in public affairs, twice representing the 
town at the Legislature. On his removal to Burlington he was active in both 
town and state affairs, representing the town a number of times, after which 
he was elected to the state Senate. He was one of the originators of the 
Farmers and Mechanics' Bank, and afterwards of the Commercial Bank, of which 
bank he was the first president. He was for many years a director in the 
United States Branch Bank at Burlington, and president of the Rutland and 
Burlington Railroad for two years.

He [Harry BRADLEY] was for many years engaged in a wholesale mercantile 
business at the lake [Burlington located on the eastern shore of Lake 
Champlain], also carrying on a large lumber business at Essex [means "Essex" 
in Chittenden County, not "Essex County" Vermont], and was one of the 
greatest sufferers in the losses which befell our business community in the 
woolen factory at Winooski Falls. Perhaps no man amongst us for thirty years 
was more intimately connected with all the leading business and political 
interests at Burlington than Harry BRADLEY; he died at Burlington [Chittenden 
County, Vermont], 07 April 1857, aged sixty-four years.

The following is a notice of him, written soon after his death, by President 
WHEELER:

The name of Harry BRADLEY, Esq., has been so long identified with the 
interests of our village, that his sudden and unexpected death seems to 
create a sad and fearful chasm in the midst of us. And his long and active 
service, in the political organizations of the state, has made his name 
familiar, in all parts of it, and also in some of the high places of the 
nation. He was born in Sunderland in this state, and came into this town 
some half a century since. Before its commercial relations were established 
and while its business was in a forming state, he entered with vigorous 
activity into the duties of apprenticeship, to Horace LOOMIS, Esq. He there 
aided in carrying out and stamping upon the extensive and influential 
business of his employer, that promptness, energy and activity, which has 
ever characterized it. This was done with such vigor and integrity, that 
before his majority he was solicited to enter into business with Luther 
LOOMIS, Esq., at Williston, and with this he complied. His energy, activity, 
and power over other persons made him eminently successful.

Having acquired in a few years by his industry, what was then an independent 
fortune, he was urged and finally entered into a large commercial business in 
this place. Since then his time and labor has, with the exception of a short 
business residence in New York, been spent exclusively among us. The very 
energy and activity that gave him so much influence, and served to set so 
many and such various things in motion about him, made him at times too 
sanguine in this expectations; and as few could keep pace with him, in the 
variety and extent of his plans and in the rapidity of their execution, he 
often found himself disappointed, and then embarrassed. As he could not do 
everything himself he must trust to others, and as others could not put on 
his earnest and constant zeal, failure was more or less the consequence. He 
was ever awake to increase the business and forward the prosperity of 
Burlington. His losses in attempting to commence the manufacture of woolens 
at Winooski Falls, were little less than $50,000. And in his subsequent 
efforts to retrieve these in New York, his schemes were disastrously broken 
up by the visitation of Providence, in the coming of the cholera. His 
comprehensive and ardent mind, and his restless activity, made it difficult 
to wait upon the slow but secure steps of others, and often pressed him 
beyond that prudence which nature prescribes as the ground of unfailing 
success.

His energy and activity naturally pointed him out, as a man singularly fitted 
for carrying out the measures and accomplishing the ends of political 
parties. He was long the Chairman of the Whig state Committee of Vermont. 
His services were highly appreciated by the party not only in this state, but 
by some of the principal men in the nation, with whom he held correspondence 
on such matters. WEBSTER, CLAY, and President FILLMORE were among them. His 
political opinions, though of an earnest and forceful kind, were both 
national and conservative. While narrow and short-sighted views, limited by 
the range of his individual vision, might have been anticipated because of 
his personal earnestness and activity, he was in reality wise, considerate, 
and comprehensive in his political actions, however zealous he might be in 
realizing them.

His heart and house were always open to his friends; and his mind and hands 
were ready for their service. This cheerful activity for others made him an 
affectionate and indulgent husband and father, and an agreeable and 
disinterested friend and neighbor. His sudden and unexpected decease filled 
the hearts of all with sadness and astonishment.

[Also a resident of Chittenden County, Vermont, was Elisha BRADLEY. It is 
unknown to submitter, who is not researching this surname, if Elisha was 
related to Harry. The following is from the section on the early settlers of 
Huntington, Chittenden County, Vermont, found in the same source, page 824.] 
Of the nativity and antecedents of Elisha BRADLEY, settler of Huntington, I 
am not able to give any account here; but that deficiency, I presume, will be 
supplied in a measure, by the furnisher of the history of Williston 
[Chittenden County]. All I can say here is I have seen the man occasionally 
in his lifetime, and from what I could learn, he was originally from 
Connecticut [as was Harry BRADLEY]. He [Elisha BRADLEY] seems to have 
adopted very peculiar views of religion towards the latter part of his life, 
somewhat like the Quakers, only more ultra, but was withal an honest and 
exemplary man.

Submitted by Cathy Kubly