One of the worthy and well remembered pioneer citizens of Walworth county who did much for the development of his locality in a former generation was the well-remembered Henry Bradley, at one time postmaster at Elkhorn, a man who, having the old-fashioned ideas of honesty and uprightness, left the indelible impress of his character on the people with whom he came into contact and therefore he is well remembered by a host of friends and acquaintances, and his career is well worthy of emulation by the youth standing at the parting of the ways.
Mr. Bradley had the honor of establishing the first settlement at Elkhorn, having come here when this country was still the domain of the red man and the haunt of the denizens of the wild, but he was a man of courage, brave, freedom-loving, taking a delight in God’s glorious out-of-doors, feeling cramped, like Daniel Boone, the greatest of pioneers, if he had a neighbor nearer than five miles. The men like him who live nowadays are not numerous; however, he was but one of a type in his period.
Mr. Bradley was born in Delaware county, New York, December 26, 1823, and was the son of Daniel E. and Betsey (Sturgis) Bradley. His father was one of the men who staked the first claims and founded the city of Elkhorn, Wisconsin, on February 2j, 1837. On January 12th of that year the families of Daniel E. Bradley and his brother, Milo E., arrived from the East at the old log cabin of the settlement. The oldest among the children of the Bradley party was Henry, then fourteen years of age. Two years later Daniel E. Bradley died. The family remained on the farm about three years longer, then commenced in the mercantile business in Elkhorn in 1847.
In 1846 Henry Bradley was appointed under-sheriff of Walworth county. On April 18, 1847, he was united in marriage with Nancy J. Mallory, daughter of Samuel M. Mallory. She was born in Tompkins county, New York.
In 1852 this family wont overland to California and there Mr. Bradley engaged in mining. Three years later they returned by way of Greytown and Nicaragua by steamship to New York, thence to Niles, Michigan by train and so home, at Elkhorn. Soon afterwards he was appointed deputy clerk of the court. He returned to the West, going to southern Oregon in 1859 and spent a year there, then returned to this county.
Mr. Bradley was first appointed postmaster in 1861 by President Lincoln, and he served in this capacity for a period of twenty-four years continuously, discharging the duties of the same in a manner that reflected much credit upon himself and to the entire satisfaction of the people and the department.
The salary was small, but he devoted his attention to the office with much fidelity. In 1884, when the Democrats came into power, Mr. Bradley was succeeded by one of the dominant party. In 1888 he was reappointed to the local office by President Harrison and served four years more. Upon his second retirement from official duties he ceased active business and spent considerable time with a son in Salt Lake City, Utah. He also spent a year in Europe, and being a keen observer and widely read, he talked very entertainingly of his travels and his early experiences in the Far West and of the pioneer days in Wisconsin. He possessed a very fine store of reminiscences. He was a man whom everybody admired and respected for his strength of character, his industry, public spirit and general intelligence.
All through his life he was an ardent lover of nature and the outdoors, delighting in camping trips, was familiar with the “oak openings,” the lakes and the clearing from their most alluring days. He was fond of the rod and gun, because they took him into the fields and woods, “away from man with his vain conceits.” He was a musician and although he interpreted little of the written score himself, the musical taste of the community along its best lines found in him helpful and encouraging appreciation. Self-reliant, mentally vigorous, of strong but unobtrusive convictions, and of line old-fashioned integrity, Elkhorn history was enriched by the wholesomeness of his life.
The death of Mr. Bradley occurred on August 17, 1909, in his eighty
sixth year. Few men who had made Elkhorn their home during Mr. Bradley’s long residence here were so well or so favorably known. Mrs. Bradley is still living in Elkhorn. Of their children, William M. is an attorney at law in Salt Lake City; a daughter, Mrs. Lillian B. Kenyon, lives at Tacoma, Washington; Anna Ruth is the wife of Francis H. Eames, Jr., and resides in Elkhorn.
From: Beckwith, A.C. (1912). History of Walworth County Wisconsin