Thomas H. BRADFORD
(Abt. 1870 - 1964)

Thomas H. BRADFORD,
"Uncle Tom BRADFORD", "Old Brad"
b: Abt. 1870 Wheeling, Cook Co., Illinois, USA,
son of Thomas BRADFORD & Sarah SNYDER;
d: 1964 Tacoma, Pierce Co., Washington, USA

Occupation:

Fireman, then Railroad Engineer,
Northern Pacific Railway, Wadena, MN, USA, 1890 - 1941,
Wrote articles about the rail road after his retirement
in Bellingham, WA, USA in 1941
Honor Member of Div. 399 Engineers,
"Oldest Veteran of the Northern Pacific Ry."
Member of Freemasons Lodge since 1914

Residence:

1870 - Abt. 1874 - Wheeling, Cook Co., Illinois, USA
Abt. 1874 - Abt. 1878 - Floyd Co., Iowa, USA
Abt. 1878 - 1890 - Compton Twp., Otter Tail Co., Minnesota, USA
1890 - 1941 - Wadena, Minnesota, USA
1941 - 1964 Bellingham, Whatcom Co., Washington, USA
(1230 Indian Street)

Siblings:

William P.,
Frank Arbby,
Clark H.,
Annie L.,
George H.,
Mary Jane,
Ida Rebecca,
Charles Edward,
Edith Mae,
Ernest J.,
Sarah

1880 United States Census
Compton Twp., Otter Tail Co., Minnesota

Name, Relation, Marital Status, Gender, Race, Age,
Birthplace, Occupation, Father's Birthplace, Mother's Birthplace:

Thomas BRADFORD, Self, M, Male, W, 64, ENG, Farmer, ENG, ENG
Sarah BRADFORD, Wife, M, Female, W, 44, NY, Housekeeping, NY, PRU
William P. BRADFORD, Son, S, Male, W, 26, IL, Farm Laborer, ENG, NY
Clark H. BRADFORD, Son, S, Male, W, 20, IL, At Home, ENG, NY
Annie L. BRADFORD, Dau, S , Female, W, 18, IL, At Home, ENG, NY
George H. BRADFORD, Son, S, Male, W, 16, IL, At Home, ENG, NY
Mary J. BRADFORD, Dau, S, Female, W, 13, IL, At Home, ENG, NY
Ida R. BRADFORD, Dau, S, Female, W, 12, IL, At Home, ENG, NY
Thomas H. BRADFORD, Son, S, Male, W, 10, IL, At Home, ENG, NY
Charles E. BRADFORD, Son, S, Male, W, 7, IL, At Home, ENG, NY
Edith M. BRADFORD, Dau, S, Female, W, 4, IA, At Home, ENG, NY
Ernest J. BRADFORD, Son, S, Male, W, 1, IA, At Home, ENG, NY

Source Information:
Family History Library Film 1254628 NA Film Number T9-0628 Page Number 193D

Letter as typewritten from Tom BRADFORD, Bellingham (WA)
to a daughter of George Herbert CRAIG
Tuesday 30 Sep 1952:
Dear Folks
Your welcome letter has been received and read with pleasure
as as I am all alone to day will answer it and send in addition
a copy of the old Familey record and a crude pencial drawing
of my coception of how the old tree stand's today and maby you
will get a kick out of it.
but remember once a Man twice a Child (Proverb) and maby I am
in that category now at four score and one;
and see if you can figure out what each character represent's
Now I will tell you about our trip to California we left here
Sept- 8 and returned on the 19th I had train passes and I was
able to get a Pullman on the way but not comming home so we
had to ride in a chair car and I got awfull tired before I
got home; we went from Vallejo to visit her Daughter it is about
40 miles from SanFrancisco her husband works at the navel base
at Mars Island he is a technician of some kind there and he is
a wonderfull fellow I like him very much . . .
. . . they have a very nice
home and I did not relax and rest like I do at my home you will
understand when I am home and get tired I like to flop on the
couch but there I could not take that privlage on her chesterfield
we had a very nice bed room with twin beds but I prefer to stay
at a nice hotel and always feel better to pay my way as I go
on Saturday and Sunday was his days off so he took us for a long
ride Saturday and we must hand it to California such wonderfull
highways six lane and one just gets out of one city than you
get into a nother one it shure is a propurest country down there
and they do things in a big way the markets are open every day
and some all night I have been there several times before but not
had the oppertuenity to see as much of it as we did this time
on Sunday the girls fixed up a lunch and we started for the
Parks at SanFrancisco we left at 8. A.M. and Bill drove north
and we went through some beautiful ranch country and came in
Frisco- over the golden gate bridg and went to the parks there
was thousands of cares there all ready we went through the
Museum and saw all the antiquity there and then we went to the
menagerie and fed the monkeys peanuts by than we was getting
hungry so Bill started out to find a place to park to eat our
lunch but he drove around for an hour before we could find a
vacant place to get in never saw so many cars and people in one
place trying to find a place to park as I did there that day
and then we started home by the way of Oakland over the bay
bridge it is a double decker and some 8 miles long I am told
the Wife is gone for a week to visit her other Daughter at
Anacortis about 60 miles from Bellingham.so I am keeping batch
Sunday my Dtar-Phillis from Sedro Woolley came and got me and
we went out to Nathalie for a picnic Nat- and Archie have a
grocerie store on lake way drive about six miles from here and we had
a lot of fun the little grand Kiddies shure was glad to see
grand Dad and the Son in law had some venison and they made
venison stew I do note care to much about Veneson as when we were
Kids in Minnesota we had to eat to much of it and rabbits stew
at the old homestead many years ago
(Continued) Page-(2)
You spoke in your letter about visiting the old home and
the old pond the last time I was home in 1897 it was dried up
and I wondered if the old log barn and log grayner was still
standing and if you noticed a big jack pine standing at the
front gate where we had all the spruce trees planted by the
walk my Brother Charles told me the last time he was out there
it was 75 feet tall I planted that tree when I was 14.years old
I would shure like to see the old place once more as I put in
many a hard day's work there helping Dad clear the land and we
BOys had a lot of fun spearing fish and hunting in the fall
and in the winter time we snared rabbits on the way to school
we walked 4. miles to school 40 below zero and we sold the
rabbits at bluffton at the store for 5.¢. each to get Xmas
money. and we got 15.¢ for a grouse or prairie chicken
well everything must come to an end when your Dad got me a
job in the round house at Wadena I never for get that date
it was the 22d of December 1890. and in 1891 I went firing
for your Dad on the branch and then we moved to Staples [MN]
that Fall and I never was home again except for a short time
About my story I do not know why it has not come yet in
the magazine when I received the acknoledgment and the check
it had printed on it copy right reserved for story.
title it is a small world;
but when it does come out I will let you knoe so you wont
hafto bother about it and if you cannot get a copy I will send
you one.
well I guess you are getting tired of reading my rambling
letters and I hope you get a kick out of my crude pencial
picture of the old familey tree;
Your name sake Nathlie TRUAX lives at . . . Lake Way Drive
Bellingham Washington
Walter Dorithy Phillis lives at Sedro Woolley Barbra lives
at Trinidad California Bill has a Mens clothing store
at Stanwood Wash-
Lenord is a Macninest at the round house here
Mom and I are very compefortly taken care of by the annuitiys
we receive from the rail road retirement board as long as we
live I get $158.77.¢ she gets $40. every month tax free
In conclusion I will Quote my Masonic Teaching
Some day we will all take that long journey to that undiscovered
land from whence no traveler shell return.to that house not
made by hands. Eternall in the Heavens
As ever Uncle Tom [BRADFORD]

Excerpts from letter as typewritten from T.H. BRADFORD,
1230.Indian St,
Bellingham--Washington
to a relative of Frank Arbby BRADFORD
16 Jul 1955:
. . . I think I can help you trace your familey tree . . .
It is true I am a or was a
rail road engineer on the northern Pacific Ry for over 50 years
Started as a Fireman at Wadena Minn- 1890 retired in 1941 at
the age of 70 and came here to live a retired life . . .
when I was home on the farm in minnesota us kids
never got much chance to go to school . .
but I did learn to be a good scribe and I
always wanted to write storys so my first rail road story I
wrote it longhand and sent it to a magazine and believe it or not
in return I received $150 checque for it.so I bought me a type
writer and learned the hunt and touch system and have sent in
several storys sence. . .
my first wife mother of our 8
children passed away in 1935.our oldest daughter Nell died in
1928.the other 7 are scadred all over this U.S.A.in 1938 I
had a run out of Bellingham [WA] and I meet a lovely ladie a widow
here and we were married She has a daughter living at Vallejo
calf- and I have a Dtr living at Arcado Calf- . . .
Now as I have give you a run down on my private life I will give
You a little on the past history of the familey tree.
I am the 5th son of Thomas & Sarah Bradford a familey of 12
As follows .William .Frank.Clark.Annia George Mary .Ida Tom
Charley .Edith .Earnest. Sarah.
They are all gone except me and sister Sarah who lives at Wadena
Minnesota. George is buried at Wadena .Dad & mother are Buried
In Tacoma Wash. the rest of them I do not know where except Sister
Edith is burid in Tacoma Wash.and Brother Charles is buried at
Marysvill Wash-
In 1903.Dad & Mother sold the Farm in Minnesota and came to
Tacoma Wash.- and baught a little home there and they both died
In 1909 [sic].15 days apart at that time I was running a mountain
helper at Lester in the Cascade Mountains 50 miles east of Tacoma
My Sister Edith was a widow at that time and living in SEATTLE
So when the folks got to feable to take care of themselves
She came and looked after them . . .
Brother Earnest was then living at Wadena . . .
I was there when they both passed away mother Died first and
The last words she said was Tom I never had you Baptised do that
For me and when you lay me a way beshure and lay my head on my
Old German Bible.
15.dayes later Dad passed away I held his hand as he whispred
to me Tom will you promis to have Mother and I layed away in the
same grave ; Both Promises have been fu;lfilled ;
Mother was 77.Dad was 86;
Now we will turn the pages of the book back many years
In the year of 1885 My Sister Mary Marrid August Breeze and
My brother Clark Marrid Dora Breeze it was a double wedden
at the farm house by a Minester. I was there.
that same summer they packed their wagons and every thing they
had and started for northern Minnesota to take up homesteads
it was a wild country at that time 45 miles from the nearest
store or P.O.there was a nother brother Herman Breeze a batchlor
he always stayed with Clark & Dora. . .
the next summer I went up there to stay with the girls and hold
down the home steads and take care of the stock while the men
went over in Dakota to work in the harvest fields for three
months Clark was a regester Machine feeder so he made good money
the paied me $15.per month and board.
that was the last time I ever saw sister mary I did hear she
had a raft of children Clark &Dora had two Daughters
Emma.And Edith. edith died some time ago I heard but Emma lives
In Spokan Washington. . .
O.M.Chaplin . . .
Of corse we all know there is a lot of Bradfords in This U.S.A. . .
Frank Bradford that
lived in Charles City Iowa in 1879. And his wife Nora Sweet . . .
As ever
T.H.Bradford

Excerpts from letter as typewritten from T.H. BRADFORD,
to a relative of Frank Arbby BRADFORD
later in Jul or Aug 1955:
. . . I will try and give
You a brief biography of the first and second generation of the
Bradford!s.Familey tree nothing to bee proud of or ashamed of.
First . . . Frank as I remember him was a fine big good
looking Man in fact all of us Bradford's Boys was huskey men
and never had any bad habits or used licqure in any way except Me
I learned to chew tobacco and later gave it up and and took up smoking
Which I still get a lot of kick out of my old pipe;
. . . we will turn the pages of the book back to the year of 1874.there was
nine of us born in Illinois Dad had a farm 19.miles from Chicago
he sold it for $25000 [two hundred fifty dollars?] cash and moved to Iowa and he invested in
land there part of the land was under cultivation and part wild
he baught enopugh land so that wach Son would have a farm at the
age of 21, the first two years he done well and baught more
live stock and machinery in the second year he baught a horse power
thrashing machine and Frank and Clark run the machine and done
our owne thrashing and then went out and done some costom thrashing for
other farmers and done well at it;
the third year Dad and the Boys had in 200 acres of wheat 50 acres
oats and corn so Dad bought two more harvester machines to handel
the crops . by that time he was gettig in debt quite a lot
the third year the crops looked fine.just when the grain was in
the milk stage the chince bug plague and the grasshoppers came
and cleaned out all the farmers in one week every thing was lost
so Dad put a mortgage on all the land for $10,000. As he was one of
the biggest farmers there he was the hardest hit all the farmers
around there had to buy seed grain for the next year planting
the fourth year Dad and the boys put in the same amount of crops
and the same thing hapned again grass hopers chince bugs hail storms
every thing gone I heard Dad tell Mother that every thing was
mortgaged but the live stock and a 50 ton stack of hay and a big
crib of corn .and he was going to Minnesota and start over again.
in the meantime Will Clark & Annie had gone up there and wrote Dad
that there was lots of home stead land he could get for $1 per acre
So the first of September he butchered three fat hogs and put down
A barrel of salt pork and filled the smokehouse with hams and Mother
made a lot of Smoked sausage for the winter . he had three span of
horses and other live stock not mortgaged so in October he loaded
up a covered wagon with his plow and tools and some seed grain and
bedding and food to eat on the trip up to minnesota and he and George
kissed Mother good by and left ; . . .
as spring drew near Mother was getting ancious to start but . . .
told Mother he was gointo send her and us six kids up by
train and . . . took us to Charles City and put us on the train . . .
A wire at Wadena to tell Dad to meet us as we were coming on
the Train. . .
Sister Sarah is just an iminage
of Mother Bradford at the age of 75 . . .
and if you should find out some one is inviting them selves
to a visit with you Just do like I have done tell them you
have only one bed and two knives &two forks.
As ever the old Grand Unc

Thomas H. BRADFORD listed in
Northern Pacific Hospital Records Tacoma, Washington 1905-1930

Also

BRADFORD listings in the 1921 Directory for Tacoma, WA, USA:

BRADFORD Adelle usher h [house] D-910 South E
" Clyde lab TDD&C Co [Tacoma Dry Dock & Construction Co.] h Hylebos Waterway
" Eug (Mattie) mech h 4910 Vassault
" Eula C Mrs h 429 South E
" Harry E clk r [rooms or boards] 429 South E
" Minnie E clk r 11371/2 Bway
" Nellie B usher r 1107 Market
" Raymond (Addie) lab h University pl RD 5 [Rural Delivery]
" Romeo gard r Robt Longmire
" Sidney W r 1108 North I
" Will J (Helen W) barber h 721 S 60th
" Wm (Alice L) lab h 1108 North I

Notes:
Adelle BRADFORD & Nellie B BRADFORD were both ushers;
Harry E BRADFORD roomed with Mrs Eula C BRADFORD at 429 South E;
Sidney W BRADFORD roomed with Wm (Alice L) BRADFORD at 1108 North I

Notes:
Tom & wife 1952; he was age 81, b. abt. 1870 - 1871;
Wife had daughter
(m. to Bill, technician, worked at Mars [sic] Mare Island Naval Base)
in Vallejo, CA
& daughter in Anacortes, WA, USA;
Tom's second wife was a widow.

Tom had daughter Phillis (m. with children) in Sedro-Woolley, WA, USA,
"Walter Dorithy Phillis lives at Sedro Woolley";

Friends or relatives Nathalie & Archie had grocery store
on Lake Way Drive, about 6 mi. from Bellingham, WA, USA,
("Your name sake Nathlie TRUAX lives at . . . Lake Way Drive Bellingham Washington");

"Barbra lives at Trinidad California" - was this Tom's step-daughter?

"Bill has a Mens clothing store at Stanwood Wash-"
A younger relative wrote, "I remember going [with mother]
to Bill's Clothing Store in Stanwood."

Letters courtesy of R. & T. BYRNES & N. SANDNESS

Links to:
1921 Directory for Tacoma, Washington, USA (DistantCousin.com);
Anacortes, Washington, USA;
Bay Bridge;
Bellingham, Whatcom Co., Washington, USA;
Bluffton, Minnesota, USA (MnGenWeb);
Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen;
Charles City, Floyd County, Iowa, USA (Chamber of Commerce);
Charles City, Floyd County, Iowa, USA (Key to the City);
Charles City, Floyd County, Iowa, USA (Village Profile);
Chinch bug (Univ. of Florida);
City of Charles City, Floyd County, Iowa, USA;
City of Tacoma, Pierce Co., Washington, USA;
DistantCousin.com;
dMarie Time Capsule;
FamilySearch.org;
Floyd Co., Iowa, USA (USGenWeb);
Grasshoppers (Amazing Grasshopper Facts);
Lester, King Co., Washington, USA (GhostTowns.com);
Marysville, Snohomish Co., Washington, USA;
Minnesota (MnGenWeb);
Northern Pacific Beneficial Association (NPBA);
NPR Co.;
Oakland, California, USA;
Otter Tail Co., Minnesota, USA (USGenWeb);
Pierce Co., Washington, USA;
San Francisco, California, USA;
Sedro-Woolley, Washington, USA;
Snohomish Co., Washington, USA (USGenWeb);
Spokane, Spokane Co., WA, USA (WAGenWeb);
Stanwood Washington, USA;
Staples, Minnesota, USA (MnGenWeb);
Trinidad, California, USA;
Vallejo, California, USA;
Wadena, Minnesota, USA (MnGenWeb);
Wheeling, Cook Co., Illinois, USA

Maps:
Lake Way Drive, Bellingham WA, USA

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