Josiah T. Bradford
Josiah T. Bradford was born on April 1, 1834, in Missouri to James Bradford and Anna Turpin. His father was a farmer who owned $1,000 of real estate and at least one enslaved laborer in 1850. The family lived in Pulaski County, Missouri, until the 1840s, when they moved to Texas County, Missouri. As a local writer later noted, he “received but little education, not attending more than twelve months altogether.” By 1850, he was working as a farmer. He married Elizabeth T. Halbert on May 15, 1856, and they had at least six children: America, born around 1857; Columbus, born around 1860; Grant, born around 1862; Florence, born around 1867; Arthur, born around 1870; and Huber, born around 1873.
They lived in Sherill, Missouri, in the household next to his parents. Bradford earned a living as a farmer, and by 1860, he owned $840 of real estate and $400 of personal property. He remained loyal to the Union during the Civil War, and he enlisted in the Union army on October 1, 1862. He mustered in as a corporal in Company C of the 32nd Missouri Infantry later that day. He took part in the siege of Vicksburg, the Atlanta campaign, the March to the Sea, and the Carolinas campaign.
Bradford was a War Democrat who sought a middle ground between Radical Republicans and the Copperheads in his own party. Writing in December 1863, he defended his right to “vote as I please,” observing that this was “what I am fight for.” He voted for the “conservative ticket” in that year’s state elections, but remained fiercely devoted to the Union, writing that he had “proaved my loyalty in half a dozen battles.” He also accepted emancipation as a military necessary, noting that “slavery is already dead and buried,” and that there was little “use of keeping so mutch nuse about it.”
He returned to Sherill after the war and resumed his work as a farmer. By 1870, he owned $4,000 of real estate and $900 of personal property, and he employed at least one white domestic servant. He joined the Republican Party after the war and served as the first commander of his local Grand Army of the Republic post.
He became a county surveyor in 1865 and served as sheriff and collector from 1868 until 1873. In September 1890, local Republicans nominated Bradford for the state senate. Local writers described him as a “republican of the first order” and “one of the solid farmers of Sherrill township.” The district, however, was “largely democratic,” and Bradford lost the election by a vote of 1815 to 1174.
In 1891, he became vice president of the Ozark Battalion, a Union veterans’ organization. He helped organize a reunion the following year to “keep green the memories of old association formed during the struggle from ’61 to ’65.” He applied for a federal pension in May 1901 and eventually secured one. He died in Missouri on July 12, 1911. According to family tradition, he was buried in his Union uniform.
DATABASE CONTENT
| (1446) | Bradford, Josiah T. | 1834-04-01 | 1911-07-12 |
- Conflict Side: Union
- Role: Soldier
- Rank in: Corporal
- Rank out: Corporal
- Rank highest: Corporal
- Gender: Male
- Race: White
Documents - Records: 9
- (3246) [writer] ~ Josiah T. Bradford to Elizabeth T. Bradford, 13 August 1863
- (3247) [writer] ~ Josiah T. Bradford to Elizabeth T. Bradford, 13 September 1864
- (3248) [writer] ~ Josiah T. Bradford to Unknown, 23 December 1864
- (3249) [writer] ~ Josiah T. Bradford to Elizabeth T. Bradford, 7 July 1864
- (3250) [writer] ~ Josiah T. Bradford to Elizabeth T. Bradford, 11 December 1863
- (3251) [writer] ~ Josiah T. Bradford to Elizabeth T. Bradford, 6 September 1863
- (3252) [writer] ~ Josiah T. Bradford to Elizabeth T. Bradford, 22 March 1863
- (3253) [writer] ~ Josiah T. Bradford to Elizabeth T. Bradford, 18 May 1864
- (3254) [writer] ~ Josiah T. Bradford to James Bradford, 16 May 1864
People - Records: 2
Places - Records: 1
- (533) [birth, death] ~ Missouri
Regiments - Records: 1
- (475) [enlisted] [C] ~ 32nd Missouri Infantry
Groups - Records: 2
SOURCES
1850, 1860, 1870, 1880, 1900, and 1910 United States Federal Censuses, available from Ancestry.com; Civil War Soldier Records and Profiles, 1861-1865, available from Ancestry.com; General Index to Pension Files, 1861-1934, available from Ancestry.com; Missouri Marriage Records, 1805-2002, available from Ancestry.com; Josiah Bradford to Elizabeth Bradford, 11 December 1863, Nau Collection; History of Laclede, Camden, Dallas, Webster, Wright, Texas, Pulaski, Phelps and Dent Counties, Missouri (Chicago, IL: The Goodspeed Publishing Co., 1889); The Sedalia Weekly Bazoo (Sedalia, MO), 7 October 1890; The Houston Herald (Houston, MO), 22 October 1890; Rolla Herald (Rolla, MO), 18 September 1890; Current Wave (Eminence, MO), 2 October 1890; Crawford Mirror (Steelville, MO), 21 July 1892; “Josiah F. Bradford,” Find a Grave profile, available from Findagrave.com.
