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DANIEL J. BRADLEY. A large proportion of those who have become successful in the mercantile field in Franklin county are men who have been brought up in farming communities, reared to agricultural pursuits, and left the peaceful vocation of tilling the soil for the busy vicissitudes of trade when they have felt that by thus acting they could enlarge the scope of their activities and profit accordingly. Many of these have chosen as their field the villages and cities adjacent to agricultural centers, knowing that their early experience would stand them in good stead in choosing the goods most acceptable to their trade, and no exception to this rule is found in the case of Daniel J. Bradley, a prominent business citizen of Elkville, whose career furnishes an excellent example of successful farmer turned more successful merchant.
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He was born January 12, 1865, at Tamaroa, Illinois, and is a son of Michael and Ellen (Linnehan) Bradley, natives of Ireland.
Michael Bradley was born in 1820, and in his native country received educational training that fitted him for a school teacher, an occupation which he followed until coming to the United States in 1848. He located at Tamaroa, and during the rest of his active career followed agricultural pursuits, although on various occasions he engaged in the work with which he had first identified himself. He was an active adherent of Democratic principles, and a faithful member of the Catholic church, in the firm belief of which he died in 1909. In 1850 he was married to Miss Ellen Linnehan, and they had a family of nine children, Daniel J. being the next to the youngest. Mrs. Bradley is still living and makes her home at Elkville.
Daniel J. Bradley spent his early life much the same as other farmers' sons, attending public school when he could be spared from the duties of the home place, and being taught every detail that would enable him to successfully follow an agricultural career. However, the youth had an ambition to enter merchandising, and at the age of twenty-three years secured a position as a clerk in a general store. During the years that followed he applied himself assiduously to acquiring a capital with which to establish himself in business as a merchant, and in 1903 embarked as the proprietor of a general store at Elkville. His subsequent success has been such as to place him among the substantial men of his community, and his reputation is that of a man of sterling business integrity and one who has aided in developing the interests of his adopted village while advancing the scope of his own affairs. From a small beginning he has built up a trade that covers the territory for a number of miles surrounding Elkville, and he now has a stock of ten thousand dollars, the largest in this part of the county. In political matters, like his father, he is a Democrat, and the confidence and esteem in which he is universally held by his fellow-townsmen has been made manifest by his election to the office of township treasurer. He is a member of the Red Men and keeper of the wampum in the local lodge, and also holds membership in the Catholic Knights of Columbus.
In 1896 Mr. Bradley was married to Miss Ellen Redden, of Johnson county, daughter of Patrick Redden, a railroad man: Two children have been born to them: J. Paul and R. Welden. The family is connected with the Catholic church.