My Genealogy Hound

BRADLEY, DANIEL (deceased) was one of the early settlers of Adams county. He was a native of Connecticut; having been born in the town of East Haven, in that State in the year 1810. He came to Illinois with his father’s family, and in company with Col. John B. Chittenden and family, in the year 1831, located in what is now Mendon township, and purchased in the spring of 1832, the farm now occupied by Peter Wible, and made it his home until the spring of 1853, when he removed to the village of Mendon, where, with the exception of one year, he continued to reside the remainder of his life, being most of the time engaged in mercantile pursuits. In the spring of 1866 he purchased an interest in the flouring mill located in Mendon, then, and now known as the “Pearl Mills,” and was the principal owner of the same at the time of his death, which occurred in the early part of 1867. During the fourth year of his residence in this State, 1834, Mr. Bradley married Josephine B. Brown, of New York, a niece of Jeremiah Rose, and Rufus Brown, both of whom were among the earliest settlers of Quincy. Mr. and Mrs. Bradley had seven children. Mrs. Bradley and four of the children are still living. In the year 1834, Mr. Bradley made a profession of religion, and united with the Congregational church of Mendon, of which he was ever afterward a faithful and consistent member, striving to live eminently a practical, as well as a professed Christian life. Politically, Mr. Bradley in early life acted with the Whig party; in later years with the old Free Soil party, and finally, upon the general disruption of old parties, he took an active part in the organization of the Republican party in Adams county, of which party he remained a leading member as long as he lived. He was a man of strict integrity, honorable in all his transactions, acting always from principle rather than policy; generously benevolent and public-spirited, he was always ready to encourage, and assist any enterprise calculated to result in good or to advance the true interests of the community in which he lived. These qualities, in which he excelled, were characteristic of the early settlers of Mendon, and have left their impress, never to be obliterated. Their results are to be seen today in the enterprise of its citizens; its moral sentiment; the liberal support given to its various churches; its public schools, and the almost universal respect shown for law and order.