USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > History of New Haven County, Connecticut, Volume III > Part 29
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William Bradley was married February 18, 1645, in Spring- field, Massachusetts, to Alice, daughter of Roger Prichard. He became a captain of militia and for several sessions represented New Haven in the legislature. Captain Bradley died in 1691 and his wife passed away in the following year. They were the par- ents of eight children: Joseph, born January 4. 1646; Martha, in October, 1648; Abraham, October 24, 1650; Mary, April 30, 1653; Benjamin, in April, 1657; Esther, September 29, 1659; Nathaniel, February 26, 1660; and Sarah.
Abraham Bradley was married on Christmas day of 1673 to Hannah, daughter of Alexander and Sarah (Brown) Wilmot. For many years he was a justice of the peace and leading citizen of New Haven. His demise occurred in 1758 and his wife died
HENRY M. BRADLEY, SR.
LOUIS H. BRADLEY
HENRY M. BRADLEY, JR.
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in 1776. Their family numbered seven children: Abraham, Jr., born September 29, 1720; Isaac, November 7, 1722; Lydia, May 1, 1725; Israel, March 12, 1727; Sarah, March 12, 1729; Heze- kiah, October 10, 1731; and Alexander, March 16, 1737.
Isaac Bradley was called to his final rest November 21, 1784, at the age of sixty-two years. His first wife was Sarah Mix, to whom he was married May 29, 1750. She passed away and on April 7, 1763, he wedded Lois, daughter of Job and Esther (Dor- man) Bishop and widow of Nehemiah Lewis. Mrs. Lois Brad- ley was born September 13, 1734, and died April 4, 1813. Isaac Bradley was the father of ten children: Israel, born July 9, 1751; Esther, June 24, 1753; Isaac, May 5, 1765; Lewis, Jan- uary 14, 1767; Lois, September 20, 1768; Rebecca, December 16, 1770; Sarah, April 11, 1773; Amos, February 19, 1775; Nehemiah, in 1777; and Hannah, March 18, 1780.
Lewis Bradley, the fourth in order of birth, died December 14, 1854. In 1792 he married Lydia Wooding, who was born August 10, 1772, in Hamden. She was a daughter of Israel and Lydia (Bassett) Wooding, the former one of the victims of the British attack on New Haven. Lewis Bradley also saw service in that engagement. According to his own description, he "was a big boy for his age, and they put a musket in his hands and sent him out to Allingtown with the troops." For many years Mr. Brad- ley lived in Westville under the shadow of West Rock. Tall and portly, florid in complexion, he lived to an advanced age and was one of the last survivors of the defense of New Haven. Mrs. Bradley died in 1819. They had seven children, of whom Claun- cey, born May 21, 1793, was the eldest. He married his cousin, Nancy Miller, became a resident of Seymour, Connecticut, and died in South Carolina in July, 1826, leaving one son, Henry. Isaac, born January 31, 1795, died November 7, 1858. He mar- ried two sisters and by his second wife, Abigail Knowles Hervey, became the father of General Edward E. Bradley and several other children. Anne, born April 1, 1796, became the wife of Professor Amos Eaton of Yale College and passed away December 18, 1826, at Troy, New York. Wealthy, born November 8, 1799, died February 19, 1875, at Westville, Connecticut. Lydia, born January 13, 1803, died September 24, 1881, at Westville. Lewis, the next of the family, was born June 7, 1805. Elias was born June 21, 1807, and passed away December 26, 1845. He was long
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survived by his wife, Maria (Parsons) Bradley, who died in 1900.
Lewis Bradley, Jr., a native of Westville, became a resident of Orange in 1839 and was for a long period a successful farmer and wholesale dealer in meat. In March, 1872, he disposed of his farm of two hundred and twenty-five acres to Messrs. Hal- lowell and Ferry, who built upon it a settlement known as Tyler City. Mr. Bradley was one of the principal movers in the organi- zation of the republican party in Orange and a stanch temperance advocate and speaker. For many years he was a pillar of the Orange Congregational Church and superintendent of its Sunday School. On the 1st of March, 1835, he married Charlotte, daugh- ter of Samuel Miles and Lucretia (Downs) Smith, of Milford. Mrs. Bradley was born in Milford, January 25, 1812, and among her forbears was the Rev. Thomas Hooker, founder of Hartford. Her demise occurred in New Haven, April 19, 1886, while Mr. Bradley passed away in Orange, October 7, 1872.
Their children were as follows: Emily Antoinette, born July 10, 1836, met an accidental death by fire July 8, 1840. Anna Louise, born May 29, 1838, taught school for many years and died in Derby, Connecticut, November 20, 1918. Lewis Smith was first a salesman and later a manufacturer of silk goods. He was born June 3, 1840, and died in Newton, Massachusetts, March 28, 1924. He had married Susan Ward, of New York, and they were the parents of a daughter, Lela, who became the wife of Daniel M. Goodridge, a prominent attorney of Newton; and a son, Mortimer Hamilton, who was made treasurer of the National City Sales Company of New York. Emily Lucretia, born June 24, 1842, died August 24, 1875. Elias Elliott, born November 14, 1844, died in a trolley accident at Stratford, Connecticut, August 6, 1899. He was first selectman, registrar of voters, judge of the town court and chairman of the republican town committee of Milford. He married Ellen Treat, of Orange, and their daughter, Alice, became the wife of Carl B. Heywood, of Milford. Henry Miles, the next of the family, was born November 24, 1846. Otis Beldon, born March 20, 1849, died in Derby, December 3, 1923. He was long a member of the firm of A. N. Allen & Company, butter and egg merchants of New Haven, and later was the senior partner of O. B. Bradley & Company and Bradley & Dillon. He married Nellie, daughter of Nathan C. and Lucy (Alling) Treat, of Derby, and they had two sons: Otis Treat, attorney at law,
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who is associated with Davis, Wardwell & Polk, of New York; and Roger Alling, assistant superintendent of the Driscoll Wire Com- pany. Charles Emerson, a prominent clothing merchant of New Haven, was born August 23, 1851, and died June 30, 1922, in East Hampton, Connecticut. He married Emma Foster and they became the parents of two daughters, Hazel and Emily. Ella Jane was born June 26, 1853, and died November 9, 1855. Frank DeWitt, born July 19, 1855, died May 10, 1859.
Henry Miles Bradley was a native of Orange and attained the age of seventy-six years, passing away November 22, 1922, in Derby. His education was acquired in the public schools of Orange and in Wilbraham Academy. He was first associated with his father in business and from 1871 to 1875 was a passenger conductor on the New Haven & Derby Railroad, resigning to enter business in New Haven. In 1876 he established his home in Derby, where he resided until his death. At first he engaged in the vegetable trucking business. He completed his first green- house in the summer of 1882 and afterward devoted his energies to the florist's business, in which he was notably successful. Of a quiet and home-loving disposition, he did not actively participate in public affairs and joined no fraternal orders, although a life member of the Congregational Home Missionary Society and the American Tract Society. On the 31st of December, 1868, Mr. Bradley was married in Derby to Miss Maggie Crofut, a daugh- ter of David Knapp and Harriet (Treat) Croffut. The latter was a direct descendant of Governor Robert Treat and also of the Rev. Samuel Andrew, the second president of Yale College. Of the eight children of this marriage, four died in infancy. The eldest, Charles Croffut, born November 3, 1869, died December 19, 1878, of appendicitis. The three surviving children are Henry Miles, Jr., Charlotte and Louis Harrison Bradley.
HENRY MILES BRADLEY, JR.
Henry M. Bradley, Jr., is well known to the citizens of Derby, for he has always resided here, doing important work as a busi- ness man, as a historian and as a promoter of religious, educa- tional and cultural interests. A scion of one of the oldest families of Connecticut, he has inherited the fine mental and moral traits
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of a long line of worthy ancestors, adding thereto the rich interest of his own personality. He was born November 24, 1882, on the thirty-sixth birthday of his father, Henry M. Bradley, Sr., while his mother bore the maiden name of Maggie Croffut. Detailed records of both the Bradley and Croffut families appear elsewhere in this volume.
The educational advantages of Henry M. Bradley, Jr., were those afforded by the grammar and high schools of Derby and in 1899, when a young man of seventeen, he joined his father in the florist's business, in which he still continues. He succeeded his father as president and is also treasurer of the firm, which has been in existence for nearly a half century. He is at the head of one of the oldest and largest institutions of the kind in this part of the country and in its control he has never deviated from the high standards set up by his father, while at the same time he has formulated well devised plans for the continued growth and success of the enterprise.
Business, however, constitutes but one phase of Mr. Bradley's life, which has never been self-centered, for throughout his career he has constantly widened his sphere of usefulness. He has long been an active worker in the First Congregational Church, of which he is now clerk. He is also clerk and a trustee of the First Ecclesiastical Society and a former superintendent of the Sunday school, with which he has been identified continuously since Octo- ber, 1886. He was the first president of the Biblos Men's Club and has had forty-two successors, all of whom are living. He is an ex-president of the local Christian Endeavor Society and of the Derby Christian Endeavor Union, and is a life member of the United Society of Christian Endeavor and also of the Builders' Union.
Mr. Bradley is a stanch republican and has been a delegate to practically every state convention of his party for the past twelve years, while in 1914 and 1920 he was its nominee for the Con- necticut legislature. At the present time he is secretary of the republican town committee, chairman of the third ward com- mittee, chairman of the probate district committee and a member of the seventeenth senatorial district committee. Elected to the Derby board of education when twenty-one years of age, he has served thereon for more than a quarter of a century and was one of the special committee that had charge of the erection of the
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Derby high school in 1913. Owing to his deep interest in welfare work he was appointed May 22, 1922, by Judge Webb, now de- ceased, to succeed the late T. S. Ellis as one of the probation officers of the superior court, and in July, 1925, was made proba- tion officer of the city and juvenile courts of Derby. He is also counselor of the Shemmah Boys Club.
Mr. Bradley is president of the local Rotary Club and an active member of the Derby and Shelton Board of Trade. His interest in agricultural matters led him to become a charter mem- ber of Shelton Grange, No. 186, Patrons of Husbandry, of which he is senior past master, and he also has membership in Pomona Grange, No. 9, of Fairfield county, the Connecticut State Grange and the National Grange. He has filled high offices in the Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows, being a trustee and past grand of Ousatonic Lodge, No. 6, into which he was initiated October 4, 1909, and is treasurer and past chief patriarch of Excelsior En- campment, No. 18. He belongs to Ellswood Rebekah Lodge, No. 9, of Ansonia; is a charter member and former officer of Canton Shelton, No. 5, Patriarchs Militant; a member of the committee on the state of the order of the Grand Lodge of Connecticut; grand sentinel of the Grand Encampment; and an incorporator of the Odd Fellows' Home at Groton. His Masonic affiliations are with Hiram Lodge, No. 12, F. & A. M .; King Solomon Chap- ter, No. 3, R. A. M .; and Union Council, No. 27, R. & S. M., of Ansonia, while he is also a member of the Masonic Club of New Haven. In the affairs of the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks he figures prominently as esteemed leading knight of Derby Lodge, No. 571, and as chairman of its committee on social and community welfare. He is also identified with the Knights of Pythias, belonging to Valley Lodge, No. 14.
Mr. Bradley is secretary and a trustee of the Colonial Ceme- tery; secretary and treasurer of the Humphreys Home Associa- tion ; a member of the New Haven Colony Historical Society; the Connecticut Historical Society; the Connecticut Society of the Sons of the American Revolution and General David Humphreys Chapter of the organization in New Haven, while of the Ameri- can Philatelic Society he is a life member. For a considerable period he has been well known as a writer and public speaker, choosing historical subjects as his theme, and has written or edited "A Brief History of Old Derby," "A Short History of
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Shelton," "New London County's Part in Connecticut History," "The Colonial Cemetery from 1679 to 1929," "Historical Record of the First Congregational Church" and short biographies of General David Humphreys and General Joseph Wheeler. Through research and study he has become exceptionally well informed on the history of Connecticut-a subject upon which he is quali- fied to speak and write with authority. Mr. Bradley has traveled extensively, visiting practically every state and territory of the Union as well as many foreign lands, and is now making a tour of Australia and the orient. A cultured gentleman of keen intellect and broad sympathies, he is a brilliant conversationalist and a most interesting and desirable companion. His activities have touched life at many points and in every instance his labors have been effective, far-reaching and beneficial.
LOUIS HARRISON BRADLEY
As a member of an old and well known firm of florists Louis H. Bradley is closely identified with business interests of Derby, his native city, and he also figures prominently in community affairs, manifesting that spirit of loyalty and devotion to the general good which has ever characterized the representatives of this honored pioneer family. He was born April 11, 1889, and is the younger of the two surviving sons of Henry Miles and Maggie (Croffut) Bradley. After his graduation from the Derby high school with the class of 1908 he joined his father and brother in the florist's business, which has constituted his life work, and for many years has been general manager. The sons have suc- cessfully carried forward the enterprise founded by the father, closely adhering to his policy of honest, straightforward dealing, and keeping not only abreast but ahead of their competitors. Their patronage is drawn from a wide area and they have long been recognized as the leading florists of Derby.
Louis H. Bradley was married August 3, 1914, to Miss Laura Hegeman Gates, a daughter of Robert Owen and Letitia Fletcher (Hegeman) Gates, of Derby, and a descendant of Governors Eaton, Talcott, Dudley, Leete and Welles, who figured promi- nently in colonial affairs. Mrs. Bradley passed away November 27, 1920, leaving two children: Louis Harrison, Jr., who was
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born June 28, 1915; and Laura Hegeman. On the 24th of Octo- ber, 1923, Mr. Bradley was married to Miss Katherine Martyn, the eldest daughter of Frederick Sanford Martyn, a prominent attorney of Brooklyn, New York, and Helen Elizabeth (Sawyer) Martyn, while her grandfather was the late Rev. Sanford S. Martyn, pastor of the First Congregational Church in Derby. The three children of this marriage are: Henry Miles (III), born January 31, 1925; Robert Treat, August 30, 1926; and Helen Elizabeth, October 6, 1927.
Mr. Bradley is a veteran of the World war. He enlisted in the United States Army at New Haven, December 7, 1917, and was honorably discharged at Camp Dix, New Jersey, January 8, 1919. He is a past commander of John H. Collins Post of the American Legion, a member of Chateau Thierry Post of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, and was chairman of the citizens' committee that purchased the Veterans' Memorial Home on At- water avenue, Derby, in 1926.
In religious work Mr. Bradley is active as a deacon and mem- ber of the society's committee of the First Congregational Church and as a director of the Christian Endeavor Union of Connecticut, while formerly he was president of the Derby branch of that organization. Along fraternal lines he has connection with the Derby Lodge of Elks and is a former district deputy of the Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows. He is an active member of the Lions Club of Ansonia, president of the Derby and Shelton Board of Trade, vice president and a director of the Personal Finance Company of Ansonia, and his name also appears on the director- ate of the Derby Business Men's Association. Mr. Bradley is always ready to serve his community when needed and since 1922 he has been a very useful member of the board of apportionment and taxation of the city of Derby.
THE CROFFUT FAMILY
The Croffut, Crofutt or Crofut family is of Welsh extraction. Joseph Crowfoot is mentioned in the records of Springfield, Mas- sachusetts, in 1658. He was made a freeman in 1672 and died April 8, 1678. On April 15, 1658, he had married Mary, daugh- ter of John Hillier or Hilliard, of Windsor, Connecticut, and their
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eight children were all natives of Northampton, Massachusetts. Their family comprised seven sons and a daughter, namely : Joseph, Jr., who was born April 29, 1660, and settled in Wethers- field, Connecticut; Mary, who was born October 4, 1661, and became the wife of Isaac Harmer, of Northfield, Connecticut; John, who was born August 2, 1663, and lived in Northampton ; Samuel, who was born October 13, 1665, and removed to Hadley, Massachusetts; James, born January 23, 1667; Daniel, born Jan- uary 23, 1669; Matthew, who was born April 5, 1672, and estab- lished his home in New Hampshire; and David, who was born October 11, 1674, and settled first in Norwalk, whence he later removed to Bethel, subsequently becoming a resident of Redding, Connecticut.
James Crofut (sometimes spelled "Crofoot" in the records) was born in Northampton in 1667 and died in the Bethel district of Danbury in 1724, leaving property in Danbury and Norwalk to his three sons, James, Joseph and Matthew, and five daughters, Hannah, Mary, Elizabeth, Sarah and Lydia.
Josiah Crofut married Sarah, daughter of Captain John and Rachel (Starr) Benedict, and had eight children: John; James; Samuel; Daniel; Sarah, the wife of Abner Taylor; Rachel, who married Ebenezer Taylor; Hannah, who became Mrs. Eli Hol- comb; and Mary, the wife of John Wildman. Josiah Crofut died October 31, 1763, while his wife survived until 1787.
Samuel Crofut was born in 1734 and died in 1831. His first wife was Sarah Seelye, to whom he was married May 28, 1767. She was a daughter of Dea James and Hannah Seelye, of Bethel. Dea Seelye was a lieutenant of militia in the Revolutionary war, commanding the Bethel Company, and Samuel Crofut also fought for American independence, serving from May until December, 1777. There were five children in the family of Samuel and Sarah Crofut: Seelye, born March 13, 1768; Samuel, Jr., Decem- ber 4, 1770; Chloe, April 7, 1773; Eunice, August 22, 1775; and Eri, in 1778. The mother of these children died September 28, 1780, when thirty-eight years of age. Subsequently Samuel Cro- fut married Abigail Seelye, of Fairfield, who passed away in 1806. He married a third wife, Lucy Jane (Davern) Patchen, a sister-in-law of his son Eri, when past seventy years of age and . became the father of four more children, Moses, Aaron, Mabel and Lydia, living long enough to see his grandchildren of this
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marriage. In politics Samuel Crofut was a stanch democrat of the Jeffersonian type.
Eri Crofut, born March 28, 1778, in Bethel, died at Derby, September 10, 1857. He was a comb maker by trade but became the proprietor of a store at Redding, and in 1849 moved to the Commodore Hull house at Shelton Landing, in the town of Hunt- ington, where his brother Samuel was then located. Eri Crofut was married November 29, 1798, to Betsy Davern, who was a daughter of John and Lois (Knapp) Davern, of Redding, and died December 16, 1854, in her eightieth year. Their children were: Lois, who was born July 31, 1799, and died in Derby, November 20, 1890; Polina, who was born March 17, 1801, and became the wife of Hiram Ambler; Benedict, born in September, 1802; Minerva, who was born July 4, 1807, and married Matthew Fairchild, her death occurring in Bethel, March 25, 1897; Lucy Ann, who became the wife of Grandison Glover, of Sandy Hook, and died in New York; David Knapp, born April 6, 1811; and Betsy Fidelia, who was born June 24, 1814, married Benjamin Hayes, of Redding, and died in Shelton, February 5, 1851. All were born in the Wild Cat district of Bethel.
Benedict Crofut, who became a farmer of Orange, married Harriet Hull, of Danbury, and was ninety years of age at the time of his death, which occurred in Danbury in March, 1892. They had the following children: Pauline, the wife of Garry Nettleton; Frederick; William Augustus; Fidelia Betsey, who became the wife of George T. Hine and the mother of Walter S. Hine, of Orange; Elizabeth, who married Dwight E. Rogers; Emma, the wife of Edgar Thomas; and Charles Benedict.
William Augustus Croffut, born in Redding, January 29, 1835, became a school teacher in Derby, a reporter on the Derby Journal and editor of its successor, the Valley Messenger. Later he was widely known as a war correspondent, editor, traveler, poet and author. He was executive officer of the United States Geological Survey under Presidents Harrison and Cleveland, and from Union College he received the honorary degree of Doctor of Philosophy. The demise of William A. Croffut occurred at Wash- ington, D. C., in 1916. He first married Margaret Marshall. His second wife, Bessie Ballard Nichols, survives him.
David Knapp Croffut learned his father's trade of comb
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maker. With his uncle, Aaron Crofut, and brother, Benedict Crofut, he went to Canada about 1832, remaining there for sev- eral years. With his return to this country in 1840 he became a - marketman in New York and in the following year established the Fairfield County House at 31 Bowery, then a prosperous dis- trict. In 1845 he purchased the hotel business in Birmingham (Derby), also the grist mill of Fitch Smith and a grocery store, moving from New York to Derby in 1847. In 1853 he disposed of his business and became buyer for the Birmingham Iron Foun- dry and business manager of the Valley Messenger. In the spring of 1855 he purchased the John Morris place in East Derby, where he resided until his death on the 17th of January, 1899, engaging in the seed-growing business for many years. On September 29, 1841, he was married in Orange to Harriet Treat, a daughter of Isaac and Martha Maria (Platt) Treat and a descendant of Gov- ernor Robert Treat. Mrs. Croffut died November 19, 1896, when in her seventy-fifth year. Mr. Croffut was a member of the Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows, a communicant of St. James Episcopal Church and gave his political support to the republican party. He had three children: Aquila Knapp, who was born in July, 1842, and lived but seven months; Louise Maria, who was born August 1, 1846, became the wife of Elbee J. Treat, of Orange, and died in 1902; and Margaretta Fidelia, who was born December 31, 1850, and married Henry Miles Bradley.
Samuel Crofut, Jr., uncle of David Knapp Croffut, was mar- ried February 17, 1791, to Susanna Somers and they had thirteen children : Bennett, born September 15, 1791; Chloe, October 27, 1792; Eunice, May 11, 1794; Bennett (II), December 11, 1795; Hiram, July 3, 1797 ; Somers, December 28, 1798; Rufus, May 18, 1800; Lucy, November 26, 1801; Phoebe, August 19, 1803; Anna, August 4, 1807; Madison, September 25, 1809; and Samuel (III) and Susanna, twins, February 29, 1812. This family moved to Shelton, then Huntington, where Samuel Crofut lived a long and eventful life on the banks of the Housatonic. Among his living descendants still residing in this locality are Frank V. Crofut, Leroy E. Moulthrop, Mrs. George S. Willis, Mrs. Ebenezer Ritchie, Mrs. F. S. Sanford, Mrs. Louis W. Booth, of Shelton, ex-Senator Frederick M. Drew, of Ansonia, and Judge Harold E. Drew, of Orange.
William S. Crofutt, for many years proprietor of the Bassett
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House in Derby and son of Philo Sherman Crofutt, also of Derby, was a grandson of Moses Crofut, half-brother of Eri and Samuel Crofut.
SAMUEL H. ROSENTHAL
Samuel H. Rosenthal, attorney at law, practicing at the New Haven bar, was born in this city, October 29, 1900, a son of Max and Anna (Marcus) Rosenthal, the former a native of Germany, while the latter was born in Poland. The father came to America about 1892. He had previously gone from Germany to South Africa, where he had a brother living, and from that section of the world he made his way to the United States, settling in Al- toona, Pennsylvania, where he resided for a few years. He then came to New Haven, where he was married, and here he engaged in business as an itinerant merchant, buying and selling. His death occurred in 1907.
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