Local History

A Year of Tribute to Col. Thomas W. Bradley

By Mary Ellen Matise
Posted 1/29/20

At the annual Youth Service Award Ceremony on January 20, 2020, the Walden Woman’s Club initiated a Year of Tribute to Col. Thomas W. Bradley commemorating the 100th Anniversary of his death on …

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Local History

A Year of Tribute to Col. Thomas W. Bradley

Posted

At the annual Youth Service Award Ceremony on January 20, 2020, the Walden Woman’s Club initiated a Year of Tribute to Col. Thomas W. Bradley commemorating the 100th Anniversary of his death on May 30, 1920. Programs throughout the year will feature events in the life of this extraordinary man. An invitation is extended to all Village organizations to join us, just as all Walden residents respected and honored Bradley during his life. Let us make this a year that celebrates the memory of Thomas Wilson Bradley 1844-1920.

Thomas W. Bradley, the Immigrant
Thomas Wilson arrived in New York on the 20th of February 1849 aboard the ship Fidelia with his mother Mary Wilson and the James Roberts family from Sheffield, England. Young Tom was about to celebrate his 5th birthday on April 6th of that year.

The Roberts family and Mary Wilson soon found work in the shops of America’s early knife industry in Waterbury, Ct. They lived together in a rented house and became friends and associates of other Sheffielders who had also emigrated to the States. It was during this time that Mary met Thomas James Bradley, a cutler and a widower who she married in April 1850. With her marriage, both she and her son took the Bradley name. Soon labor issues at the Waterville Manufacturing Company caused discontent amongst the cutlers, and in 1852 a group of 16 families left Connecticut for New York where they would start the New York Knife Company in Matteawan, NY (now Beacon).

Thomas W. Bradley, the Businessman

In 1856, the New York Knife Co., a cooperative company owned by the cutlers who worked there, moved to Walden, NY due to lack of waterpower on the Fishkill Creek. By 1860 at the age of 16, Thomas Bradley was working as a cutler in the knife shop on the Wallkill. Young Bradley learned the trade from the bottom up as was common among the English immigrants at the time.

In 1865 he returned home from serving in the Civil War and continued to work in the factory assuming the Presidency upon the death of his father in 1880. He expanded the business until it became one of the leading pocketknife companies in the United States. In 1903 he sold the company to the Fuller Brothers who continued the business until 1931 when it closed. Bradley was President of the Walden National Bank, and an officer of Walden Savings Bank.

Thomas W. Bradley, the Soldier
On the 14th of August 1862, at the age of 18, Thomas W. Bradley enlisted in the Union Army as a private in the 124th Regiment NY Volunteer Infantry known as the “Orange Blossoms.” He rose through the ranks to full Captain. Bradley was wounded three times and was a recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor “for gallantry at Chancellorsville.” He was aide-de-camp to Major General Gershom Mott, Third Division, Second Army Corps and was brevetted Major US Volunteers “for meritorious service.” In 1876 he served in the NY National Guard. It was at this time that he received the title, Lieut. Colonel.

Bradley never waivered in a life long commitment to honoring the memory of the young men who fought with him. He was a member of the William L. Fairchild Post #564 of the G.A.R. and he later served on the NY Monuments Commission for the Battlefields of Gettysburg and Chattanooga. He commissioned the statue, “The Volunteer” in the Wallkill Valley Cemetery and “The Standard Bearer” in Goshen, NY.

Thomas W. Bradley, the Politician
Bradley served one term in the NYS Assembly in 1876. He embarked on a political career as a delegate to the Republican National Conventions in 1892, 1896 and 1900. It was during this period that he supported William McKinley, having previously testified before the House Ways and Means Committee that McKinley chaired seeking tariff protection for the domestic pocketknife industry. After the sale of the New York Knife Co. Bradley was elected to the US House of Representatives from the 20th District (Rockland, Orange and Sullivan counties) from 1903 to 1913 serving in the 58th through 62nd Congresses. As a member of the Invalid Pension Committee and the Committee on Military Affairs he continued to address the needs of veterans.

Thomas W. Bradley, the Benefactor
Bradley repaid his adopted country in many ways. He was generous to individuals and to the Village of Walden. He financed the Rock Hill Hose Company, the Walden Municipal Building and the Josephine-Louise Public Library. In his will Bradley bequeathed over 40 acres of parkland to the Village and the monument of President William McKinley which is situated in a prominent location on Main Street. The Walden Post Office, a federal building, was erected after his death in 1925 having been procured for the village while Bradley was Congressman. He was a trustee of the Wallkill Valley Cemetery, where he is buried.