Bradford, John S.

Born: 1815-06-09 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Died: 1892-01-29 Springfield, Illinois

Flourished: 1840 to 1865 Springfield, Illinois

John S. Bradford was a bookbinder and seller, civil engineer, army officer, and city government official. Bradford learned the bookbinding trade in his native Philadelphia and then traveled through Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Dayton, and Richmond, Indiana, practicing his craft. In Indiana, in 1837, he joined the United States engineers who were building the National Road. He emigrated to Springfield, Illinois, in December 1840 and by the spring of 1841, Bradford had bought interest in a book bindery which became Johnson and Bradford. In addition to books, Bradford also had a career in the military. He was a lieutenant in the Springfield Cadets and a quartermaster for the U.S. Army during the Mexican-American War. In 1849, Bradford made his way to California and was elected to represent several districts as the government formed for the new state. He returned to Springfield in 1851 and in 1857 served as superintendent of public instruction, as one of the commissioners to divide Sangamon County into townships, and as Springfield treasurer, alderman, and mayor. At the outbreak of the American Civil War, Bradford was commissioned as a Union commissary with the rank of lieutenant-colonel.

Bradford married Adaline M. Semple in July 1841 in Meade County, Kentucky. The couple had seven children.

Illinois Statewide Death Index, Pre-1916, Sangamon County, 29 January 1892, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; Kentucky, U.S., County Marriage Records, 1783-1965, 15 July 1841, Meade County (Lehi, UT: Ancestry.com Operations, 2016); John Carroll Power and S. A. Power, History of the Early Settlers of Sangamon County, Illinois (Springfield, IL: Edwin A. Wilson, 1876), 130-31; Gravestone, Oak Ridge Cemetery, Springfield, IL.