Bio: Bradford, Charles M. (History - 1850)

Poster: Janet Schwarze

----Surnames: BRADFORD SWEETING EASTMAN AMES

----Source: 1891 Bio. Hist. Of Clark Jackson Co., Wisconsin, pg. 312-313

CHARLES M. BRADFORD, one of the substantial farmers of Sherman Township, was born in Plymouth, Sheboygan County, Wisconsin, October 22, 1850. His parents, Ira A. and Sarah G. (Sweeting) Bradford, were natives of Vermont and New York respectively. They were married in Syracuse, New York, but in 1846 emigrated to Sheboygan County, Wisconsin, and settled in Plymouth, where they have resided since that time. Ira A. Bradford has been a farmer all his life. He was at one time Supervisor of Sheboygan County, and has been chairman of his Town Board. He has been fortunate in his business, and has accumulated a competence. He and his wife reared a family of eight children: Helen, George W., De Witt M., Charles M., Frank I., Celia, Morton E. and William N.

Charles M. Bradford grew to manhood amidst the pursuits of agricultural life, and obtained his education in the common schools. He remained under the paternal rule until he was eighteen years of age, and then started out in life for himself. As the tide of emigration was still westward, he drifted with it, and landed in Clark County, Wisconsin, where he remained one year employed in the pineries. He then went back to Sheboygan County, and followed farming during the summer, and in the winter time taught school, until the year 1875, when he returned to Clark County. He bought eighty acres of land where he now lives it was then heavily timbered. He has added to his first purchase forty acres, and has through his own persevering efforts reduced sixty-five acres to a state of cultivation. In the winter season he devoted some time to logging in earlier days, but now gives his whole attention to the improvement of his farm.
In politics he is allied with the Republican party. He has been chairman of the Town Board for three years, proving always worthy of the trust reposed in him.

In the year 1871, October 29, Mr. Bradford was married to Miss Stella C. Eastman, of Sheboygan County, Wisconsin. Mrs. Bradford was born in Jefferson County, New York, October 4, 1851, and is a daughter of Frederick L. and Ursula (Ames) Eastman, natives of the Empire State. The parents emigrated to Sheboygan County, Wisconsin, in 1854, where the mother passed the remainder of her days the father still survives.

Mr. and Mrs. Bradford are the parents of four children: Ira L., William, Maud E. and Charles E.