Sacramento County
Biographies
GEORGE BRUCE BRADFORD
GEORGE
BRUCE BRADFORD.--Born in Sacramento County on the old Bradford ranch near
Bruceville, April 5, 1875, George Bruce Bradford is the son of the late James
Bascom and Sarah G. (Kilbourne) Bradford, the former a California pioneer who
came to the state in 1850 during the gold-rush and mined in Eldorado, Placer
and Shasta Counties before his first location in Sacramento County, in
1851. In 1852 he settled for a time at
Diamond Spring, Eldorado County,
and in partnership with a brother, William Barton Bradford, under the firm name
and style of J. B. & W. B. Bradford, engaged in the general merchandise
business at Diamond Spring. Expanding
their business, they also started other stores in different places in California
and Nevada, with branches in the
near-by gold-mining camps, and did a very thriving business until 1859.
J.
B. and W. B. Bradford were twin brothers.
They were born in Daviess County, Ind.,
February 10, 1826, being sons of George and Mary F. (Bruce) Bradford. As boys and young men they clerked in their
father’s general store at Washington, Ind.,
where they grew up, and where they learned the business of store-keeping from
their father, George Bradford, who was a very successful business man and a
prominent citizen. Thus equipped, J. B.
and W. B. Bradford prospered, and invested their profits in gold mines, in
which they met with ups and downs and shared the typical gold miner’s luck one
day near-millionaires—the next, flat broke.
They acquired and lost several gold-mining properties. As owners of the celebrated “Last Chance”
gold mine they refused an offer of almost a million, only to find themselves
financially embarrassed three months thereafter, when J. B. Bradford made his
way back to Sacramento afoot,
because he did not have the price of a stage-coach ticket. That was in 1859. The partnership was then dissolved. After his bitter experience in gold mining,
J. B. Bradford decided thenceforth to engage in a less hazardous business. In 1860, therefore, he took up a government
claim of 160 acres, near Bruceville, in Sacramento
County, about twenty miles south of the city of Sacramento. From a very humble beginning as a general
farmer, he became one of the largest and most widely known viticulturists in Sacramento
County. In 1897 he took in his two sons, Perley K.
and George B. Bradford, as partners; and the firm operated under the name of J.
B. Bradford & Sons until his death, which occurred in 1907 at the age of
eighty-one years. The business was then
taken up and carried on by the two sons, Perley K. and George B. Bradford, who
have ever worked together in perfect harmony, with rare intelligence and a
hearty good-will, and like that other Californian native son, William Randolph
Hearst, have more than tripled their father’s wealth. They are now largely interested in
horticultural, agricultural, and stock-raising enterprises. After their father’s death, the two Bradford
brothers continued to enlarge and improve the winery upon the place. They put in a spur track and switch from the
main line of the Western Pacific at a cost of $16,000, which was shared half
and half by said railroad company and the Bradfords. Upon the adoption of the Eighteenth Amendment
they turned their attention to cattle-raising and feeding, bean-growing, and
general farming, meanwhile keeping up their interest in grape-culture. They maintain in a state of maximum
productivity the 140-acre home vineyard, the first fifteen acres of which was set
out in 1866 by their father, who was the pioneer vineyardist
in the Elk Grove vicinity. Together they
own thousands of acres in Sacramento
and other counties, while they hold other thousands of acres under lease, and
keep from 2,000 to 3,000 head of cattle.
Among the other valuable properties owned by them is the celebrated
Brewster Ranch of 840 acres on the lower Cosumnes River, four miles west of
Galt, splendid river-bottom land, which George B. Bradford is now engaged in
leveling preparatory to seeding it to alfalfa, and making of it a
cattle-feeding farm, where their cattle from the mountain ranges will be
properly fattened for the market. In the
month of July, 1922, The J. B. Bradford Properties, Incorporated, was duly
organized and incorporated under the laws of the State of California,
with Perley K. Bradford as its president and George B. Bradford as its vice-president
and treasurer. Its holdings aggregate
$750,000, against which there is a bonded indebtedness of $200,000.
Both
of Mr. Bradford’s parents have passed on.
James Bascom Bradford, the father, was a direct descendant of Gov.
William Bradford of Plymouth Colony. An
extended history of his life, with portraits of him and his excellent wife and
helpmate, appears elsewhere in this history.
Their good names will ever occupy prominent places in the annals of Sacramento
County.
The
marriage of George Bruce Bradford, which occurred May 7, 1905, at Fresno,
united him with Birdie Ruby Lenz, born in San Jose, a
daughter of Bernhardt and Rebecca Lenz, both natives of Germany. Her father came to California in early days,
and for years conducted a barber shop in San Jose; he is now living retired in
that city, with his wife. Mrs. Bradford
is the youngest in a family of three children.
She was educated in the San Jose
grammar and high schools, finishing with a course at the state normal school in
her home city; and she taught school before her marriage. Two children have blessed the union of Mr.
and Mrs. Bradford: George Bruce, Jr. and
Betty Virginia. Like his father before
him, Mr. Bradford is a member of Elk Grove Lodge No. 173, of the Masons, and is
past master of the order. Both he and
his wife are members of Eastern Star Lodge No. 109, of Elk Grove; and Mrs.
Bradford is past worthy matron in that order.
They are representative Californians, descendants of pioneers, whose
work they are worthily carrying on. In
1914 the post-office was moved from Bruceville to the Bradford Ranch, and Mr.
Bradford was postmaster from that time until the rural-carrier route was
established. Aggressively progressive,
and a willing, intelligent and tireless worker, gifted with good judgment and
exceptional executive ability, George Bruce Bradford worthily maintains the
traditions of the Bradford family, and in this he is
loyally supported by his excellent wife and able children. Comfortably domiciled on the old Bradford
home place, he reflects great credit upon his family and ancestral locality.
Transcribed
by Barbara Gaffney.
Source: Reed, G. Walter, History of Sacramento County, California With Biographical Sketches,
Pages 345-346. Historic Record Company, Los
Angeles, CA. 1923.
© 2007 Barbara Gaffney.