Sacramento County
Biographies
MRS. MARY BELLE BRADFORD
Mary
Belle Bradford is the wife of Perley K. Bradford, of Bruceville, Sacramento
County, and a daughter of Hiram T. and Mary Ann
(Miller) Wood, pioneers of Sacramento
County, biographical mention of
whom appears elsewhere in this work. Her
father was born in Missouri, and when a child of only
two years, in 1852, crossed the plains with his parents, who at first settled
in Oregon, before coming on to California. Her mother, Mary Ann Miller, was born on
April 12, 1863, at Fairfield, Solano
County, Cal.,
and was married to Mr. Wood at Knight’s Landing on November 10, 1881.
In 1890,
Mr. and Mrs. Hiram T. Wood came to Sacramento
County, and since 1901 they have
resided upon their ranch in the Colony school district, where they now own one
of the finest forty-acre vineyards in the valley. They are numbered among the highly honored
residents of Sacramento County, and are the parents of five children: Mary Belle, of this review; Myrtle Elizabeth,
the wife of Clarence Martin, a machinist on the Bradford Ranch; Kathryn
Rebecca, wife of Walter Martin, prominent rancher near Bruceville; William
Thomas, a well-to-do rancher at Susanville; and his twin sister, Rilla May, the
wife of R. P. Clark, expert accountant for the Westwood Lumber Company,
residing at Westwood, Cal.
Mrs. Mary
Belle Bradford belongs to the second generation of California’s
native daughters. Her maternal
grandmother, Elizabeth (Barker) Miller, was born in Missouri,
and was a pioneer of 1852, having crossed the plains in that year. She lived to see the ripe old age of ninety
years, passing away in 1922. The
maternal grandfather, Thomas Miller, was born in Pennsylvania,
and also crossed the plains in 1852, and became a rancher at Fairfield. Mrs. Bradford was born near Dixon,
Solano County,
but grew up in Sacramento County
and attended the grammar and high schools at Elk Grove. She was married at the age of eighteen.
Always a
prime favorite socially, Mrs. Bradford has been a member of the Native
Daughters of the Golden West, for the past eighteen years, first joining the La
Bandera Parlor of that order in the City of Sacramento, from which she demitted
in order to become a charter member of Liberty parlor at Elk Grove, in which
she served as its first president. At
the June session, 1923, of the Grand Parlor held at Stockton,
she was elected to the exalted position of Grand Trustee, an office which she
is in every way qualified to hold, and which she is now filling with credit and
to the satisfaction of all. With her
husband she takes an active interest in Masonry. She belongs to the Elk Grove Chapter of the
Eastern Star, in which she enjoys the distinction of having been twice past
matron. She is likewise deeply
interested in all matters pertaining to good government and is well informed in
regard to the leading political affairs of her home precinct, and in matters
affecting the interests of the county, state and nation. Notwithstanding all her social and political
functioning, however, her home continues to be the center of her dearest
affections. As the mother of three
interesting children—Muriel Alice, James Hiram, and John Thomas—and as the wife
of Perley K. Bradford, she finds her greatest delight in presiding over the
Bradford household, and is well and ably keeping up its traditional
hospitality.
Transcribed
by Barbara Gaffney.
Source: Reed, G. Walter, History of Sacramento County, California With Biographical Sketches,
Pages 357-358. Historic Record Company, Los
Angeles, CA. 1923.
© 2007 Barbara Gaffney.