John Smith Bradley (February 15, 1867 – January 31, 1908)

John Smith Bradley was born on February 15, 1867, in Randolph County, Missouri. His father, Thomas Minter Bradley, served in the Confederate army during the Civil War and married his mother, Sarah Elizabeth Lewis, shortly after the war ended. John was the eldest of nine Bradley children.

Traditionally, the Bradleys were farmers. John was an exception. By attending a country school in Clark, Missouri, and by learning on his own, John Bradley became a teacher. Starting in 1888, he taught in several rural schools over the next twenty years. His salary was never more than forty dollars a month. During school breaks, John Bradley earned much-needed income by working for local farmers.

Omar Bradley described his father as a combination farmer, sportsman, intellectual, and frontiersman. John Bradley was physically strong and was reported to be the best shot in the county. He taught Omar how to hunt and shoot. Baseball was one of his favorite pastimes. Known to carve his own bats, John Bradley taught himself to throw a curve ball and organized local leagues.

John Bradley married Sarah Elizabeth Hubbard on May 12, 1892. “Bessie” lived with her family on a forty-acre farm near Clark, Missouri. She had been one of John Bradley's students and was sixteen when they married. Exactly nine months later, Omar Nelson Bradley was born. Bradley became a father a second time in 1900, but his infant son Raymond Calvert died of scarlet fever in 1902.

Too poor to afford a horse and buggy, John Bradley walked to work. During the winter of 1907-08, while teaching at a school six miles away, he developed a case of pneumonia. He died in his bed on January 31, 1908. John Smith Bradley was a few days short of his forty-first birthday.

Unless otherwise noted, © The State Historical Society of Missouri