Lydia Moss Bradley was a wealthy American philanthropist notable for her philanthropic works in Illinois and the independent management of her wealth. She is also regarded for being a founder of the Bradley Polytechnic Institute in memory of her children.
Background
Lydia Moss Bradley was born on July 31, 1816 in Vevay, Indiana. She was the daughter of Captain Zealy Moss of Loudoun County, Virginia, who served in the Revolutionary army. After the war, Zealy and his wife, Jeanette (Glasscock) of Fauquier County, Virginia, moved to Vevay, Indiana, where Lydia was born.
Her father entered the Baptist ministry, but was also owner of a farm on which everyone worked. It was not very long before Lydia demonstrated that she had her share of sturdy heritage. Still in her teens and slight for her age, she one day traded her saddle-horse for a tract of timber land, which she set out to clear. With some help from her father, this was accomplished, and the girl sold her land at a profit.
Career
After earning a large sum of money after her husband's death, Lydia Bradley became a business woman, though without giving up her practise of making her own butter and salting down her own meat. By economy and good investments but mainly by the development of real estate, at the time of her death she had multiplied her estate fourfold. Her interest in Peoria was expressed in frequent gifts to its institutions.
She relieved one church of a $30, 000 mortgage and contributed handsomely to all the others; she donated a hospital site, built a Home for Aged Women, and presented the city with a park named for her daughter, Laura Bradley. Meanwhile plans for her school went forward.
A representative was sent to investigate other institutions and advice was sought of such men as President Harper of Chicago University and Prof. John Dewey. In 1897 the two buildings of the Bradley Polytechnic Institute were erected on a twenty-acre campus in Peoria at a cost of $250, 000 and with an endowment of $2, 000, 000. Horology Hall contained a school of watchmaking and allied trades which had been started on a small scale in Indiana and brought to Peoria by Mrs. Bradley in 1893.
In the general department, housed in Bradley Hall, four years of academic work and two of college, embracing the usual courses in literature, science, and the arts, were taught. But special emphasis was laid on practical study, and the domestic science course for girls was among the first in the Middle West. According to its charter, the aim of the general department was "to furnish students with the means of living independent, industrious, and useful lives. " Evening classes in vocational subjects, and a summer school in domestic science and manual training, were later added.
Achievements
Bradley became the first female member of a national bank board in the United States when she joined the Board of Directors of the First National Bank of Peoria (now part of Commerce Bank). Bradley was also the first American woman ever to draft a marriage contract (a "prenuptial agreement" in modern terms) to protect her assets.
Bradley gave land to the Society of St. Francis to build a hospital, now known as the OSF St. Francis Medical Center. In 1884, she built the Bradley Home for Aged Women to care for widowed and childless women, and funded the construction of the Universalist church in Peoria. Bradley also helped to establish the first park system in Illinois.
Bradley always considered Bradley University to be her fondest project, which she established to honor her husband Tobias and her six children, who all died at an early age. Originally organized as a four-year academy, Bradley University became a four-year college in 1920 and has continued to grow ever since.
Today the university enjoys the status of a fully accredited, independent institution that provides undergraduate and graduate education in engineering, business, communication, teacher education, nursing, physical therapy, fine arts, and the liberal arts and sciences.
In 1998, Lydia Moss Bradley was inducted posthumously into the National Women's Hall of Fame, joining the nation's most extraordinary women who have made enduring contributions to the arts, athletics, business, education, government, the humanities, philanthropy and science.
Views
Quotations:
She specified in her will that the school should be expanded after her death to include a classical education as well as industrial arts and home economics:
"…it being the first object of this Institution to furnish its students with the means of living an independent, industrious and useful life by the aid of a practical knowledge of the useful arts and sciences. "
Personality
Mrs. Bradley, still slight, almost fragile, in appearance, proceeded at once to increase her fortune to the proportions necessary for her philanthropy.
Quotes from others about the person
The Chicago Times Herald article about Mrs. Bradley at the school’s dedication on October 8, 1897 stated:
"…in the few sentences she uttered were compressed the ideals she had cherished for half a century. She said she hoped the institute would be a real benefit to mankind; that it would be the means of making better men and women; that boys and girls would find in the new institution of learning an incentive to intellectual life was her ardent wish. "
Even in her later years as one of the wealthiest citizens in the Peoria area, business manager W. W. Hammond reported:
"Mrs. Bradley never forgot how to work, and till within a short time of her death still made her own butter, raised her own eggs, salted down her own meat and tried out her own lard. She would not have considered herself a good housekeeper had she not done so. The housewife of those times was expected to stock the larder with meats and fruits, to spin the yarn, make the clothing, bedding and carpets, and to prepare food in plenty for all who chanced to be present when meal time came round. All these things Mrs. Bradley did. "
Connections
Lydia Moss Bradley was married to Tobias S. Bradley of Vevay on May 11, 1837, and moved with him to Peoria, Illinois, where her brother, William S. Moss, lived. Tobias was soon engaged in a number of enterprises including a steamboat line to St. Louis, a ferry boat, a sawmill and a pottery works, and, in partnership with his brother-in-law, a distillery. He purchased a farm, constantly added to it, and bought a considerable interest in the First National Bank of Peoria, later becoming its president. Their six children all died in early youth, and the Bradleys determined to commemorate them by founding an educational institution. But Mr. Bradley died in 1867, leaving an estate of $500, 000.
