FOOTPRINTS: THOMAS BRADFORD Part One

After the land donated to the county by Peter VanSlyke was selected as the new county seat, replacing Burlington which had insufficient water, and after notice of the sale of lots was published in the Indianapolis newspapers on April 22, 1824, Hance Stalcup, one of the earliest settlers surveyed the new town, and laid it off in lots.

The new town was ready for a name. Dr. Hallet B. Dean, who had been a citizen of Burlington, and was raised in Bloomfield, New York, proposed the name of Bloomfield. His proposal was accepted by the new citizens of the town and by the county. At that time the State of New York had two Bloomfields, one to the east and one to the west. It is not known which Bloomfield was the one for which our Greene County community was named.

As we know, the reason that Bloomfield was created was to become the county seat of Greene County, established in 1821. During our early history, Thomas Bradford was very influential, but Bradford is not a man remembered by many.

Thomas Bradford was born on March 25, 1780, in North Carolina, perhaps in Orange County. He married Martha Garrison in 1804 in Granville County, North Carolina. According to an early Greene County historian, W. D. Ritter, Bradford moved to Orange County, Indiana, in about 1814, but was advised to return to North Carolina until Indians could be removed from the land in what became Greene County which was his intended destination. He did return to North Carolina, but in 1816 he returned to Indiana, moving to Greene County to stay.

According to historian Ritter, Bradford’s home was located one mile south of what is now Bloomfield, perhaps on what is known as Patterson Hill on South Seminary.

Paraphrasing the early historian W. D. Ritter, for the next twenty years Bradford’s life was the history of Greene County. Early in 1821, Thomas Bradford serving as Sheriff Pro Tempore (pro tem) called an election to be held at his house south of Bloomfield. The purpose of the election was to elect County Commissioners. Bradford named a board of election, and the election was held. Thomas Plummer, David Deem, and Peter Herrington were elected and became the first Greene County Board of Commissioners. And to make the election official, Bradford gave the newly elected Commissioners their certificates of election. On March 6, 1821, they were sworn into office by Phineas B. Rogers, a Justice of the Peace, from Washington, Daviess County. In addition to the customary oath of office, the Commissioners were required to swear that they had not, since the first day of June 1816, directly or indirectly knowingly given, accepted, or carried a challenge to any person or persons, in or out of this State, to fight single combat with any deadly weapon and that they would not knowingly give, accept, or carry a challenge to any person or persons in or out of the State to fight in single combat with deadly weapons during their continuance in office. In other words, the Commissioners could not participate in any duels.

PART TWO WILL CONTINUE IN OUR NEXT ISSUE

“Footprints” is a series of stories about the people, places and circumstances that make up the history of the Town of Bloomfield on the occasion of Bloomfield’s coming bicentennial. David Holt has researched extensively to write these stories we share with you, and we thank him for that.