Butler County Genealogy Trails Kansas Robert Hazlett Bradford Bio

BUTLER COUNTY'S EIGHTY YEARS BIOS

ROBERT HAZLETT BRADFORD

(transcribed by Sheryl McClure)

Robert Hazlett Bradford, treasurer of the El Dorado Refining Company, vice president of the El Dorado National Bank, president of the K-T Oil Corporation, influential, constructive, progressive and of the highest business standards, was born in Alma, Nebraska, October 8, 1880. He is wholly a product of this city, however, in that he came here as a child, six years old, to live in the home of Robert H. Hazlett, El Dorado's leading and most distinguished citizen and for whom he had been named.

Mr. Bradford received his elementary education in the local public schools, graduating from the El Dorado High School in 1897. The following three years, he was a student at the University of Kansas, Lawrence, leaving when twenty years of age, to enter the Farmers & Merchants Bank. He acted as cashier of this institution for several years, or until July 1, 1909, when he became cashier of the El Dorado National Bank. He remained cashier of the El Dorado National until 1916, when he resigned because of his increasing personal business affairs, consequent upon the discovery of oil in this section the previous year.

His activities in oil production and refining, his interests as a banker and his extensive real-estate and other holdings, together with his splendid loyalty to the city, assisting in every worthwhile progress movement cause him to be among the highest in the leadership of El Dorado's younger group of business men. He continues as an official of the El Dorado National bank, was associated with Mr. Hazlett and Mr. Skelly in the Inland Oil and Midland Refining companies; was selected as treasurer when the Hazlett and Bradford interests acquired possession of the El Dorado Refinery and reorganized its management; was chosen president of the Mid-Continent Building & Loan Association in 1928; and otherwise is active in local business affairs.

Also, Mr. Bradford, fully appreciating the responsibilities of good citizenship, takes an active interest in civic and other affairs of the community. He has served in various capacities in helping make the Kafir Corn Carnival (the city's fall festival) a success; has been a member of the Chamber of Commerce since that organization was created; and is a charter member of the Country Club. At the University, he belonged to the Beta Theta Pi Greek Letter fraternity and early he became a thirty-second degree Mason, with memberships in Patmos No. 97, A. F. & A. M., El Dorado; the Consistory and the Midian Shrine Temple, both at Wichita. He is a member of no church. Politically, he is a Democrat.

Mr. Bradford is of English descent and his forebears trace back through Missouri, Kentucky and Virginia. His parents were James and Frances (London) Bradford, the former a native of Kentucky and the latter of Illinois. They moved from Illinois to Nebraska in the 1880's and the mother, Frances (London) Bradford died in that state in 1886, when Robert H. Bradford was six years old. It was at this time that Robert came to El Dorado, Mr. Hazlett having been a strong personal friend of the father, James Bradford, and Mrs. Hazlett, who was Isabella Bradford, being a first cousin. James Bradford was the son of Thomas Bradford, native of Kentucky, but who removed with his family to Missouri prior to the Civil War, in which conflict he served as a soldier with the Confederacy. The Bradford family is one of the oldest in America, the founder of the branch from which Robert H. Bradford descends being John Bradford, of Virginia, brother of William Bradford, second governor of the Plymouth colony, historian of the Massachusetts Pilgrims and famed in history as the man who issued the original Thanksgiving proclamation, thus initiating a custom that has continued for more than 300 years.

On May 13, 1913, Mr. Bradford was united in marriage to Miss Ruth Ewing, born and educated in El Dorado. Mrs. Bradford is the daughter of Charles W. and Cora (Batten) Ewing, the former a native of Illinois and the latter of Pennsylvania. The Ewing family first settled in New York but John Ewing, grandfather of Mrs. Bradford, left home at an early age and settled in Illinois, becoming one of the pioneers of that state. Charles W. Ewing located in El Dorado in the 1870's and for many years was one of the leading merchants of the city. His death occurred February 15, 1932.

No children have been born of the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Bradford.