BRADFORD, SHARP, BUSHNELL

Posted by Cathy Gowdy on Friday, August 25, 2006 at 05:34:31 :

The Marin Journal
Thursday, April 27, 1916
Page 5

William Bradford Buried Monday

The career of a man of big affairs ended last Friday with the death in San Francisco of William Bradford, former chairman of the San Rafael board of trustees and president of the San Rafael Club.

The funeral was held Monday at 10 o’clock from Gray’s Chapel, Rev. G. M. Cutting of San Rafael officiating. Although drawn through his business and social demands to San Francisco and other points, a great part of his time, Mr. Bradford has always, since he first came here, maintained a home in San Rafael. Much of his time he spent in Bolinas, where he had a summer home.

He leaves a widow and a daughter, Mrs. Grace Bradford Sharp, wife to Dr. W. F. Sharp of San Francisco.

William Bushnell Bradford was born in Sheffield, Mass., on October 4, 1844. He was the only child of Daniel Flint Bradford and Chloe Bushnell Bradford, and a direct descendant of the famous Governor Bradford of Massachusetts. He was the eighth in direct line of descent from governor Bradford who arrived on the Mayflower, and was the first governor of Plymouth Colony. His parents came to the Pacific Coast and located in Portland, Oregon, in 1850.

In the sixties he returned east, went to New York, and formed a partnership with Jim Fisk Jr., making the firm of Fisk-Bradford & Co., located at 37 Broad street. Fisk-Bradford & Co. were active in those exciting days and in the sixties when Commodore Vanderbilt and Jay Gould and Fisk and Bradford were operating. On September 5, 1868, Jim Fisk and W. B. Bradford dissolved partnership, and Bradford came to California.

Bradford was one of the early pioneer packers on t he Sacramento river. He organized with Sidney Booth the Old Black Diamond Canning Company. They first packed salmon. Then they added fruits to their line. Bradford also organized one of the early salmon canning expeditions to Alaska, locating on Bristol Bay in the early eighties. He was the original secretary of the Alaska Packers’ Association. He remained secretary until 1901. He retired as vice-president of the company in 1905, simply retaining his directorship up to the present time, but had taken no active part in t he company since he retired as vice-president.