Thomas J. Bradley (born c.1820) was one of several Sheffield pocket-knife cutlers who emigrated to America during the 1840s (e.g, James Roberts, Samuel Marshall, Samuel Mason, Aaron Burkinshaw).  In 1846, he became part of a network of such craftsmen, who had settled in Waterbury, Connecticut, where a local cutlery factory was located.   In 1852, these English cutlers became discontented and set up a co-operative venture in Matteawan (Duchess County, New York).  In 1856, the group moved to Walden, a village in Orange County, New York, where they established the New York Knife Co – a factory that became known as the ‘Sheffield of America’.  By 1867, Thomas J. Bradley was its president and had become a local figure (as a Trustee in the village and as vice-president of the savings bank).  He died in Walden on 11 September 1880 after a stroke.  Thomas’s son was Thomas Wilson Bradbury, who had been born in Sheffield on 6 April 1844 and emigrated to America with his parents.  

Thomas Jun. was a skilled cutler, who finished blades on the large grinding wheels that were powered by the Wallkill River.  In 1862, he volunteered for the Union Army, became a captain, and was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his bravery.   After the Civil War, he assumed the leadership of the Walden company, made his fortune, and – like his father – became a local figure.   He also developed a taste for politics and was a close friend of future president William McKinley (the two had met during the Civil War).   In the early 1890s, a business depression and increasing foreign cutlery imports drove Bradley’s company into debt.  He became a fervent supporter of McKinley’s policy of increasing tariffs on imported goods, including Sheffield cutlery.  By 1903, Bradley had recovered his fortune and sold off the company.  He then joined Congress as a Republican, serving between 1903 and 1913.  He died in Walden on 30 May 1920 and was interred in Wallkill Valley Cemetery.   Information on the Bradleys can be found in Erickson (1972)¹, Newman (2001)², and Bosch (2006)³. 

^1. Erickson, Charlotte J, Invisible Immigrants (London, 1972)

^2. Newman, Marc, Walden and Maybrook (2001)

^3. Bosch, Adam, ‘The Man Who Made the Whole Town Proud’, Walkhill Valley Almanac (22 February 2006)