Return to the Bradleys of Schuylkill County PA

I really was not intending to write about my Bradley peeps, but Katrina and I took our son Tom to camp in Pennsylvania last week and I drove back on Friday afternoon to pick him up.  Okay, so  he didn't need to be picked up until Saturday morning, and I drove out early to visit my sister.  Okay, so on my way to my sister's house I stopped in Pottsville at the county courthouse (it was only a couple of hours out of my way, but I consider that close).

If you have never been to Pottsville or the Courthouse, they have both been there for a couple of hundred years.  The Courthouse is an older brick structure built on a hill, but when you park in the back, you have to walk down these old concrete steps to get down to ground level (it's tougher going back up).  Across the street is a castle looking building, minus the moat, which is some type of detention facility (juvenile- I think)  It is all looks rather foreboding.  In front of the detention facility is a large historical placard which tells about the "Molly Maguire Executions".  Never heard of them?  The Molly Maguires were a secret society of Irish Mine Workers. There were several members who were convicted of various violent crimes against the coal industry - usually killing bosses, etc..  This placard reads that on June 21, 1877, six Molly Maguires were hanged here, four others were hanged at the county jail in Mauch Chunk on the same day.

The reason I bring this up, is that I was thinking that these "gangstas" were running around this area back when my ancestors were mining coal or working the rails to transport the mined coal.  So I guess things haven't change much over the years, we have the bloods and the crips, they had the Molly Maguires.  It gives you an idea of what your ancestors had to deal with when they were alive.  I don't know if any of my peeps were "Mollys", but it was a secret society so I may never know.  You also wonder if any of them were targeted by the Mollys - again I will probably never know for sure, but it does make you think.

My original reason for going to the courthouse was to check old property records and deeds, but when I got to the archives, it was getting late and deeds were on another floor in the building.  I figured that I was lucky to just get to where I was and told the woman that I was doing a family tree.  She suggested that I check the estates and wills.  I didn't locate anyone named Brady with a first name that sounded familiar, but I found some Bradleys.  The person I found was James J Bradley, who died 23 May 1928 in Minersville.  You may remember that I posted his obit and his mother's obit in a previous post.  I remember that his obit says that he died in the hospital. Well it looks like he wrote his will  on 28 Mar 1928, he probably knew the end was coming and wanted to have all of his affairs in order.  It is interesting to read, even though I did not take the time to read it at the archives. I am getting my first chance to read it while I am writing.  There is a copy of the will, in which he leaves everything to his brother Joe and his sister Mrs N Murtha (Sorry Colin, but it must be Murtha with no "Mc").  In the will he uses the phrase "share and share alike".  I kinda like that phrase - a last loving gesture to his siblings. 
James and Joseph lived in Minersville, probably close to each other, both were blacksmiths, and Mrs N Murtha is their sister, Mary, with whom their mother lives in Pottsville.  So maybe he is taking care of his mom and helping his brother.  I say that because later in the day I found a headstone in St Vincent de Paul cemetery for Joseph Bradley who died in 1930 - maybe he was sick also.  Joseph is also the Administrator of the estate.  There is an appraisal of James' wealth, which amounts to $1,535.81 cash in the First National Bank of Minersville - I am not certain, but it sounds like a tidy sum for that time period in that area.  He owned no real estate.  There is also a list of Administration Expenses: Funeral $450. 35, Tombstone $250.00 (I didn't find that one), St Vincent's Church $ 56.00, Milliken Hospital $36.50.  It was interesting to read. (Notice how the bill for St Vincent's is almost double that of the hospital).  I then went to the Library and tried to find an obit for his sister, Ellen Bradley in 1911 (that explains why she is not mentioned in the will), but they were closing so I didn't have time.

Then on to Minersville to St. Vincent De Paul to walk the cemetery looking for headstones.  I found one for Joseph Bradley and Jennie Bradley, he died in 1930, she died in 1951.  I think this is James' brother from Minersville and his wife.  Joseph's wife is listed in the 1930 census as Jane (she is also a witness in James' will listed as Jane), so maybe they called her Jennie as a nickname.  Right next to this headstone is an older one with the family name of  Pepper.  Pepper is Annie Bradley's  maiden name.  Annie is James and Joseph's mother and my great great grandmother.  The headstone is for Francis Pepper.  I recall seeing Annie Pepper in the 1850 census in Cass Twp with her parents, Patrick and Magdelina (Reilly) Pepper, on the same page listed before Patrick is a man named Francis Pepper.  I think that he is a relation to Patrick Pepper.  I am gonna have to write to St Michael the Archangel Church to get more info.

Francis Pepper

I suspect that there is much more to be learned from this trip to PA, and I will return there again to check further.