Charles Harvey Bradley (April 20, 1899, Dubuque, Iowa - September 1, 1972, Indianapolis,
Indiana) was the fourth and youngest child of Charles H. Bradley, Sr and Katherine Elderkin
Wetherbee Bradley of Wabasha, Minnesota of Dubuque.
His father was a founder of Bradley Brothers Cigars which made the famous Baroness and Bradley
brands of cigars
From Wikipedia - Charles Harvey Bradley Jr. (April 20, 1899 – September 1, 1972) was an
American businessman.
He was the fourth and youngest child of Charles H. Bradley Sr. of Dubuque, Iowa, a founder of Bradley
Brothers Cigars which made the famous Baroness and Bradley brands of cigars, and Katherine Elderkin
Wetherbee Bradley of Wabasha, Minnesota.
After attending grade school in Dubuque, Charles Harvey Bradley (“Harve”) entered Thacher Preparatory
School in Ojai Valley, California in 1912. In 1915 he transferred to Phillips Academy, Andover,
Massachusetts. After graduating from Andover in 1917 he entered Yale College, New Haven, Connecticut
in the fall of that year. On the advice of then Colonel Theodore Roosevelt he and six close friends
from Yale, one being Roosevelt's nephew, Sheffield Cowles, left the college after mid year exams and
enlisted in the Marine Corps in February 1918.[1]
After training at Parris Island, SC, and earning the designation of Sharpshooter,[2] Harve became a
Private in the 80th Company, 6th Regiment, Second Marines. He fought in France in the battles of
Belleau Wood, Château-Thierry and was wounded for the second time on July 19, 1918, in the battle of
Soissons. Here, his left hip was shattered by shrapnel. After lying on the battle field for nearly 18
hours, he was rescued and spent two months recovering at Base Hospital 27 in Angers, France, before
returning to a hospital in Portsmouth, Virginia.[3] His entire division was decorated for bravery by
the French government.
Harve reentered Yale in the middle of 1919. In spite of his war injury, he was on the 150-pound Yale
Crew. He was a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon and was elected to Skull and Bones. He graduated with
the class of 1921 with an A.B. degree.
During the summer of 1919 while visiting Culver, Indiana, he met Carolyn Coffin of Indianapolis,
daughter of Charles E Coffin, prominent real estate developer and banker, whom he married in January
1922. They spent a two-month honeymoon in Europe, during which they visited the French battlefields
where he had fought.[4]
After his marriage, Harve moved to Indianapolis and worked first for the Fletcher Trust Company until
1924 serving as cashier of the Sixteenth Street Branch Bank, a subsidiary of the Fletcher Trust
Company.
In 1924 he was employed by W. J. Holiday & Company [was founded by
William Jaquelin Holliday], Steel
Distributors. He became Secretary, Treasurer of the company in 1927 and President in 1932. He was also
President of Monarch SteelCompany, cold drawers of steel bars, a subsidiary of W. J. Holiday &
Company.
Soon after the United States entered World War II Harve was appointed chief of the Steel Recovery
Program. Materials Branch, Steel Division War Production Board and moved to Pittsburg in July 1942.
He set the pattern and directed the course of that branch for eight months, returning to Indianapolis
in 1943. He was appointed the Civilian Defense Director for Indianapolis and served in that capacity
for six months.
Harve remained President of W. J. Holiday & Company until the company was acquired by the Jones and
Laughlin Steel Corporation of Pittsburgh in 1954. He served as Chairman of the Advisory Board in the
warehouse division from 1955 to 1960. He became President of the Shorewood Corporation in 1960, but
left in 1962 to become Chairman of the Executive Committee and Vice Chairman of the Board of
Directors of P. R. Mallory & Co., Inc. In 1964 he became Chairman of the Board of this company.
During his career, he was also a director of P.R. Mallory International, the Ransburg Electrocoating
Corporation, the Jones & Laughlin Steel Corporation, the Indiana National Bank, Bell Telephone Company,
the Indiana Gas & Water Company, Monarch Steel Company, Employers Association of Indiana, and American
Steel Warehouse Association (Chairman of the Executive Committee). He was also on the board of
directors of the Illinois Central Industries and the Illinois Central Railroad. Bradley was a President
of the Indiana Chamber of Commerce and the United Fund.
During his lifetime his memberships included: Yale Alumni Board, Redevelopment Commission of Indiana, State
and National American Legion, Navy league, Service Club of Indianapolis, University Club of Indianapolis,
Columbia Club, Indianapolis Athletic Club, Woodstock Country Club, Draft Board of Appeals, N.R.A. Labor Board.
He was a founder of the Service Club, composed of U.S. Marine Corps veterans of World Wars I and II.
His hobbies included golf and photography. He long maintined his own dark room and enjoyed taking and
developing his own photographs. For many years he piloted his own single engine planes beginning with a
Navion and ending with a Beechcraft Bonanza which he owned at the time of his death. He was a member of
the Sportsman’s Pilot Association and the Quiet Birdmen, also a flying association.
He never lost his love of horse back riding and the West which he had developed as a schoolboy in Ojai,
California.
During their fifty year marriage, he and his wife had three children and seven grandchildren.
Charles Harvey Bradley died of a sudden massive heart attack in Indianapolis at the age of 73.
References
1. The World, Sunday, Feb 10, 1918; The New York Herald, Sunday, Feb 10, 1918, CHB personal letters.
2. CHB letters.
3. CHB personal letters; Telegraph-Herald fall/winter 1918-1919; Times Journal fall/winter 1918-1919.
4. Family records.
5. CHB resume.
6. Daughter’s personal account.
7. Personal experience of his daughter.
which is found on Wikpedia and was to have been written by Kit Moseley,
Mr. Bradley's daughter