Bradley University - Anaga Yearbook (Peoria, IL)

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Mrs. Lydia Moss Bradley Founder of Bradley Polytechnic Institute By Theodore C. Burgess, Director HE first volume of the Polyscope issued in 1901, was dedicated to Mrs- Lydia Moss Bradley, the founder of Bradley Polytechnic Institute, and every issue since that time has contained appropriate and appreciative reference to her and to her noble gift. This pioneer volume naturally contained a full statement in regard to the circumstances leading up to the founding of the school and the purposes which actuated Mrs. Bradley in its establishment. ln this article also as well as elsewhere the chief facts about Mrs. Bradley's life have been presented and it seems unnecessary here to rehearse them in full detail. Mrs. Bradley was born in 1816 at Vevay in the southern part of Indiana. She was accordingly in her 93d year at the time of her death. She had lived a long and useful life. For many years she had looked forward to death with pleasant anticipation as a time of reunion for the broken family. It is a cause for thankfulness that her final illness was brief and that the years of a prolonged old age were'not marked by pain or disease or the failing of mental powers. Her ancestry on both sides were defenders of their country in the Revolutionary struggle and Mrs. Bradley deeply cherished the memory of their services. She was for many years the only real daughter of the Revolution in this part of Illinois. Although her parents were far from poor every member of the family was a worker and no doubt here in her early youth Mrs. Bradley gained the habits of thrift and respect for work and profitable activity which she retained to the end of her life and which had so strong an influence upon her. Mrs. Bradley en- joyed the common school education of the day but added to this a shrewdness of judgment about men and measures, a sort of balance and sanity in thinking which is rarely found even among those possessing far greater opportunities for school training. Soon after their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Bradley moved to Peoria and one of their earliest purchases was the farm upon the west bluff of which the present Institute campus forms a part. The Bradleys prospered financially and became important members of the community. The sudden death of Mr. Bradley in 1867 left a large estate in a form such that a character less sturdy must have succumbed before the task of managing it or at least left its care wholly to rep- resentatives. Mrs. Bradley was a strong woman. She met this as she met every emergency. From that date she made her own a plan which had been imperfectly formed in discussions with her husband during her lifetime, to devote their wealth to philanthropy. Each year the plan became more definite in her mind and each year the means of bringing it to a successful fulfilment became increased. Mrs. Bradley could wait where waiting would prove a gain. She could see far into the future and her wisdom in postponing the actual realization of her plan for so many years has been amply justified. Mrs. Bradley lived all of her life in comparative seclusion. She was unostentatious, fond of her home and intimate friends, to many she seemed no doubt foolishly disregardful of the ease and pleasure which large wealth can so readily secure and which to some extent at least are its right. She seemed even to ignore her own comfort. She has been regarded as giving her chief thought and energy for the past twenty years to the accumulation of money an unworthy and narrowing ambition some one says, and truly except for one thing, the noble altruistic aim which inspired her. Devotion to money-getting always in an honorable way becomes a strong and ennohling quality if the end in view be such as hers. Many times she has said to me: These funds are not mine. All that I possess belongs to the Institute. I must make the sum as large as I can for the good of the boys and girls. I want them to profit by it. Economizing for herself, refusing to supply her home with the signs of wealth. she never questioned or objected when lavish expenditure for the Institute was proposed. She would say: I want everything to be the best. Get whatever you need. Founder's Day, October 8th, 1906, might well be regarded as the crowning day of Mrs. Bradley's life. It must have been one of her happiest days, if not the one most full of pleasant reflection and substantial joy. Many elements united to make it a day of general rejoicing. This Founder's Day by its date and by the exercises which marked it commemorated an event of the greatest importance. It was the first of a series of exercises connected with the tenth anniversary of the founding of Bradley Institute. The Institute was to Mrs. Bradley the child of her later years. In a true sense she had given to it the affectionate thought and engrossing care which would have been lavished upon her children had they been permitted to live. She had herself developed the thought, had seen it come into reality and physical being in the Institute, had watched and directed its growth until this tenth anniversary which seemed to mark its coming to full maturity. What greater joy could be bestowed upon a benefactor than to behold with one's own eyes conclusive proof of the beneficence of one's gift. The beauty of the campus and buildings were a delight, the enthusiasm with which she was received by students and friends gave pleasure, but her highest joy was in the good accomplished during these ten years in the lives of the young men and young women made nobler and better fitted for effective service in the world by the founding of Bradley Institute. It was a great source of satisfaction. too, that upon that occasion she was able to announce what was felt then to be the last large gift which she could make in person, a new gymnasium. The day came to a perfect close with the opening of Mrs. Bradley's home to students and her many friends. The events of this founder's day were a source of rare pleasure to her for all the months which followed. Every student at Bradley in the future as in the past will honor the founder with appreciation and gratitude and the City of Peoria and the surrounding community will increasingly recognize the value of the work which Mrs. Bradley has done. 9

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MRS. LYDIA MOSS BRADLEY KDECEASEDD

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1 Grover Baumgartner Polyscope Staff Editor in Chief Wm. Heath VVebster Business Manager Literary Organizations Robert Plowe Martlla Grant Marguerite Hayward Subscriptions Calendar Love Natalia Jobst Sanchen Strehlow Art Editor R0b9l'fS Mmm Louise Gibson Athletics Horological Editor 10 Lester Byron Edward Miller