Early Life
William O'Connell Bradley was born near Lancaster in Garrard County, Kentucky, on March 18, 1847. He was the youngest child of Robert McAfee and Nancy Ellen (Totten) Bradley. The couple also had six daughters, five of whom survived infancy, and one other son, who died as an infant. Bradley's sister, Catherine Virginia (Bradley) Morrow, married Judge Thomas Z. Morrow, who made an unsuccessful run for the governorship of Kentucky in 1883; their son, Edwin P. Morrow, was elected the 40th governor of Kentucky in 1917.
While Bradley was still a child, the family moved to Somerset, Kentucky, where Bradley was educated by private tutors and at a private school. After the outbreak of the Civil War, he twice dropped out of school and ran away to join the Union Army, first serving as a recruiting officer in Somerset, then enlisting as a private soldier in Louisville. Both times, his father removed him from the service because of his young age. Despite having only this few months of service to his credit, he was referred to as "Colonel Bradley" by many for the rest of his life.
In 1861, Bradley became a page in the Kentucky House of Representatives. He studied law under his father, one of Kentucky's leading criminal defense lawyers. Although Kentucky law required that anyone taking the bar examination be at least twenty-one years old, Bradley was allowed by a special provision of the state legislature to take it at age eighteen. This arrangement was contingent on Bradley's being judged competent by two circuit judges. Despite having no college education, Bradley passed the exam and was licensed in 1865, joining his father's firm in Lancaster. He later received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Kentucky University (now Transylvania University).
On July 13, 1867, Bradley married Margaret Robertson Duncan, and subsequently converted from Baptism to Presbyterianism, his wife's faith. The couple had two children, George Robertson Bradley and Christine (Bradley) South.
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