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From Ancestors and Descendants of Morris A. Bradley He came to Ohio with his parents, and lived on his father's farm in Brownhelm. When about ten years of age he determined that an agricultural occupation was not to his liking, and so he sought and found employment in an iron works near Vermilion. Here he started as a tamper, in the manufacture of charcoal, and while thus employed received a very severe leg burn which caused him much pain and discomfort all his life. His great desire was to be a sailor, and after leaving the iron works he applied for employment as such on a lake boat but was rejected on account of his age. However, he was taken as a cook's assistant, and from this, while still a youth, he advanced rapidly, becoming a sailor, then captain, hailing from Vermilion. At that time he was on freightors, conveying wood, wheat, etc., between Ohio and Canadian ports. Being always ambitious, and filled with honest energetic purpose, Alva Bradley could not rest until he owned the vessels which he sailed. In 1841, when twenty-six years of age and unmarried, he contracted for his first vessel, the schooner "South America". This was built on Lake Erie, where the Vermilion River enters the lake. It was in this shipyard that all his boats were constructed. After his marriage in 1849, he built a comfortable dwelling house close by, and lived there until his removal to Cleveland. With the gradual development of the lake marine navigation and commerce, he increased the extent of his operations, until finally, "he built up the largest fleet of carriers on the Great Lakes, and became the most powerful figure of the day in lake-shipping. " At the time of his death he had the distinction of being the largest individual vessel owner in the entire Great Lakes system. References
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