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BY EPSIE MANNING . .. Eighty-four pink candles burned on the pink and white frosted birthday cake which held a place of prominence in the anniversary party given for Mrs. Mary Bred ley, who celebrated her 84th birth ay anniversary at the home of her daughter, Mrs. G. W. Martin, 1209. Chestnut. Street, Tuesday. And a snowy-haired grandmother, frail but lovely in her dainty, ruffled grandmother's bonnet, smil ed at three generations which sat around her. The light of reminiscence was in her eyes. There were memories of another day that were marshalle d out by the alert little lady, who deemed it her privilege to entertain her family on this oc casion. And they were just little bits of another day--another age. _ There were the pantellets—the dream of a little girl’s heart—that tied around her slim little waist, and had fascinating bits of crocheted lace on the tucked fluf fies. They were to have been hers, because she was the best spelter in the entire group in the little log schoolhouse. But the prejudic ed school master wouldn't give them to her. Then there were the wild hogs that chased her and little Jim and little Sally across a Kentucky hill, fleeing breathlessly, and seek ing refuge in an old negro mam my’s cabin. And the little grandmother’s face wrinkled into an infectious smile. There was the funny incident of the peafowls. That was when she was a mother—of five little girls. And new dresses were, oh, a very great event in the little irls’ lives. These were hand-spun, with, the quaintield spinning Wheel, hand-made, and colored a_ lovely, creamy penn with copper as dye. The little girls paraded — gaily across the barnyard, reveling in the joy of, a new frock, when the peafowls saw the unusual vision and began their medley. It was an uproarous medley, according to the narrator, and succeeded in alarm ing not only the Stadley barnyard, s but caused “disorder over the en tire country side. _ Then there was the attested faith of the Baptist ‘recounted by the grandmother. She drove with her father and mother across long ‘stretches of Kentucky hills to Green River to be baptised in ea spot in the river where the ice had to be broken. The members of the little Baptist church had come with her, and rode across the Green River in their wagons, and stood on frozen waters to see the baptismal rites performed. There was the Civil War, a viv idly colorful four years of pathos in the little grandmother's life. Her soldier husband left her and one little girl, and came back to find the family nest sheltering four, twin girls having been born in the meantime. Close beside the narrator was the miniature of her husband, a bevel frame, a bit of red plush grandeur in leather binding. She touched it caressingly. There were bits told of the golden wedding anniversary, which had been cele brated in 1910. A shadow of wist fulness crept into her eyes, to be dismissed with sudden cheerfulness by the account of the journey from Kentucky to Indiana behind oxen, in a “covered wagon.” Mrs. Bradley is the mother of seven children, 24 grandchildren, and 12 great-grandchildren, many of whom were here Monday to celebrate her 84th birthday anni versary. Among those here were her five daughters, Mrs. G. W. Martin of Denton, Mrs. W. H. Yarbrough of Denton, Mrs. Homer Murphy of Petty and Mrs. Mell Yates of High, and Mrs. Hays Beasley of Maxey, her grand daughters, Mrs. J. W. Rochelle with her husband, J. W. Rochelle, Mrs. Floyd Brooks and her hus band and their son, Floyd Jr., and Mrs. L. EB. Akers. Mrs. Bradley came to Téxas in 1888 from Indiana with her hus band and children and settled in Lamar County. Her husband, J. M. Bradley, died in 1016, having at tained his f81st year. Since then she has made her home here with her daughter, Mrs. G. W. Martin.
Newspaper Details
Denton Record Chronicle
Denton, Texas, US
Wed, Feb 27, 1924
Page 4
Full Page
Clipped by
Melissa C.
USA 08 Jul 2026
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