James Otis Bradley

James Otis Bradley
1870-1943


James Otis Bradley was a great-grandson of George Washington Bradley, an early ancestral pioneer born in New York who came west with the Saints after he found the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. Soon after his family’s arrival in the Valley of the Great Salt Lake, Brigham Young “called” him to go and help settle the Sanpete Valley, where he became the first bishop in Moroni and also served as that city’s “president” for the next 18 years. 

With the Bradleys having established such a strong presence in the Sanpete area—where more and more Bradleys lived and died over the next several generations—it should not be surprising that James Otis’s parents, George Henry and Elizabeth Angeline Love Bradley, were also living there 135 years ago when he made his journey to earth from the spirit world, landing in Moroni on Wednesday, 9 February 1870. 

So James Otis grew up in Moroni in Sanpete County, where he met and married his sweetheart, Johannah Sophia Arnoldus. Her family had put down their roots in the same place after having joined the Church and migrated westward to be with the Saints in Zion.

Today James Otis and Johannah Sophia Arnoldus Bradley have a large posterity of faithful children, grandchildren, and so on. Many of those still living today who knew him in life have fond memories of him.


One of these was reported by Verdeen and Ronald Bradley. Ronald recalls that when he was about three years old and Verdeen eight they often rode sitting on the floor of a wagon pulled by two horses with their father, Clifford, and grandfather, James Otis, sitting on the wagon seat. Ronald remembers how excited he was about being able to go with them because he thought he would be allowed to stay and help his father work on the farm—probably thinning beets.

Ron, who still lives in Moroni today, remembers vividly that they traveled south on Turkey Plant Road from Grandfather’s home and then went west to get to the farm. But as soon as they arrived, Grandfather said he had better take them home, so he left the wagon for Clifford and started up the road with the children. This upset Ronald terribly because he had thought both he and Verdeen would be able to stay at Grandfather’s for the night. Several blocks from the farm as they traveled along the road they passed Russ Bailey’s farm, which had an abundance of peas growing. Grandfather took them in and helped them get some handfuls of peas and then continued home. It was several miles to his house.

Arriving at Grandfather’s home, they were given thick slices of homemade bread with molasses and sugar sprinkled on top. Ronald remembers it was very good. Then Grandfather said they were to go straight home because their mother would probably need them. So Verdeen took Ronald and walked nearly a mile further to get to their own house.

Verdeen recalls that Grandfather was called “Ottie” by his friends and that he whistled and hummed a lot. Many remember him for that. In fact, he was known for his whistling and singing, whether at home or in the business section of town. One speaker at his funeral stated that “he was truly great because it is only a great man who can whistle his troubles away.”

His son Clifford carried on his tradition of whistling and people would know he was coming before they saw him because they could hear him whistling. 


James Otis had a large farm on which he grew mostly sugar beets but also grain and alfalfa. He had two horses named Rock and Rye, and they were the best horses in all of Moroni, Ralph recalls. He also had a cow, some chickens, and a pig or two. The chickens were not cooped up but were left to wander all over the farm at will. But they laid their eggs in the barn and Ralph remembers having collected them there. Then Grandfather let him trade one for an all-day sucker. Grandfather’s farm also had a great garden with an abundance of turnips and peas, which the children loved to eat raw.

Grandma Bradley, James Otis’s wife, Johannah Sophia Arnoldus, passed away in 1922 when Ralph was scarcely two years old, leaving James with six children (three boys and three girls) to raise on his own. After “Sophie” died, James’s daughter Beth cared for him and the rest of the children in his nice, five-room, brick home in Moroni, which was located kitty corner from the chapel, the tithing office, the post office, and the town marshal. Ralph remembers that Grandfather’s house had a large swing in the tree, which the children loved to swing on.   Mealtime at Grandfather’s always featured meat, potatoes, and milk gravy. Sometimes they had liver and onions, which the kids didn’t like. 

The house was surrounded by a nice, white, picket fence, through which they watered their lawn with irrigation water by flooding the whole lawn whenever it was their turn to take water. Inside the house they had an old Edison record player, which operated by cranking it up before playing it. The sound came out through a large horn that sat atop the apparatus.

The grandchildren loved to climb up on Grandfather’s big mahogany bed and lie on his thick and comfy straw tick. They’ll never forget the marble slab that adorned the top of the chest of drawers. 

Ralph remembers that during the beet harvest Grandfather would take him for a ride on his horse, complete with what it felt like to sit atop the horse pushing in with his right or left knee to turn the horse in either direction. Because he was so small, there wasn’t really much else he could do to help with the work.


Even the children remember how very happy Grandfather always was. He was constantly whistling and when people heard him coming they would holler out, “Here comes Oat!”

In later years James Otis had a job in Fountain Green maintaining road shoulders. His grandson Ralph used to ride with him on his maintenance runs and thought it pretty neat to be able to work with Grandfather.

Grandpa Bradley was always generous to his children and their families. It must have been hard for him to see his daughter-in-law Nida struggle financially when his son William Otis, who had all but deserted her and her children, failed to send his monthly allowance of $20.00 for their support. He was working and living in Oregon and did not appear to intend to come back to Moroni to be with his family. It was that year, 1928, that Grandpa Bradley loaned Nida $5.00 so she would not have to disappoint her children, Ralph and Betsy, for Christmas.

It was on a Sunday, 3 October 1943, that James Otis Bradley quietly passed away at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Don Nielson, in Provo, Utah. Funeral services were held in the West Ward chapel in Moroni. An unusually large number of relatives and friends came to pay their respects to the man whom they held in the highest esteem. He was interred in the Moroni City Cemetery, as was the custom with the Bradley family who had come there 95 years earlier after being called by Brigham Young to settle the Sanpete Valley