(dramatic music) - [Narrator] A carriage with a lone passenger was traveling through the Tazewell County countryside a mile or so outside of Groveland when the accident occurred.
It was Wednesday May 1st, 1867.
(horse whinnies) - [Chuck] It's not clear whether he struck a pothole or whatever, but he was thrown from the carriage.
The horse panicked and managed to kick him in the head.
- [Narrator] Tobias S. Bradley had been severely bruised but he was feeling better the following day.
The promise of recovery, however, was misleading.
Mr. Bradley died three days after the accident.
The end of Tobias' life was the start of an unlikely chapter in Peoria history.
A diminutive woman would soon walk tall among the bankers, merchants, and whiskey barons of Peoria.
(birds singing) Sixth generation American Zeally Moss was a Revolutionary War veteran who was present at the surrender of British General Charles Cornwallis at Yorktown.
Moss moved his family from Virginia to Kentucky after the war and subsequently across the Ohio River to Southern Indiana.
He purchased his first of four properties in 1814 in Switzerland County, two years before Indiana achieved statehood.
- We have a book on Revolutionary War pensioners and that's where we got a lot of the information about the fact that he did own those lots of lands, and then the courthouse was able to find out the acreage, so he ended up owning over 500 acres.
- [Narrator] There has been historical mention that the Moss family lived near the Ohio River in Vevay, Indiana, but there is no written evidence of that.
The four properties Zeally owned were in York Township to the east of Vevay, and in Posey Township even further East.
- [Martha] And it makes more sense that they perhaps lived in that area, which is Quercus Grove, and that's in the more northern part of that township.
- [Narrator] Life was simple on America's then-frontier, as reflected by this house built in 1817 on a farmstead outside Vevay.
Lydia Moss was born into this environment July 30th, 1816, just two years after her father Zeally bought his initial plot of land.
He was 61 when Lydia, the youngest of his six children, was born.
Years later, her father gave her a horse which later was instrumental in one of her early investments.
- She traded the horse to invest in some land and that land was then an investment for her to then utilize and to parlay into some additional investments in the future.
That land eventually, she cleared it with the help of her father.
- [Narrator] She sold the timber to the local lumberyard.
Tobias Bradley worked at that sawmill.
What was at first business became personal, and the two were wed on May 11th, 1837.
- There are records for Lydia's marriage to Tobias, and in looking for those records, we also found that all of Lydia's siblings were married in the county, too.
So there are five different Moss marriages that are recorded in the courthouse here.
- [Narrator] Frontier life required many household chores be completed.
- [Barbra] She cured her own meats, she spun her own yarn, she made clothing, she made rugs, took care of everything within the household.
- [Narrator] Lydia Moss Bradley added one extra task: weaving the fabric for Tobias' wedding suit on a loom.
Despite being located near the Ohio River, most business around Vevay was locally oriented until an important invention opened the region's agriculture to new markets.
- [Martha] In 1843 there was a patent in Switzerland County for a hay press and hay press barns, and it made it possible to take what was usually a local commodity, hay, and bale it into these 300 to 400 pound bales.
And then they were shipping it down to New Orleans.
- [Narrator] The hay press came too late to keep Lydia's brother, William Moss, who was 18 years older than her, in Southern Indiana.
The small town of Peoria beckoned.
- He liked coming to frontier-like areas where there was a lot of room to maneuver in business.
So he came first, became quite successful in a fairly short period of time in the area, thought that it offered more opportunities than Indiana did, and was instrumental in getting Tobias and Lydia to come.
- [Narrator] Enticed by William, Tobias and Lydia Moss Bradley left family behind to move to Peoria.
A settlement of less than 4,000 residents, Peoria in 1847 was what might be called a raw town.
But newspaper ads were a sign there might be opportunity for economic growth, and that was what had caught the eye of William Moss.
- [Chuck] He bought a steamboat for river commerce, this was before railroads, and he made Tobias the captain.
So Tobias learned an awful lot about steamboats being the captain of the Avalanche.
- [Narrator] Either together or separately, William and Tobias subsequently invested in a pottery plant, railroads, real estate, banking, a sawmill, flour mill, cooperage, and most lucratively distilling.
William Moss was a silent partner in the area's first distillery with Almiran Cole.
He and Tobias partnered with Cole in another distillery in 1853.
The firm's name soon became Moss, Bradley & Company, eventually merging into Great Western, the world's largest distillery.
Business was good.
- [Chuck] Even though there was very high infant mortality in that period, and it wasn't unusual for people to lose children, losing six of them was fairly unusual.
- [Narrator] Daughter Rebecca died in 1845 at age six before the move to Illinois.
Lydia was pregnant when she, Tobias, and daughter Clarissa arrived in Peoria in the spring of 1847.
She gave birth to Tobias Jr. in April, but the harshness of December took two more lives.
First, Tobias Jr. at the age of seven months, and then Clarissa 16 days later at age four.
Mary was 10 months old when she passed in 1852.
William was laid to rest three years later at just two years of age.
In 1861, young William's namesake and Lydia's brother, William, moved to California.
Lydia lost her mother, Jenny Glasscock Moss, in January of 1864.
She was 97.
Less than a month later, Laura, a high school freshman and Lydia's last child passed away.
The loss of Laura was so devastating that Lydia kept Laura's schoolbooks and had a place setting for her daughter at the dinner table for years.
The final tragedy came three years later.
The carriage accident left Lydia a widow and the house at 122 Moss fell into silence and mourning.
In the following years, Lydia was often seen in black in the tradition of then-Queen Victoria, mourning the 1861 death of Prince Albert.
A careful look at her neckline reveals what could be another outward display of mourning.
- [Chuck] You can see the broach and there it's a very large thing with a silhouette of a man on it, just head and shoulders.
And my educated guess would be that's Tobias.
That would be in keeping with the mourning custom.
But it's interesting that you see her wearing that even in advanced age.
- [Narrator] At the time of his death, Tobias left an estate estimated at $500,000.
- She involved herself in his businesses, didn't just let them be static where she would just collect the income but that was it.
She was actively engaged in them, she pursued expansion of some of the businesses, she looked into new enterprises, but sort of very much in Tobias' mold.
- [Narrator] Lydia bought thousands of acres of real estate, much of it at tax sales and state land sales.
The property was so widespread she was known to carry a pistol in her purse for safety as she traveled to personally check the properties.
She bought 680 acres of marshland in Mason County for $10 an acre.
Known as Kilbourne Farms, the land was drained but crop yields were poor, so she turned to the University of Illinois for soil testing.
- It came back and indicated that the soil content is highly rich in lots of nutrients except one, and that was pot ash.
So in order to make it more productive, she took a small section of that land and added enough pod ash to it and mixed it in with the soil and farmed that area to see what the difference would be.
So she ran her own test.
- [Narrator] The crops responded to the potassium-bearing pot ash so well that the land value increased 14-fold to $140 an acre.
Her real estate extended to residential neighborhoods on Peoria's south side and West Bluff.
- She sold off lots in the neighborhood and also then with her involvement with banking and loaning money, she would give loans to people so that they could buy and then build homes on that land as well, and she made the terms such that they were favorable for both the lender and the borrower.
- [Narrator] The favorable loan terms may have been made easier because of her position as a board member at Peoria's First National Bank.
- [Chuck] She was the first woman director on the board of a bank.
That doesn't sound unusual now, but it was then.
- [Narrator] Her business dealings became so sizeable and complex that she turned to attorney William Hammond to assist her.
Hammond earlier had written her will.
- [Barbra] Mrs. Bradley asked him to be her full-time business manager, and Mr. Hammond would meet with her every morning at her house and go over the day's receipts and go over how all of her different investments were performing.
- But if you're negotiating the purchase of land or other financial transactions, it was probably somewhat convenient to have not just so much a man do it, but have somebody who was officially the business manager take part in those negotiations.
- [Barbra] It was her goal and her vision that was being actualized by Mr. Hammond.
He helped make it happen and he helped advise to make it successful, but ultimately she was the one that set out, here are the goals and objectives, the things that I want to achieve and that I see as important and needing to happen.
- [Narrator] Old paperwork doesn't make it clear why Lydia remarried two-and-a-half years after Tobias died, but it does show she wed Edward Clark on December 30th, 1869.
He was the brother of a Moss Avenue neighbor.
- What I thought was amazing with the second marriage and so on is she had a prenuptial agreement.
In the late 1800s, when did a woman of wealth have a prenuptial agreement when they didn't even have voting rights?
I mean, you look at this, this speaks to the drive and the impetus of the personality.
- [Narrator] The prenuptial agreement proved useful as, for unknown reasons, the marriage ended three-and-a-half years later.
- [John] She obviously, from all that I've read, was very intent on giving back to the Peoria community and developing the Peoria community.
- [Narrator] Lydia's beneficence appeared to have no boundaries.
She and Tobias had been interested in orphanages since the death of their first children, so Lydia joined the board of the Christian Home Mission in 1866.
That organization merged nine years later with the Home for the Friendless.
- What we typically think of as orphanages back in the day were across the country, they were called Homes for the Friendless.
We have it etched on the building here at Knoxville in cement on the side, and it's an interesting piece of history when you look at the mission starting back in 1866, the impact of Lydia Moss Bradley in 1875 with the donation of the building, being on the board, getting her friends on the board, getting supporters and banks involved, all that came from Lydia Moss Bradley.
- [Narrator] Lydia and Tobias were members of the Universalist Society and Church, a liberal Christian denomination.
Tobias donated land in 1866 for a new church building.
He and Sidney Pulsifer pledged money for construction, but Tobias died a year later.
Lydia at this point decided to hold off on honoring the pledge.
- I can guess it was because Tobias died without a will, and I would imagine Lydia was not able at that time to give away a lot of money.
She had to make sure the estate was settled first.
- [Narrator] Pulsifer loaned money to the church for the construction, but 15 years later called for full payment of $30,000.
He threatened to sell the building if payment could not be made.
The church was unable to raise the funds.
- And that's when Lydia Bradley stepped forward and said that she would donate cash and real estate in order to pay Sidney Pulsifer his money.
So basically Lydia Bradley saved the church from being sold in the early 1880s.
- [Narrator] Lydia was a church trustee, following in the steps of Tobias.
The church was known as Bradley Memorial First Universalist Church until 1899.
Bond sales for the construction of Peoria's Grand Opera House were lagging.
Lydia stepped forward with a $15,000 investment which invigorated the sale of bonds.
The three-story, Queen Anne-style building opened on Hamilton Boulevard in 1882.
Healthcare services were not keeping pace with the growth of Peoria.
Nuns came from Iowa to provide medical care but needed a facility to do so.
Father Bach of Saint Joseph's Church reached out to Lydia for help.
- Shortly after arriving in Peoria in the fall of 1876, the sisters leased a small house on Southwest Adam Street from Mrs. Lydia Bradley for their first hospital and house.
- [Narrator] The Catholic dioceses formed the following year under the leadership of Bishop John Spalding.
The sisters eventually outgrew the house on Adams and turned to the bishop for help.
Isaac Underhill, in 1841, had built a house with 20 bedrooms at 248 Bluff Street, now called Glen Oak Avenue.
While there is no written record as to how, the bishop later became the owner of the house, but Lydia controlled the naming rights.
She preferred the name Bradley Hospital, but the sisters wanted it called Saint Francis.
- [Allison] They paid $1 from Bishop Spalding to acquire the hospital, but the naming rights were not included in the purchase agreement.
So two sisters visited Lydia Bradley to see if she would release the title of Bradley Hospital.
And for $2,840 she agreed.
- [Narrator] That was in 1891.
Three years later, Lydia was instrumental in the creation of Peoria's park system.
She gifted 130 acres that would become Laura Bradley Park, but the donation came with stipulations.
- As part of the agreement of donating the land for public benefit and a park, she required that the city develop a park board.
So she required the establishment of a park board that would take responsibility for the upkeep and maintenance and sustainability of the park for years to come.
- She and her husband, when they lost the six children, visited orphanages because they thought about establishing an orphanage, and she thought that's just caretaking.
These children aren't being trained to be independent and successful and educated, and so she changed her whole focus to education.
- Chauncey Rose had recently, about that time, he was getting a school off the ground called Rose Polytechnic, and Rose is now Rose-Hulman Engineering, a very highly regarded engineering school.
But at the time it was just getting off the ground and Mrs. Bradley actually traveled down to Terre Haute herself and talked to Mr. Rose to learn about what he was doing with his school and why.
- [Narrator] Lydia was looking at broader educational opportunities for young people as early as the 1870s.
The idea of a new school, however, was slow to evolve.
She included in her 1884 will a mention of a school to teach "Practical knowledge of the useful arts and sciences."
As a first step toward that goal, in 1886 she purchased a business to fill a new factory building.
- Fredonia, New York had the Fredonia Watch Company, bought the whole works, moved it to Peoria into the new factory building, where they called it, not surprisingly, at first the Fredonia Watch Company, then it became the Peoria Watch Company.
- [Narrator] The watch company closed in 1892 and Lydia had an empty building.
At the same time, the Parsons Horological Institute in La Porte, Indiana, had a burgeoning enrollment that exceeded its capacity of 100 students.
- Parsons had been in existence for six years.
It had run into some financial problems because it was very popular and they needed money go grow.
They were kinda stultified in their growth.
- Kinda following the same path that she did with the Fredonia Watch Company, she bought Parsons out and literally in the first catalog they show, the equipment, the students, everything from Parsons being loaded onto a train and taken to Peoria where they were installed in the empty watch company.
- [Narrator] Lydia's original intention as stipulated in her 1884 will was to wait until after her death to establish a school.
She sent William Hammond to Chicago to learn how established schools were started.
One school was the University of Chicago, where Dr. William Rainey Harper was its young, energetic president.
- Harper took an interest in what she was doing, came down, visited, talked to her, and among other things really pushed the idea that she ought to do it while she was still alive.
Actually, a fairly commonsensical approach.
What satisfaction are you gonna take if you're dead and this is helping people, when you could see it help people when you were there to interact with them?
- In his own agenda, Dr. Harper was trying to get affiliation agreements with other institutions that really would form the kind of a junior college transition to the University of Chicago.
- [Narrator] The seed was planted.
Bradley Polytechnic Institute would rise on 20 acres thanks to Lydia's half-million dollar contribution for buildings and equipment.
Groundbreaking was April 10th, 1897.
- Really in a fairly short period of time, they had constructed the first two buildings on campus.
That sort of coincided with Lydia's idea of, well, I've got a school of watch making here that's ready to go, move them out of the building that they were in in Fredonia, and into what's now West Lake Hall.
- [Narrator] Classes for 150 students convened in October.
They attended a four-year academy equivalent to a high school and two years of college.
However, Lydia did not view the two-year college as a feeder school to other four-year schools.
Coincidentally, Dr. Harper was the first president of the faculty.
The two leaders differed on another point: he did not support coeducation but Lydia felt otherwise.
- She made very clear that in the school that she started and endowed, men and women would be accepted on the same standards and with the same criteria.
- [Marilyn] The real tribute to Lydia was that Bradley was co-ed from the get go and Bradley had non-sectarian, non-political, non-sexist, very, very liberal in her desire that everyone be educated.
- [Narrator] School colors were chosen in the first year when Lydia walked into the school dedication on October 8th and saw red carnations.
Upon seeing the flowers she reportedly said, "I like red."
Dr. Harper agreed, adding, "And white shall go with it as its complement."
The school year was divided into three quarters with tuition $20 a quarter.
Horology students learned other crafts like optics and they attended class year-round.
Time brought change to the campus.
The academy for 9th through 12th grades was dropped.
Bradley developed a four-year curriculum in 1920 and became a university with graduate programs in 1946.
As enrollment in many programs grew, attendance at the horology school dropped to unsustainable levels.
- [Marc] What happened in 1961 was that they sold the contents of the school, the benches and the inventory and the tools and the equipment, to Gem City College in Quincy.
- We talked with Dean George Wild and he was very surprised that this was happening.
He had not been told that they were going to sell off part of his school.
- He was very upset that I even came over to talk to him.
And so he just sort of pushed me off.
So we turned around and we went back home.
- [Narrator] While Dean Wild may have been unaware the horology school was for sale, there were signs of its future.
Only two students made the transition to Gem City College.
The sale was completed a few months later, and the equipment moved to Quincy.
Some of the equipment used at Bradley is still in use at Gem City College today.
- [Chuck] One of Lydia's last gifts to the school about a year before she died, she advanced more money to build a gymnasium.
- [Narrator] She would not live to see its completion.
(spirited music) Before she died, she would ride to Springdale Cemetery on Sundays to place carnations on the graves of her family members.
Bradley University continues that tradition today.
Lydia passed on Thursday morning, January 16th, 1908, at the age of 91.
Her many contributions live on.