The Town of Bradley was formally organized in 1903, but the first town meeting wasn't held till April 9th, 1904. This meeting was a joint meeting between the Town of Bradley and the Town of Tomahawk for the purpose of disposing of the property of the two towns. The meeting was held in Bay Mill. The two town boards met again on April 22nd, 1904 to determine the valuation of each town. Real estate and personal property for the town of Bradley was $266,734.00. The Town of Bradley received one safe, five chairs, one press, one clock, the total value of $129.61. Also, machinery included one road slusher (old), one slusher at Lewerenz's and one wheel scraper. (???) The Town of Bradley was also the recipient of $184.10 of the debt.
The first town officials were: M.L. Parshall, Chairman; Karl Kriigel, Supervisor; Jos. Anderson, Supervisor; Geo. R. DeLand, Clerk; John Hathaway, Treasurer; Geo. W. Smith, Justice of the Peace; Frank Harrington, Justice of the Peace and Albert Sill, Treasurer.
As the early minutes record, meetings were often held at roadside sites, private homes, the City of Tomahawk Council Chambers and finally at the first town hall built in 1979.
Elections were held in school buildings, the National Guard Armory, the Odd Fellow Hall in Tomahawk, and then at the town hall.
We are fortunate to have in our vault a complete set of minutes of the town. They passed from clerk to clerk for many years without losing even one!!!
The first town hall and garage building served our needs well until the addition of files, maps, computers and computer desks caused the offices to become crowded. The new addition was completed in 2003.
Both of the building projects were paid for with a building fund program by a yearly accrual to the building fund. This cost was experienced yearly over a period of years rather than borrow the money and pay interest, or to levy a large amount in one year. The past and present town boards can be credited with the foresight to plan for the future. The present facility is one the town can be proud of and should be sufficient to meet the needs of the Town of Bradley for many years to come.
