HISTORY: Curly Walters stopped by to give us some history of Bradford.

It’s a sheet of information, all about Bradford in 1899.

“The population of the city was 17,305 people.” Now in 2018, it’s 8,540.

“There were seven volunteer fire departments: the Central Hose, the Citizen’s Hose, the Cornen Hose, the Era Hook & Ladder, The F.S. Johnson Hose, the Potter Hose, and the Liberty Hose Companies.” Now, of course, the city has a paid fire department with two stations.

This next section is our favorite.

“There were 30 barbers, 10 bakers, 2 Turkish baths, 11 bicycle shops, 5 billiard parlors, 29 boarding houses, 1 brewery, 6 cigar makers, 2 butter dish manufacturers, 11 shoe stores, 3 banks, 3 architects, 3 chiropodists, 8 carriage and wagon makers, 9 dentists, 65 dressmakers, 13 druggists, 10 fruit dealers, 7 florists, 55 grocers, 10 horseshoers, 23 hotels, 11 livery stables, 24 lawyers, 11 laundries (7 of them Chinese), 19 meat markets, 154 oil producers, 3 refineries, 4 opticians, 3 piano tuners, 5 photographers, 28 doctors, 14 restaurants, 1 silk mill, 2 table relish manufacturers and one clairvoyant named Lulu.”

Sounds like a busy city. We aren’t sure of how many of what businesses we have in the city, but we’re pretty sure we don’t have any Turkish baths, billiard parlors, butter dish manufacturers, or a silk mill, to name a few.

There’s some information on a day in the life of a police officer, too.

“On any given day, the local police had their hands full. In June, for instance, the police blotter had 43 arrests.” Five for warrants, 18 for drunkenness, six for disorderly conduct, four for trespassing, one for violating an ordinance and “14 people were given lodging since they had no place else to go.”

Some more about the year 1899: “The Civil War soldiers are nearly all above 50 years of age; and the Spanish American soldiers are in their early 20s.”

An estimated 558,000 of an estimated 16 million veterans who served in World War II are still alive today, with an average age of 90 or older.