Bradley and Hubbard

The Bradley and Hubbard Manufacturing Company was founded as a partnership between Nathaniel and William Bradley and Orson and Chitten Hatch with Walter Hubbard as a minor partner in the industrial town of Meriden, Connecticut. This union was given the name Bradley, Hatch & Company until the Hatch brothers sold their interest in 1854, and the company became Bradley and Hubbard.

Throughout the 1850?s and 1860?s Bradley and Hubbard manufactured only clocks. Factors including the civil war and westward expansion conspired to increase manufacturing demands, to which Bradley and Hubbard responded by offering a line of household items in addition to clocks.

Nathaniel Bradley?s 1865 decision to produce kerosene-burning lamps began a period of expansion and prosperity for the Bradley and Hubbard Manufacturing Company. The 1859 discovery of oil in Pennsylvania as well as subsequent advances in the acquisition and refining process presented this lucrative opportunity. Rapid expansion of the oil industry

Bradley and Hubbard expanded rapidly thought the 1880?s boasting over one thousand employees by 1888 who produced coveted products for sale in New York, Boston, Chicago and Philadelphia showrooms owned by Bradley and Hubbard. Traveling salesmen were also dispatched to canvas the nation.

The Bradley and Hubbard Manufacturing Company continued to thrive even after the deaths of Walter Hubbard in 1911 and Nathaniel Bradley in 1915 by continuing the production of their popular products. The Charles Parker Company purchased the Bradley and Hubbard Manufacturing Company in 1940. Operations continued throughout the 1940's as The Parker Company's "Bradley and Hubbard Division?.