Mary Isabella ("Belle") Hardie, born 5 Nov 1835 at Thornhill in Talladega County, Alabama, daughter of John and Mary Mead Hall Hardie. Married at Thornhill to Taul M. Bradford on 13 Feb 1856, son of Jacob Tipton Bradford and Louisiana Taul.

"He was born in Mardisville, Alabama, and died 20 Oct 1883 in Talladega, Alabama," a family history states. "They had 12 children."

Taul Bradford practiced law in Talladega until the outbreak of the Civil War. In June 1861 he joined the 10th Alabama Infantry Regiment as a major on the regimental staff. The regiment went immediately to Virginia, but it did not arrive in time for the first battle of Manassas. He resigned in August 1861 and returned to Talladega. In March 1862 Taul Bradford helped organize a new regiment, the 30th Alabama Infantry, of which he was elected lieutenant colonel. The 30th Alabama served in Tennessee and Mississippi, and it surrendered at the end of the siege of Vicksburg in July 1863. The members of the 30th Alabama were
paroled and then reactivated in a controversial exchange. That exchange left them vulnerable to charges of parole violation when they were assigned to the Chattanooga area in September 1863 after the battle of Chickamauga. Some time in early 1864 Taul Bradford again resigned and returned home, perhaps as a result of his health or the uncertainty over the parole. After the war he returned to the practice of law in Talladega. He was elected to the House of Representatives, and he was a member of the Congress that resolved the disputed election between Rutherford B. Hayes and Samuel J. Tilden. Taul and Belle Hardie Bradford had twelve children between 1856 and 1882.

Another family history states: "Taul Bradford died 28 October 1883, and Belle died 5 December 1885; both suffered from tuberculosis."

His newer tombstone gives his death as 5 December 1885. Family papers consistently confuse his and his wife's death dates, and it is uncertain whether the dates on the Taul Bradford's stone or those in the family papers are correct.


Their daughters Jennie and Alvah Hardie Bradford were brought up by their uncle and aunt, Maj. Joseph Hardie and Margaret Discretion Isbell Hardie.

(Talladega, AL) OUR MOUNTAIN HOME, Dec. 9, 1885, p2:
Death of Mrs. Bradford.
Mrs. Mary Isabella Bradford, eldest daughter of John and Mary M. Hardie and widow of Col. Taul Bradford, was born at Thorn Hill, Nov. 5th, 1835, being 50 years of age the 5th of last month.
She became a member of the Presbyterian Church on profession of faith in Christ in 1854, in her 19th year, at the time of a great revival under the preaching of the celebrated Dr. Daniel Baker, and under the pastorate of that faithful pastor, the Rev. A.B. McCorkle. She was married to Taul Bradford the 13th February, 1856, in her 21st year. She was the mother of thirteen children, seven living, six dead, five members of the church, two grown, five young. She departed this life last Sabbath morning at 6 o'clock, December 6th, 1885. In reflecting on the life of Mrs. Bradford we can think of no sentiment which better expresses our idea of her than the apostolic passage---…."