Ira S. Bradner, M. D.

Ira S. Bradner, M.D., is a lineal descendant from Rev. John Bradner, a native of Scotland, the first Presbyterian pastor of Goshen, who settled there in 1721, and died in 1732.

His father, Thomas Wickham Bradner, was born and resided in the Town of Goshen, Orange Co., where he was a farmer during his active business life. He was a promoter of the interest of the Orange County Agricultural Society, of which he was a member, progressive in his ideas of the development of the industries of the county, and a thorough-going business man. Both he and his wife were members of the Presbyterian Church at Goshen, of which he served for many years as elder.

His wife, Susan Smith, bore him the following children who reached manhood and womanhood: William Fisk, succeeded to the homestead farm and there died; Eliza, became the wife of David Redfield, a merchant of Goshen, where she died; Dr. Ira S., subject of this sketch; Rev. Thomas Scott, graduated at Princeton College, and is a Presbyterian clergyman at Glen Cove, L.I.; Harriet, died unmarried; Harvey, was a farmer in Goshen, and there died; Susan Emily, is the wife of Joseph Young, of Goshen; and Caroline.

Many members of the Bradner family have made the medical profession their life work, and several have been identified with the practice of medicine in Orange County.

Dr. Ira S. Bradner was born in the town of Goshen, June 2, 1820. He received his preparatory course of education at Farmers’ Hall Academy, Goshen, entered Princeton College, from which he was graduated with the usual honors in the class of 1840.

After his graduation he began the study of medicine with Dr. J. W. Ostrom, of Goshen, attended two courses of medical lectures at the Medical Department of the University of New York, from which he was graduated in 1843.

He first settled in practice at Scotchtown, Orange Co., where, by his professional skill, perseverance, care, and devotion to his patients, he soon won the confidence of the community and esteem of his fellow associates of the profession. While in New York purchasing medical books to replenish his library, about 1850, Dr. Bradner, through curiosity alone to know what it contained, purchased among other books the “Hahnemann Organon,” the study of which soon convinced him of the superiority of its theory of the practice of medicine, and gradually he began to adopt the new practice. So successful was he in the treatment of difficult cases by this method, that although a member of the Orange County Medical Society, and already inducted into a successful practice in the old school of medicine, he resolved to adopt the new theory, which he accordingly did about 1852.

He remained at Scotchtown until 1857, when he settled at Middletown, where he has since continued the duties of his profession.

Upon the organization of the Homeopathic Medical Society of Orange County, on Nov. 12, 1851, in which Dr. Bradner took an active part, Dr. A. G. Hull was chosen president, Dr. DeWitt C. Jayne, vice-president, Dr. Bradner secretary and treasurer, and Dr. Wm. L. Culbert, corresponding secretary.

Dr. Bradner has not only officiated as secretary and treasurer of the society since, a period of twenty-nine years, but has frequently contributed valuable statistics, and ably discussed medical topics before the society, in which his counsel has always commanded the confidence of his professional brethren for candor, frankness, and practical utility.

Dr. Bradner, and a few other medical men of Orange County, are the founders of homeopathic practice in the county, and to them alone is due the credit and honor of having met the obstacles incident to the introduction of this new theory and its successful establishment here.

Dr. Bradner was the first homeopathic physician in Middletown, and is one of the oldest practitioners of medicine in the county.

In 1863, Dr. Bradner was appointed assistant surgeon of the Fifty-sixth Regiment New York Volunteers, under Gen. Van Wyck, and remained with the regiment while stationed on Saybrook Island, and at Beaufort, S.C., and just before the close of the war he received the appointment of surgeon of the same regiment.

His wife is Sarah Jane, daughter of John G. and Susan (Bronson) Houston, of Scotchtown, whom he married Oct. 5, 1843. She was born July 18, 1819.

Their children are Julia E., graduated at the Women’s Medical College and Hospital in New York in 1878, and is a successful practitioner in Middletown; Susan, is the wife of Odell Hathaway, of Newburgh; Fred H., born Oct. 6, 1849, graduated at a homeopathic college in New York, and afterwards practiced medicine in Middletown until his death, in January, 1880; John Fremont, was graduated at the Albany Law School, and is a lawyer and police justice at Middletown; and Isabella G.