Alva Bradley: The Greatest Sailor (And Friend) On The Great Lakes
- Dillion Liskai
- 1 day ago
- 6 min read
After Samuel Edison Jr. fled from Canada after his infamous role in the Mackenzie Rebellion of 1837 with only his life and the clothes on his back, the first place he stopped, literally running for his life, was in Port Huron, Michigan. In Port Huron, he met a stranger who would give him some advice and forever change the course of American history. That stranger would not only become one of Edison's family’s best friends, but he also boarded with the Edison family in Milan, Ohio, for a time at the Edison Birthplace, and by the time he passed away in 1885, he was one of the greatest Great Lakes ship captains ever to sail the waves. That stranger’s name was Alva Bradley, and while you may not have heard of his story before, his legacy forever shaped shipping on the Great Lakes and the communities that depend on them.
Alva’s story didn’t begin in Port Huron, and it didn’t start in Milan either. He was born in Ellington, Connecticut, which sits halfway between Hartford, Connecticut, and Springfield, Massachusetts, on November 27, 1814. When he was only about 9 years old or so, his family made the long trek from Connecticut to present-day Brownhelm Township in Lorain County, here in Ohio. Alva’s family ran a farm there in Lorain County, but farm life was less appealing than life on the water. Being located so close to Lake Erie only caused those dreams of sailing the Great Lakes to grow even larger, and when he was 19 years old, Alva decided that those dreams of his were far too big to ignore. He decided to leave home to become a sailor on the Great Lakes, which in the early 1830s was a significant risk. The work was dangerous, but I think Alva knew one important thing about his risk: a ship in harbor may be safe, but ships were not built to sit safely in a harbor. They were built to explore, which Alva set out to do.
At 19, he joined the Liberty crew, a fifty-ton schooner that sailed the Great Lakes. He worked incredibly hard on the Liberty, and worked even harder on the smaller Olive Branch, which served the Lake Erie Islands here in our neck of the woods. His hard work did not go unnoticed, and by 1839, only about 6 years after he first stepped on a boat, he was promoted to captain of the 47-ton Great Lakes schooner Commodore Lawrence.
Around the same time, he met Samuel Edison in Port Huron, Michigan. When Samuel Edison asked Alva where he should consider moving, Alva only mentioned one place: Milan, Ohio. You can probably imagine the confused look on Sam’s face when he heard “Milan” come out of Alva’s mouth. Sam likely thought Captain Bradley would point him to larger, more developed cities, like Detroit, Toledo, Cleveland, Buffalo, etc. What Samuel didn’t know that Captain Bradley did was that Milan was set to open the Milan Canal and that the economic opportunities there would be unlike any other. The chance for a new life for him and his family in Milan was too good to pass up, and on the advice of Alva Bradley, Samuel Edison moved to Milan and began constructing the Edison Birthplace.
Alva and Samuel created and fostered a very close friendship. When it was time to bring his wife, Nancy, and his four kids from Canada, Samuel chose Alva to sail to Lake Erie’s northern border to get his family back to Milan, Ohio. Captain Bradley became very close with the Edison family, and he lived with the Edison family in the Edison Birthplace during the 1840s. At the same time, he was purchasing a small fleet of ships on the Milan Canal, and he had also built a massive 104-ton schooner named South America on the Vermilion River with his business partner, Ahira Cobb. He also fell in love with Nancy Edison’s niece, Ann Dunham, who lived with the Edison family. They got engaged, but tragically, they were never married as Ann passed away from tuberculosis in 1845 at the age of 25.
Alva continued to expand his shipping operations, and in 1847, he had another new development. Samuel and Nancy Edison had just had their seventh child, a baby boy, on February 11th of that year. The Edisons knew that if that child were a boy, they would name him after one of Samuel’s uncles. The problem was that they did not know what that child’s middle name would be. They named the young boy “Alva” after their great friend, Captain Bradley. He was touched beyond words at the tribute to him. Throughout most of his young life in Milan, most people called Edison's seventh child “Alva” or “Al” instead of his given name.
While little “Alva” was running around Milan, his namesake was setting up a vast shipbuilding yard in nearby Vermilion. In fact, Captain Bradley’s home in Vermilion, which he built just a year after Thomas was born in 1848, still stands to this very day. He married Milan native Helen M. Burgess in 1852, and a year later, he and Cobb would formally found the Bradley & Cobb shipyards in Vermilion. Bradley & Cobb was only in Vermilion for six years when, in 1859, he bought out Cobb’s stake in the company and moved all of it, along with his family, to Cleveland. He then began to churn out brand new ships at a Thomas Edison-esque pace, building at least one ship yearly from 1868 to 1882. His footprint was massive, and his fleet had evolved from a few boats along the Milan Canal to a Great Lakes fleet that had never been seen before.
To give you an idea of how large a figure Alva Bradley was, when it came to shipping rates on the Great Lakes, all others looked to Bradley’s company to set the rates. His company's routes are some of the same routes that modern sailors and shippers on the Great Lakes follow today. He did not have to go to an outside company for insurance because his company was so large that it carried its own insurance. Not that he needed insurance: he never wrecked as a sailor, and as an owner, he only lost five of his ships to the depths of the Great Lakes. Although five ships may sound like a lot, considering an estimated 6,000 to 10,000 boats are at the bottom of the Great Lakes, five is a pretty minuscule number.
In 1880, he helped to found the Cleveland Vessel Owners’ Association, the forerunner of the Lake Carriers’ Association, which is still in Cleveland. He was one of the founding trustees of Case Institute of Technology (now Case Western Reserve University). He was also highly active in the temperance movement of the late 19th Century, even teaming up with fellow Cleveland resident and oil magnate John D. Rockefeller to attempt to prohibit the sale of alcohol here in the State of Ohio. Alva continued to do what he loved until he passed away in November of 1885, and he is buried not too far away from Rockefeller in Cleveland’s famous Lake View Cemetery. His son Morris became one of Cleveland's largest real estate owners. Morris’s son, Alva II, owned the Cleveland Indians for almost 20 years in the late 1920s.
The kid from Brownhelm had done well. Alva Bradley had turned his childhood dreams into reality, and in the process, he forever changed how shipping and transportation on the Great Lakes are done. His work in his time is why our slice of Lake Erie here in Ohio looks the way it does in our time. In addition to that, he changed history by telling Samuel Edison to move to Milan, Ohio. If you were wondering about that little “Alva” here in Milan, don’t worry. He did pretty well for himself, too, only becoming the world’s greatest inventor to have ever lived. In many ways, Thomas Alva Edison was made of the same “stuff” Alva Bradley was made out of, and just like Captain Bradley, Thomas left the world better than he found it.
Sources Used and Encouraged for Further Reading
Brownhelm Historical Association. n.d. “Brownhelm Historical Association.” Accessed July 11, 2025. https://www.brownhelmhistory.org/welcome
Case Western Reserve University. n.d. “BRADLEY, ALVA | Encyclopedia of Cleveland History.” Case Western Reserve University. Accessed July 11, 2025. https://case.edu/ech/articles/b/bradley-alva
Lucchesi, Emilie. 2024. “As an Underwater Graveyard, the Great Lakes Have Claimed Close to 10000 Ships.” Discover Magazine. https://www.discovermagazine.com/the-sciences/as-an-underwater-graveyard-the-great-lakes-have-claimed-close-to-10-000
Miller, Jay. n.d. “Cleveland Magazine Business Hall Of Fame - Alva Bradley.” Cleveland Magazine Business Hall Of Fame Inductees. Accessed July 11, 2025. https://clevelandmagazine.com/cleader/biz-hall/inductees/Details/alva-bradley/
Virostko, Duncan A. 2025. “The People of Dunhamsburgh, Pt. II — Dunham Tavern Museum & Gardens.” Dunham Tavern Museum. https://www.dunhamtavern.org/blog-3-1/people-of-dunhamsburgh-pt-ii
Wadsworth, Marietta. 1938. NOTES AND ANECDOTES CONCERNING THE LIFE OF THOMAS ALVA EDISON AS TOLD TO EUGENE C. REED ON NOVEMBER 30th AND DECEMBER 1, 1938 BY MISS MARIETTA WADSWORTH, Interview. Compiled by Eugene C. Reed. Milan, Ohio.
Dillon Liskai, a native of Clyde, Ohio, is a Bowling Green State University junior. He is pursuing a degree in Adolescent to Young Adult (AYA) Integrated Social Studies Education, specializing in History.
Dillon has been a Thomas A. Edison Birthplace Museum tour guide for three years. When not at school or the museum, he enjoys cheering on the Bowling Green Falcons, spending time with friends and family, and exploring local history.
Have a question for Dillon? Reach out via email at dliskai@tomedison.org!