Fifth Generation (Continued)
Family of Andrew W. BRADFIELD (17) & Sarah Jane NEWMAN

39. Reverend John Thomas BRADFIELD Senior. Born on 19 Dec 1886 in Darden, Henderson County, Tennessee. At the age of 74, John Thomas died on 28 Dec 1960.

Memoirs of John T. Bradfield - Baptist Minister

I was born the oldest child of Andrew and Sarah (Newman) Bradfield, Sunday morning December 19, 1886. My grandfather on my mothers side was the Rev. Henry Newman; on my fathers side was Elijah Bradfield and wife Elizabeth. My father died in the year 1892 of typhoid fever, when I was five years old. I have been married twice; first to Delma Deen Azbill on Sept 29, 1906. She died in 1920. My second marriage was to Beulah Bertha McAuley on March 24, 1924. I am the father of nine (9) children, four boys and five girls. I was converted in 1898 and united with the Mt. Ararat Baptist Church in 1907. The subject studied music in his early life and did evangelistic singing for six (6) years before entering the ministry in 1916. I attended Hall-Moody Institute, Martin, Tennessee, in the years 1916-1918 and classes at Union University in Jackson, Tennessee. The writer has been pastor of the following Baptist churches in Tennessee; Cub Creek Hall, Salem, Cedar Hill, New Prospect, Pleasant Grove, Bible Hill, Mt. Ararat, Bunches Chapel, Decaturville, Sardis, Sulphur Well, Bath Springs, Prospect, Darden Union, Huron and Reelfoot (near Union City); the West Hickman. Brownsville Baptist Church in Kentucky and Cottonwood Point, Oak Grove and Bokerton Baptist Church in Missouri. I also served as the Missionary Pastor of the Beech River Baptist Association in Tennessee for five years. I was forced to resign my last pastorate Bokerton Baptist Church at Portageville, Missouri in 1946 because of near fatal asthma. Notable incidents in my ministerial life, I have baptized more members into the fellowship of one church at one time then any other preacher in the Beech River Association. The subject has witnessed more conversions in one single service. I conducted a revival at Reelfoot Baptist Church, near Walnut Log, at the north end of Reelfoot Lake in 1930. The meeting resulted in baptizing seven (7) candidates in Reelfoot Lake, one of whom was a former nightrider who had to do with Captain Rankin and Taylor. He had lived more than 20 years in South Dakota. I have conducted the funerals of (4) M.D.'s and one preacher. The subject has conducted the funerals of (5) five suicides. During my pastorate of two years of the West Hickman Baptist Church, Hickman, Kentucky I conducted 40 funerals. I have done a lot of physical labor, but the hardest days work I ever did was to try to preach twice, conduct two funerals and eat a picnic dinner and marry a couple all in one day. Well this will suffice, I'm sure. I am now 73 years old and retired also am practically an invalid.

Written March 1, 1960

John T. Bradfield
JTB

Story provided by Lorraine Bradfield.

John Thomas Bradfield was born December 19, 1886, the eldest child of Andrew and Sarah Bradfield. His father Andrew died of typhoid fever when John was six years old. He studied music and was involved in evangelistic sings from 1910 to 1916. He attended Hall-Moody Institute, Martin, Tennessee, in years 1916-1918 and attended classes at Union University in Jackson, Tennessee. In 1916 he entered the ministry and was ordained a Baptist minister on the fourth Sunday of September 1917 at Mt. Ararat Baptist Church in Darden, Tennessee. His first wife Delma Dean Azbill died in 1920. While holding revival services at Sardis Baptist Church, in the fall of 1923, John met Beulah Bertha McAuley, a young lady of twenty years old. They dated and were married March 30, 1924 at the home of her parents Drew and Josephine McAuley in Sardis, Tennessee. John continued to preach and pastor churches in Tennessee, Kentucky, and Missouri until he was forced to retire from the ministry from failing health. He made several trips to Arizona to gain relief from asthma.

Article provided by Lorraine Bradfield.



The following is a story related by Beulah Bradfield concerning John Thomas Bradfield when he was a young preacher.

Rev. John T. Bradfield was holding a revival meeting one hot summer night. So many came to hear him preach that the church building was overflowing and people had to stand outside the church building with the open windows to hear the gospel preached. In those early days of Rev. Bradfield's preaching people would attend church came in their buggies and wagons drawn by horses. Parents often allowed their children to sleep in the bed of the wagon during the evening services. On one hot summer night, one team of horses, which were hitched to one of the wagons, became startled and ran away with a sleeping child in the wagon. Rev. Bradfield stopped his preaching and began to pray that the Lord would stop the horses and keep the child safe. After the prayer was over several of the men who were in the service left the church, went down the road to find the wagon. They didn't travel far, there was the team of horses and the wagon with the child still asleep a short distance from the church. The people thanked the Lord for answered prayer. John Thomas Bradfield wrote articles for the Lexington Progress newspaper for many years after his retirement from the ministry. He enjoyed writing. He passed away on Dec. 28, 1960 at his home in Darden after being bedridden for many years from a stroke.

Story provided by Lorraine Bradfield.


On 29 Sep 1906 when John Thomas was 19, he first married Delma Dean AZBILL. Born in 1885. At the age of 35, Delma Dean died in 1920. Buried in 1920 in Mt. Ararat Cemetery, Henderson County, Tennessee.

They had the following children:
i. Mable. Born in 1907. At the age of 4, Mable died in 1911. Buried in 1911 in Mt. Ararat Cemetery, Henderson County, Tennessee.
84 ii. Lola Gurtrue (1909-1984)
85 iii. Newman (1913-1981)
86 iv. Vaughn (1916-)

On 24 Mar 1924 when John Thomas was 37, he second married Beulah Bertha McAULEY, in Henderson County, Tennessee.

Flora McAuley (Beulah sister)
Mary and Homer Stanfield( Mary was Beulah sister)
Tray Mcpeake and wife (they taught school in Sardis.)
Mildred Medlin
Vera McAuley (Beulah's sister)

Mildred and Vera (little girls) went to the out house and stayed so long they missed the wedding. They were so mad, they wanted to see Beulah get married. After our wedding I stayed with my parents 3 three weeks while John fixed up his little log house in Darden. He put in a floor and built on a kitchen and bedroom. I remember the first car John bought for us, it was a new Model T Ford, February of 1925, the week after Maire was born. It had balloon tires and looked like a big car. In 1927 when Maire was two years old, she was playing in the yard when our rooster a white leghorn, jumped on her and spurred her face. She was cut real bad and she still carried the scares left by the rooster. We killed the rooster that next day . We had to let it go to roost so we could catch it. I cooked it and nobody would eat it, because it hurt Maire so I had to throw it out. One day in August of 1927, Sarah Jane Newman Bradfield became very ill at her home in Darden. Beulah lived close by in her home that John Thomas Bradfield had built for her. Wilou "Maire" was just a little girl and Sarah Jane was her grandmother. She fanned Sarah with a peach branch to keep her cool in the late summer heat. A few weeks later it turned very cold and Sarah Jane was so ill that she did not recover and passed away on September 12, 1927. Maire and Virginia were born there in Darden, in the log house. Doctor Daniel W. Bradfield rode on his horse to deliver them. Jean and Johnny were born here in Sardis in this house. Doctor Howell and the county nurse came to deliver them. Spurgeon was delivered by Doc. Howell up the road from the McAuley home in Sardis. Jean was under the bed when Spurgeon was born, the Doctor gave her a quarter, she dropped it and it rolled under the bed, she had crawled under the bed to get her quarter. When she heard the baby cry she asked the doctor, where did the baby come from and he said out of his black bag. Beulah had a garden and canned food all her married life, she spent many lonely hours at home while John was away preaching. John passed away December 28th 1960 from a stroke, he had been ill for many years. Beulah lived on alone in the house in Darden for about two years after her youngest son Johnny Junior Bradfield went into the U.S. Air Force in January of 1961, a few days after his father was buried in Mt. Ararat Cemetery in Darden. She then moved to Sardis to live with her mother, Josephine McAuley. Thus the home John had prepared for his bride in 1924 and where they had spent a large part of their married life, was left empty, except for the lifetime of memories within its walls. After many years the house no longer stands in the woods surrounded by pine and hard wood trees. In the Spring of 2000 Johnny Junior Bradfield ( son of Beulah and John Thomas) visited the old home place and dug up some daffodils which were blooming and brought them to his home in East Texas. Each Spring these daffodils bloom and he and his wife, Lorraine, say "these are Beulah flowers blooming".


They had the following children:
87 i. Willou Marie (1925-)
88 ii. Virginia Lee (1927-)
89 iii. Nilva Jean (1932-)
90 iv. Spurgeon (1935-)
91 v. Johnny Junior (1942-)

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