William O'Connell Bradley (18 March 1847-23 May 1914) was the Republican Governor of Kentucky from 10 December 1895 to 12 December 1899 (succeeding John Y. Brown and preceding William S. Taylor) and a US Senator from 4 March 1909 to 23 May 1914 (succeeding James B. McCreary and preceding Johnson N. Camden Jr.).
Biography[]
William O'Connell Bradley was born in Lancaster, Kentucky in 1847, the uncle of Edwin P. Morrow. Raised in Somerset, he served in the Union Army during the American Civil War and became Garrard County prosecuting attorney in 1870. He was twice each defeated in his bids for the US House of Representatives and the US Senate, but he was elected Governor of Kentucky in 1895, taking advantage of the Democratic Party's divisions over the issue of free silver. While he advocated for Black civil rights, his civil rights legislation was blocked by the Democratic state legislature. As a US Senator from 1909 until his death in a streetcar accident in 1914, he opposed Prohibition.