Bradley is a town in Penobscot County, incorporated on February 3, 1835 from the township T4, Old Indian Purchase. Named for an early, prominent settler Bradley Blackman who arrived in the area in the early 1800's, it annexed the adjacent unincorporated gore in 1859 to complete its current area.
With the coming of the Great Works Milling and Manufacturing Company in 1833, the local economy flourished, stores opened, and support grew for establishing a town government.
The population of 1950 (786) was essentially the same as that a century earlier in 1850 when it was 796.
Bradley is located on the east side of the Penobscot River, across from Orono and Old Town and just south of Milford.
