Bradley Cemetery

The story

Edward Bradley, his wife Nancy, and their family came to this area from Kentucky in the 1840s as members of the Peters Colony. They built a log home on a branch of Wilson's Creek in the southwest part of present McKinney. A hillside near the Bradley home became the site of a family graveyard.

The original cemetery covered about an acre of land. Though begun as a family cemetery, other members of the small community were eventually interred here. Eleven original headstones remain in the cemetery.

There are believed to be a number of unmarked graves, as well. South of this plot a slave cemetery was located in a wooded area, the graves marked with bois d'arc wood markers. The oldest documented grave is that of Edward Bradley (1787-1855).

Nancy Bradley (d.1880), and their son and daughter-in-law, Thomas T. (d.1881) and Sarah J. (d.1876) Bradley, are also buried here. Others interred in the cemetery include Dr. David Maclay (d.1859), six-month-old William B.

Pulliam (d.1863), and Susan R. Parrish and her child, who died within months of each other in 1861. The historic Bradley Cemetery serves as a reminder to Collin County residents of their area's heritage.

Texas Sesquicentennial 1836-1986