Moody-Bradley House

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Moody-Bradley House in Freestone County. Now settle in, because this one house carried two families and a whole lot of Texas history inside its walls. It starts in 1860, when a man named William Lewis Moody built this place for his wife, Pherabe Elizabeth Bradley.

Brand new marriage, brand new baby, the son they called W.L. Moody Jr., and a brand new house in the Greek Revival style to hold it all together. That's a lot of new things happening at once, and Moody was clearly a man who moved fast.

Six years later, in 1866, the family packed up and moved to Galveston. And Moody, a Confederate colonel, would go on to become a major civic and business leader in that city. So the man had ambitions beyond Freestone County, and Galveston was where he aimed them.

But that left a house sitting here, and in 1869, Moody sold it. Now here's the detail that tends to make people slow down and listen a little closer. The buyer was Francis Meriwether Bradley, his own father-in-law, Pherabe's father.

The price was two thousand eight hundred dollars. In gold. Not paper, not a handshake, not a favor between family.

Gold. Bradley was a notable county merchant himself, a man who understood the weight of a fair transaction. And that house became his.

He lived there with his second wife, Rebecca, who passed in 1870, and then with his third wife, Martha, who lived until 1913. Bradley stayed in that house until his own death, which tells you something about a man who knew a good home when he was standing in one. The house held on through the years, the way solid things do when they're built right.

Then in 1967, the Fairfield History Club purchased it and restored it to its original grandeur. A community reaching back to 1860, deciding the story wasn't finished yet. And thanks to them, it isn't.

What the marker says

Built in 1860 by William Lewis Moody for his wife, Pherabe Elizabeth Bradley, after the birth of their son, W.L. Moody Jr., They moved to Galveston in 1866. This Greek Revival style house was sold to his father-in-law, Francis Meriwether Bradley, in 1869 for $2800 in gold. Moody, a Confederate colonel, became a major civic and business leader in Galveston. Bradley, also a notable county merchant, lived in this house with his second and third wives, Rebecca (d. 1870) and Martha (d. 1913) until his death. The Fairfield History Club purchased the house in 1967 and restored it to its original grandeur. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1967.