Sarah Hall Bradley was a prominent southerner whose legacy lives on through her charitable foundation, the W. C. and Sarah Hall Bradley Foundation. She was born around the late 1860s, married W. C. Bradley in 1887, and died in 1936. Her father was a wealthy Connecticut financer of shipbuilding, but she grew up in Columbus, Georgia. Her husband, son of a slaveholder in Columbus, Georgia, was a wealthy businessman who owned a cotton firm, and bought Coca-Cola with a group of investors in 1919. Sarah had two children, Forbes and Elizabeth. Forbes died a few months after he was born, but Elizabeth grew up to marry D. Abbott Turner. The two couples joined their charitable foundations into the Bradley Turner Foundation, which continues to give grants to universities throughout Georgia, including the University of Georgia. Sarah was a daughter of the American Revolution and a well-loved citizen of Columbus, Georgia for most of her life.
Sarah was one of 20 founding members of the Charter Garden Club of Columbus, Georgia. As noted in the club’s 1939 scrapbook, “the Club was deeply sadened [sic] by the loss of one of its most beloved members when Mrs. W. C. Bradley passed away on December 30, 1936.” The Ladies Garden Club of Athens, instigators of the Founders Memorial Garden at UGA, sponsored the admission of the Charter Garden Club into Georgia’s Garden Club organization in 1929. The clubs under this umbrella helped raise funds for the Founders Memorial Garden, and also contributed several monuments to the garden. The Charter Garden Club erected steps in the Founders Memorial Garden at UGA in memory of Sarah Hall Bradley circa 1940, around the time of the garden’s opening. The steps connect a sunken perennial garden to the courtyard behind the Founders House. Both Sarah and her daughter Elizabeth are remembered in gardens in Athens; Elizabeth is memorialized by the Elizabeth Bradley Turner Rose Garden at the State Botanical Gardens.
Sources:
“Charter Garden Club Scrapbook, 1937-1938.” Columbus, GA, 1938. Garden Club of Georgia records, box 46. Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Athens, GA.
“Charter Garden Club Scrapbook, 1938-1939.” Columbus, GA, 1939. Garden Club of Georgia records, box 47. Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Athens, GA.
“D. Abbott Turner (1892-1982).” New Georgia Encyclopedia. Accessed September 30, 2016. http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/business-economy/d-abbott-turner-1892-1982.
Daughters of the American Revolution. Lineage Book – National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution. Vol. XXIX. Daughters of the American Revolution, 1899.
“Founders Memorial Garden – College of Environment + Design.” Accessed September 26, 2016. http://www.ced.uga.edu/about/facilities/founders-memorial/.
Kennedy, Linda J., and Mary Jane Galer. Historic Linwood Cemetery. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2004.
“Sarah Hall Bradley ( – 1936) – Find A Grave Memorial.” Accessed September 30, 2016. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=22397791.
“W. C. Bradley (1863-1947).” New Georgia Encyclopedia. Accessed September 30, 2016. http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/business-economy/w-c-bradley-1863-1947.