Milton Bradley was a pioneer in the game world, establishing himself as a game manufacturer in 1860, and many of today’s most popular games still bear his insignia. How can we forget Candyland, Connect Four, Twister and others? While he did not invent these games, his company was responsible for their marketing and development.

Bradley was born in Vienna, Maine on November 8, 1836. His parents Fannie and Lewis Bradley raised him in a middle-class household. At 11, he moved to Lowell, Massachusetts where he graduated from high school. He later moved to Springfield, Massachusetts where he met his first wife, Vilona Eaton. There, he worked as a mechanical draftsman. He was widowed in 1867, but two years later he met his wife Ellen Thayer, who had two daughters.
Milton Bradley got his secondary education at John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and Harvard University. He went on to be one of the most famous inventors and invented games we still play over a decade later. These include: mechanical puzzles, the Game of Life, the Smashed-Up Locomotive, and Croquet Bridge.
The Milton Bradley brand was family-owned for 124 years, producing several different board games, but in 1984 Hasbro bought it out for $350 million. That’s okay; they kept playing, improving and creating many of the same games that the Milton Bradley Company developed. Want to know more about the man and the company? Check out https://tinyurl.com/MBFunFacts.