An Illustrated History of the State of Washington, by Rev. H.K. Hines, D.D., 
The Lewis Publishing Co., Chicago, IL., 1893, page 402

	JOSEPH BRADEN, one of the substantial farmers of Walla Walla county,
Washington, was born in Tennessee, November 19, 183, and his brother and
partner, John Braden, was born in the same place September 25, 1836.. Their
father, William Braden, was a native of Kentucky, who married Mary Weaver, a
native of North Carolina. In 1837 Mr. Braden emigrated to Illinois at which time
Joseph and John were small boys. In that State he engaged in farming and
stock-raising, although he was a fine mechanic in wood. Farming was more
congenial, and, as he saw his family increasing, he decided to remove farther
west in order to better his condition; hence in 1848 he went to Sullivan county,
Missouri, where he was living at the time of the war.
	Not many families contributed a greater quota of men to the Union army than
did brave Mr. Braden as he and five of his sons shouldered their muskets and
marched to the defense of the flag. On account of age he was not long retained,
but lived to seethe return of peace and to welcome home all of his boys safe and
sound, although they had taken very active parts in the great struggle. Mr.
Braden died in 1866, at the age of fifty-five years, and his wife lived until
1887, when she died at the home of her son in Washington, at the age of
seventy-five years. They had reared a family of twelve children, ten of whom
were boys and two were girls.
	The subject of this sketch was the third and his brother was the fourth in a
family once so large but which now has only five living members. In 1865 the two
brothers concerned in this sketch crossed the plains with ox teams, consuming
five months and nine days on the road, but they reached their destination
safely, having had but one serious trouble. At Fort Hall the cattle stampeded
and several days were spent in finding them. They had wandered some forty miles
from camp. There were 300 wagons in this train, under the command of Captain
Knight, who is now living in Palouse county, about eighty-two years of age. When
the train arrived in Walla Walla our subject and Captain Knight formed a
partnership, bought land and started a stock ranch, which they continued for
five years, at which time John Braden bought out Captain Knight, and then began
the partnership of the Braden Brothers. They now own over 205 acres of valuable
land two and one half miles south of Walla Walla, where they have turned their
attention to grain, hay and fruit growing, having an orchard of all kinds of
fruit and where they conduct a successful farming business.
	Joseph Braden was commissioned by Governor Gambell of Missouri as a First
Lieutenant, and this commission Mr. Braden keeps as a of those days when human
life seemed very cheap. He was married in 1876, to Matilda Aldridge, who had
been born in Ireland, of English parents. Her father, Captain William Aldridge,
belonged to the English navy, and was a coast guard in Ireland for many years,
serving in the British naval service for more than fifty years. His birth was in
Suffolk, England, and he married Mary Bramley, a native of Danbury. Captain
Aldridge died in England, in the house in which he was born, in 1873, at the age
of seventy-eight years, his wife having died one year previously, at the age of
seventy-five. Mrs. Braden came to America in 1865 and to Washington in 1873. Mr.
and Mrs. Braden have had no family. The same home shelters the two brothers, as
Mr. John Braden has not married. He is a member of the G.A.R. post at Walla
Walla; and Joseph is Prohibitionist, and John is a Republican.

Submitted to the WA. Bios Project in October 2003 by Jeffrey L. Elmer

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Notice: These biographies were transcribed for the Washington Biographies
Project. Unless otherwise stated, no further information is available on the
individual featured in the biographies.