FARMINGTON – In the mid-1800s, no one in Farmington thought young Orland Bradford was destined for great success or national infamy. Yet before his lonely death in King’s County Penitentiary at the age of 59, Bradford had achieved both.

“In Franklin County in his younger days,” a correspondent to the Lewiston Evening Journal recalled, “he was considered a bright, winsome lad, a trifle wild, perhaps, but nobody then believed that anything really bad would come to him.”

Bradford’s intelligence enabled him to do well in Farmington schools. He eventually became a dentist and established himself in New York City. Tall and thin, with striking black hair and mustache, he had a successful practice for most of his adult life. But something went wrong, and Bradford was sent to Sing Sing Prison for malpractice at the age of 52. There he met Dr. Joseph Courtney who was serving a 10-year sentence for forgery. After their release, they formed a counterfeit ring.

Eventually the pair hooked up with big-time criminal William Brockway, known as “the King of Counterfeiters.”

The law caught up with Bradford in 1895. Upon searching his room, secret service agents found two plates for making $100 bills and enough fiber paper hidden under his carpet to make thousands of dollars worth of counterfeit money.

Bradford opted to defend himself. He was convicted after 20 minutes of deliberation by the jury.

He managed to get his sentence reduced by steering authorities toward $100,000 in partially finished counterfeit bills. Also, he told them about burying plates used to make $500 gold certificates. He said they could find three more plates for making one-hundred-dollar bills at the bottom of the Harlem River.

Bradford proclaimed that he ought to get off with just a fine.

The judge thought differently.

When Orland Bradford entered prison he turned over to the warden a parcel containing five diamond shirt studs, 11 gold and diamond rings, two gold watches, one silver watch, and deeds to property, including land in Farmington estimated to be worth more than $40,000. Bradford hoped to regain his possessions upon his release from jail.

With good behavior, he expected to be set free in July 1900. However, just a few months before his release, he died in prison.

Luann Yetter has researched and written a history column for the Sun Journal for the past nine years. She teaches writing at the University of Maine at Farmington, [email protected]. Additional research for this column by UMF student David Farady.