The village of Bradner in Wood County, Ohio, came into being when it was surveyed for a railroad.  John A. Bradner is thought to be responsible for the establishment of the Village of Bradner when he surveyed the area in 1875.

John Alonzo Bradner was born August 13, 1833, in Niagara Falls, New York, a son of William and Laura (Everingham) Bradner.  He spent his early life in the Niagara Falls area, pursuing his education at the Lewiston Academy, and in 1849 moved with his parents to Perry, Wood county, Ohio.  His father established a store at West Mill Grove and he became a salesman therein.  After clerking for six years he bought the store from his father and ran the business himself for a further two years.  In 1859 he moved to Fremont, Sandusky County, where he became manager of a warehouse for the ensuing four years.  In March, 1863, Mr. Bradner moved yet again, this time to Fostoria, Seneca County, Ohio, where he established a warehouse and stove business, conducting the same with adequate success for a period of nine years, or until 1872, when the demands made upon his attention by other business enterprises caused him to dispose of the store in order to devote his entire time to the development of the Hocking Valley Railroad.  While surveying for the railroad, Mr. Bradner was associated with Mr. Ransom Crocker in the creation of a town in Wood county, located on the line of this railroad, and the town was named in honour of Mr. Bradner.

The village of Bradner is now a very attractive and prosperous town with a population of slightly over one thousand.  Although the railroad still runs through Bradner, Amtrack closed the station there in favour of the one in Fostoria, 12 miles away.

The village of Bradner in British Columbia is located northwest of Abbotsford B.C. and dates back to about 1910.  Prior to this there were individual farms and a log school house in the area, but no real townsite.  In 1910 the B.C. Railway began running through the area and its rail line divided the property of Thomas Bradner on both sides of the track.  It was decided to make a stop here and this stop was named Bradner, after Mr. Thomas Bradner who had settled here in 1889.

Thomas Bradner was born January 5, 1854, in Tonnegarrow, Glencree, County Wicklow, Ireland.  He emigrated on his own to Canada in 1889, on a ship named the Sardinian from Londonderry to Halifax, and then took the train to Port Arthur (now Thunder Bay), Ontario where he married Sarah Willoughsby in the same year.  She was also born in Ireland, on March 17, 1863, in Balingary Gorey, County Wexford.  Two of his step-brothers, Joseph and Edward, immigrated to B.C. shortly after Thomas' arrival.  Thomas later sold his farm in Bradner B.C. and settled on another farm in Dewdney, New Westminister, B.C.

The village of Bradner started to grow between 1911 and 1913.  The first general store was built in 1911 with a post office.  A mill, and an Anglican Church soon followed, along with a real estate office.  In 1913 a new school house was built, replacing the former log cabin school house.  The town has since become incorporated into the City of Abbotsford, but still remains a charming rural agricultural village which is noted for its annual show of blooms, as the crops in the area are largely floral, particularly daffodils, a legacy of the many farmers of Dutch extraction who helped found that area's agricultural industry.