Bradley was born in Lee, Massachusetts and moved with his parents to Lorain County, Ohio, in 1835 where he attended the common schools. He moved to Wisconsin in 1849 and was employed in a sawmill in the pine region. He returned to Ohio in 1850 and built and operated a sawmill until 1852, when he moved to Lexington, Michigan, and engaged in the manufacture of lumber. He moved to St. Charles, Michigan, in the Saginaw Valley, in 1855 and engaged in the lumber industry. He purchased a mill in Bay City, which he operated from 1858 to 1864. He also engaged in the salt industry in Bay City, where he was also justice of the peace for three terms, a supervisor one term, an alderman three terms, and the first mayor of Bay City after it obtained its charter in 1865. He was a member of the Michigan State Senate 1866-1868. He also engaged in banking in 1867, becoming vice president of the First National Bank of Bay City.

Bradley was elected as a Republican from Michigan's 8th District to the United States House of Representatives for the Forty-third and Forty-fourth Congresses, serving from March 4, 1873 to March 3, 1877. He was not a candidate for renomination in 1876 and again engaged in the lumber business in Bay City and also was instrumental in establishing the first beet-sugar factory in the state. Bradley died in Bay City and is interred in Elm Lawn Cemetery there.