Lydia Moss Bradley (July 31, 1816 – January 16, 1908) was a wealthy bank president and philanthropist notable for her philanthropic works. She founded Bradley Polytechnic Institute in Peoria, Illinois, in 1897. Earlier life Lydia Moss was born on July 31, 1816 in Vevay, Indiana, alongside the Ohio River. She was a daughter of Loudoun County, Virginia native Zealy Moss and a granddaughter of Revolutionary War chaplain Nathaniel Moss. Her mother was Fauquier County, Virginia native Jeanette (Glasscock) Moss. According to her National Women's Hall of Fame biographical sketch, Lydia Moss "grew up on the frontier" and was "educated in a log home." In fact, she lived in Vevay with her family until she wed Tobias S. Bradley on May 11, 1837. At the age of 31, she and her husband then moved to Peoria, Illinois. Over the next three decades they prospered in real estate and banking. Despite her husband's death in 1867 and the prior deaths of all six of their children, Lydia Moss Bradley continued to work in business and pursued philanthropic interests, particularly in the areas of healthcare and education. Under her control, the value of the Bradley estate quadrupled. Works In 1875, Bradley became the first female member of a national bank board in the United States when she joined the board of directors of the First National Bank of Peoria (now part of Commerce Bank). Bradley was also one of the first American women ever to draft a marriage contract (a "prenuptial agreement" in modern terms) to protect her assets, which she filed when she married Memphis businessman Edward Clark in December 1869. The couple divorced in 1873. Bradley gave land to the Society of St. Francis to build a hospital, now known as the OSF St. Francis Medical Center. In 1884 she built the Bradley Home for Aged Women to care for widowed and childless women, and funded the construction of the Universalist church in Peoria. Bradley then won a U.S. Supreme Court case in 1903 over a land dispute. She also helped to establish the first park system in Illinois. Bradley originally donated more than 30 acres of land to the City of Peoria in 1881 with instructions to create a park in memory of her longest lived daughter, Laura Bradley. The land remained unused for a decade, which prompted Bradley to offer an additional 100 acres should the city form a