BRADFORD, a city of McKean county, Pennsylvania, United States, near the northern border of the state, among wooded hills, at an elevation of 1,415ft. 85m. S.E. of Buffalo. It is served by the Pennsylvania, the Erie, and the Buffalo, Roch ester and Pittsburgh railways. The population was 15,525 in 1920, of whom 1,845 were foreign-born whites; and was 19,306 in 193o by Federal census. It is the centre of an oil-field which has been producing since 1875 and is expected to yield large returns until 1975 at least. There are two pipe-lines to the seaboard, and about 20,000 wells in operation. The production for the county in 1925 was 2,575,089 barrels. The principal manufactures are petroleum products; lumber, wooden articles, and brick, from the resources of th- surrounding hills; tools and machinery needed in the production and handling of oil and natural gas; carbon brushes for electrical machines, steel sections and air filters. The aggregate output in 1927 was valued at $13,589,394. Within 3m. is the Allegheny State park of 65,000 acres.
Bradford was settled about 1827, and was at first called Little ton, after Col. Little, an early resident. In 1858 the name was changed by settlers coming from Bradford; New Hampshire. It was incorporated as a borough in 1873 and chartered as a city in 1879. The first test well was drilled in 186r. Production began in 1875; increased rapidly to a peak in 1881, amounting to 40% of the world's output in the decade 1877-87; gradually declined until 1906; and after that again increased, as a result of the application of the flooding process.