His practice grew with the growth of the population of the country about him.

He was elected county attorney, local counsel for the railroad, and judge of the circuit court.

He was mentioned for gubernatorial honours, and would perhaps have received the party nomination but for the breaking out of the civil war.

Not fancying the personal risks of the army, he hired a substitute, and this sealed his political fate; for Illinois at that time did not put in power men who sent substitutes to the war.

None the less, the lands and moneys of the most prominent lawyer of the place kept him secure, and human memories are short; so that, when Edward Franklin and others of the young men of Bloomsbury returned from the war, they saw upon the streets of the little town, as they had seen before they went away, the tall form, the portly front, the smooth-shaven face, and the tall silk hat of Judge Hollis N.Bradley, who had in every sense survived the war.
It was an immemorial custom in Bloomsbury for the youth who had aspirations for a legal career to "read law" in Judge Bradley's office.
Two of his students had dropped their books to take up rifles, and they came not back to their places.