Bradford County was created on February 21, 1810, from parts of Lycoming and Luzerne Counties. Originally called Ontario County, it was reorganized and separated from Lycoming County on October 13, 1812, and renamed for William Bradford, who had been a chief justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court and United States Attorney General.

In 1805, there were 5,000 inhabitants in what is today Bradford County. For the most part, it was a wilderness.

An 1898 newspaper from Towanda, Pennsylvania, provided an insight into the dangers faced by those trying to carve out a home. Dealing with the wild animals who roamed the region, settlers planned and carried out a mass killing of panthers, bears, wolves, and other animals in 1805.

“There were a few small villages. Settlers were generally scattered about on farms. With the exception of these clearings, the country was still an unbroken dense forest. Wolves and bears had hardly thought of retiring before the encroachments of the settlers. Deer roamed the woods in herds, and elk still browsed in the mountain fastnesses. The backwoods clearings were constant foraging grounds for wild beasts. The few sheep, swine, and cattle the pioneers possessed were never safe from these marauders, and it frequently happened that these raids left the settler's stock enclosures entirely empty. Although hundreds of animals annually fell victim to the traps, snares, and guns of the pioneers, their depredations still remained a serious obstacle to the welfare of the settlers.

“ In 1805, at the suggestion of a long-suffering farmer named Buck, it was resolved to organize a systematic and combined raid on the haunts of the animals whose destructiveness individual efforts had but slightly checked. Mr. Buck's idea was to enlist everyone in the afflicted settlements who was old enough to carry a gun, and with this small army, form a circle around as large an area of the country invested by the animals they desired to assail as the number of animals warranted. The party was to be divided into companies of ten, under the lead and command of an experienced woodsman and hunter. When the hunting ground was surrounded, each party was to move forward simultaneously toward a common center, the march to be conditioned on such obstacles as streams, swamps, or hills that might intervene. As the raid was to be one merely of extermination, deer, elk, and other unoffending animals were not to be ruthlessly or indiscriminately killed. Every hunter, however, should be bound to lay low every panther, catamount (cougar), bear, wolf, or fox, young or old, that crossed his path.

"The pioneer's suggestion was unanimously adopted at the meetings of settlers held at convenient localities, and it was resolved to make two raids during the year. One was to be in June, when the animals they sought would generally be found with their litter and families of young brought forth in the Spring, thus affording opportunity to put much future trouble out of the way with ease, and the other raid was fixed for November during the nutting season. Every arrangement for the successful and smooth working of the novel campaign was perfected during the winter and spring, and when the day came for the grand raid to commence, 600 men, each armed with his flintlock, a hatchet, and a hunting knife, and provided with two days' rations, were ready for the march.

 "The number of men who were to participate in the raid was known for days before the appointed time and warranted the selection of a wide area of country to hunt over. A wild region, which was known to furnish all the requirements of the animals to be proceeded against, extending, from the head waters of Wyalusing Creek and taking in portions of Lycoming and Luzerne counties, it was thought, could be profitably thoroughly scoured by a large party, and a circle of hunters, five a mile, was formed in that region. This gave an area 40 miles across, or 120 miles around, to close in upon.

 "The day before the day appointed, each command of 10 men had received orders to be at a place designated at 6 o'clock in the morning, and to be in position to start forward half an hour later. The arrangements were all successfully carried out. The circle was to be reduced by 10 miles on the first day. Each hunter had strict orders not to shoot except when he saw some animal plainly and within easy range, to avoid the danger of shooting a fellow hunter by mistake for moving, but not seen in the brush. During the first day's march through the woods and swamps, all around the great circle hunters, the results of the raid, according to the returns of the hunters whose shots had been successful was as follows, old and young: Panthers, 40; wolves, 58; bears, 92; foxes, 20; catamounts, 13. The second day's march brought the hunters close together at the center of the area, and also drove into close quarters a large number of wolves, bears, and panthers, besides many deer and a few elk. One gentleman who was a captain of one of the divisions of the party said that the scene presented by these hemmed-in beasts is one he never could forget.

The hunters stood in ranks five deep above them. The panthers yelled furiously from the tops as they leaped from branch to branch to escape, but rifle balls met and followed them in all directions. Bears huddled together, covering their cubs with their bodies, growling fiercely and showing fight even against such fearful odds. Wolves sneaked and snarled about, showing their great white teeth and looking a fierceness they did not possess. The frightened deer and elk ran wildly to and fro within the circle and frequently made desperate rushes and cleared the wall of hunters at a bound.

Short work was made of the corralled beasts of prey, and when the slaughter was over, the record for the two days' hunt stood: Panthers, 72; wolves, 90; bears, 115; foxes, 37; catamounts, 28. A number of deer and elk were also killed by hunters who could not resist the temptation. Scores of both could have been slain with ease. Foxes and catamounts (cougars), being less belligerent than bears and panthers, and more wily, escaped with less slaughter, although very numerous in the woods. The bounty on the animals killed amounted to $550. The skins had an aggregate value in those days, not less than $2,500. The bears killed yielded at least 35 pounds of highly prized food to each hunter. But the benefit that resulted to the farmers from the raid in protecting their pastures and farmyards overbalanced tenfold all the other profit there was in the hunt. The November raid proved also very successful, and the destructive prowlers of the woods never regained the foothold in the region they so long enjoyed."

In 1895, as a result of unregulated hunting and trapping, deforestation, and pollution, the Pennsylvania Game Commission was organized. It now has 700 full-time employees, as well as thousands of part-timers and volunteers.

Agriculture is an important part of Bradford County’s economy in 2025. Under Pennsylvania’s Farmland Preservation program, since 2004, 20 farms and 4800 acres have been preserved in the County.