Bedford and his brother Robert went west between 1900 and 1910 to seek their fortune and to escape the tuberculosis that was potentially impacting their health in Decatur Co. TN. By 1910, Bedford was working as a school teacher in Texico near Clovis, New Mexico. Bedford returned to Tennessee and taught school for a while at Red Walnut, Haney and Davis schools. He later was named as RFD mail carrier for the Middleburg Road mail route. He met Glenna Jackson on his route and they married in 1919. Bedford died in 1926 leaving five young girls for Glenna to raise on her own.