JEREMIAH BRADSHAW
Jeremiah Bradshaw, the pioneer, was born December 17, 1807, in Madison county, Kentucky, and is a son of Charles and Hannah (Bates) Bradshaw. He lived in his native state until eighteen years of age. The family them [sic then] removed to Guyandotte, Cabell county, West Virginia, where they remained until 1840. In that year they moved to Illinois, and located near Paris, in Edgar county. The family consisted at that time of the parents, three brothers and a sister. They left West Virginia in a small boat, which contained also their household goods and provisions for the journey. The father, one brother, Elias, and a cousin made the trip overland, taking with them cattle, horses and other stock. They passed on their route Terre Haute, which was then a small village. On arriving at their destination in Illinois, they began farming. Jeremiah lived in Illinois till 1847. In the spring of that year he removed to Wapello county, Iowa, and, the following September, went to Mahaska county, where he remained till early in May, 1851. About the middle of the same month he arrived in Cass county. Mr. Bradshaw was married in Ohio, January 15, 1828, to Miss Eliza Doolittle, a native of New York. By this union nine children were born, one of whom died in infancy. Those who attained maturity were Victor M., who was a member of the Fourth Iowa Infantry; Henry L. and Harvey, who were in the same regiment; the former was killed at Mission Ridge; Calvin, who was in the Twenty-third Iowa Infantry, and very severely wounded at Black River Bridge; Hannah, wife of G. I. Chizum; Lucy Aun, wife of _____ Allbaugh, who was born in 1836 and died in 1879, and Lydia, wife of ____ Jackson, living in Pottawattamie county; Sarah died at the age of three years; Mrs Bradshaw died in this county, December 1, 1863. In May, 1865, Mr. Bradshaw was married to Parmelia Ferrell; she died January 1, 1880, in Southern California, where her husband had taken her. In August, 1861, Jeremiah Bradshaw enlisted in company B,of the Fourth Iowa Infantry. He served fourteen months and was then honorably discharged at Memphis, Tennessee, where he had lain three months in the hospital, in consequence of a broken knee, which he received while on duty. He took part in the battle of Pea Ridge, Cotton Plantation, and a great number of skirmishes. On being discharged, he returned to Cass county, and was appointed recruiting agent, and in that capacity rendered valuable aid to his country, by enlisting many in the service. He still has in his possession some of his army accoutrements, which he brought back with him. For one year after closing his connection with the army, Mr. Bradshaw rented his farm, then resumed that occupation and continued it until the death of his wife, after which he moved into the village of Lewis. Previous to coming to the county he had been justice of the peace in Mahaska county. Soon after coming here he was made postmaster at Cold Springs, succeeding John Pettingill, a Mormon, who was the first postmaster in Cass county. In 1880, he visited California. The second election held in this county took place at his house, which was the largest building in this vicinity. He was then elected county judge, the first one of the county. In those days he kept hotel and stage station. Mr. Bradshaw is a member of the G. A. R.
Contributed by Cheryl Siebrass from "History of Cass County, Iowa. Together With Sketches of its Towns, Villages and Townships, Educational, Civil, Military and Political History: Portraits of Prominent Persons, and Biographies of Old Settlers and Representative Citizens." Springfield, Ill.: Continental Historical Company, 1884, pg. 350-351.
[NOTE: This biography follows immediately after the biographies of V.M. Conrad and William S. Townsend, who settled in Cass Co. prior to the settlers described below.]
The next settlers were Jeremiah Bradhaw (sic), Jesse Hyatt, Lewis Hyatt, James Sprague, John Stout, and V. M. Bradshaw and their families. These Argonauts left Mahaska county in the early part of May, 1851, and arrived at Cold Spring postoffice on the 15th of the same month. They did not stop here, but went on west to Kanesville, now Council Bluffs. On their arrival at that place, they held a council, and concluded that they had seen no place that suited them for a permanent location, as well as the country about what is now Oakfield, in Audnbon(sic) county. Thither they retraced their steps, bnt(sic) on coming to the Nishnabotna just west of the chosen land they found that stream was swollen by the spring rains, and filled the shole bottom, from bluff to bluff. The men, by hard struggles managed to cross the turbid torrent, and blaze the timber and stake out their claims upon the prairie, but they could devise no means to get their families, their wagons or tools across, so that they might improve their claims, so they turned their teams southward into Cass county, arriving at Indiantown in September, 1851. On their arrival they found no settlers in the county except W.S. Townsend, J.D. Campbell, and the Mormons, Mr. Conrad having gone back to Dubuque in the interim. They decided to remain in this vicinity, so they all purchased claims of the Mormons, who were about to leave. Mr. Bradshaw commenced keeping a store between the villages of Indiantown and Iranistan in 1852; this was the pioneer mercantile establishment of the county. In 1853, he removed into the latter village. Mr. Bradshaw pruchased this stock in Sidney, Fremont county, where he continued to buy what was needed to replenish it. On moving to Iranistan, he went down to Savannah, Missouri, and bought a large stock of dry goods and groceries, and bringing them here, put them in his store. He had kept dry goods, cutlery and a little bit of everything, except groceries, previous this, but for the latter necessaries, the settlers had to go to Council Bluffs. He operated this store until his entering the army, when he sold it. Mr. Bradshaw was a great hunter in his time, and has killed as many as seven deer in one day, when they were more plenty than now. Five wapiti or elk, have bit the dnst(sic) in one day, before his rifle. He was a great hand for pets and had at one time seven elk, two deer, two badgers and two sandhill cranes, two pair of the elk he had trained to work, in place of horses. A sketch of Mr. Bradshaw is given in connection with the history of the office of the county judge, he being the first to fill that important office.
Transcribed by Gloria Goltiani from "History of Cass County, Iowa. Together With Sketches of its Towns, Villages and Townships, Educational, Civil, Military and Political History: Portraits of Prominent Persons, and Biographies of Old Settlers and Representative Citizens." Springfield, Ill.: Continental Historical Company, 1884, pg. 504.
