V. M. BRADSHAW
At the October election of 1865, V. M. Bradshaw was elected sheriff of the county; and assumed the reins of office the 1st of January following. He was re-elected, at the expiration of his first term of office, and served in this capacity, four years in all. V. M. Bradshaw, son of Jeremiah and Azuba (Doolittle) Bradshaw, was born in Lawrence county, Ohio, November 2, 1829. He was one year old when his parents removed to Edgar county, Illinois. He resided with them, removing with them to Wapello county, Iowa, in 1847, and one year later, to Mahaska county, where they remained till the date of their removal to this county in the spring of 1851. He was married in that year, to Mary A. John, a native of Indiana. By this union there were five children -- Jeremiah, who was the first child born in this county, Mary E., Albert, Elmer E. and Carrie S. In March, 1862, Mr. Bradshaw enlisted in company B, of the Fourth Iowa Infantry, and served till the close of the war. He was in the battle of Chickasaw Bayou, Arkansas Post, Jackson and siege of Vicksburg. He was then transferred to the Veteran Reserves and served a year in Pennsylvania. He was discharged at Harris burg in that State and returned home. He was elected county sherriff in 1867 and served two consecutive terms. In 1856 he was assessor and assessed the whole county. He was clerk of the first four or five elections in the township, also of the first county election of Cass county. He has held the office of township trustee, and was city clerk of Lewis four terms, and resigned the office in the spring of 1884. He is a member of the G. A. R. and of the I. O. O. F. In the latter he has filled all of the offices of the lodge, except that of treasurer.
Transcribed 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. 364, 367. [Note: Page 365 is a portrait of W. W. Jameson and page 366 is blank.]
[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 Bradshaw], 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 Audubon] county. Thither they retraced their steps, bnt [sic but] 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 dust] 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.
Victor M. Bradshaw was the first settler in Brighton township. He left the settlement in the neighborhood of Indiantown and came to this township, and took up a claim at what is known as Ludley's Grove. He afterward removed to Cass township, and as a sketch of him appears in that township history, with which he is more identified, it is unnecessary to speak of him at length here.
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. 588.
