Jeremiah Bradshaw

Our Iowa Bradshaws

The first known Bradshaw in our family to move to Cass County, Iowa was Jeremiah Bradshaw, my GG-Grandfather's younger brother.

Jeremiah Bradshaw

In 1998, I found reference to a Jeremiah BRADSHAW in Cass county, Iowa, when surfing the Web pages of the NAUVOO Historical web site. Investigation revealed that this Jeremiah Bradshaw was the uncle of my GG-Grandmother, Ann (BRADSHAW) VAUGHN. There was a section referring to the EXODUS, wherein were the Stories of the "Saints" in Iowa, and in particular the Pottawattamie county area, later known as Cass county. This caught my attention and I found entries about Jeremiah Bradshaw, made by contemporary Mormon historians, most notably among them being Lafayette Young (1848-1926), and one modern-day Iowa historian in particular, Floyd E. Pearce. Much of what we know about Mormons in early Cass County we owe to Lafayette Young's History. Young writes in his History about Jeremiah Bradshaw:

(Young, op. cit. p. 5). A passage in Young's History gives information garnered from an early settler:

"Several of the Mormon families left for Utah, in 1849-50, when Jeremiah Bradshaw and family, arrived at Cold Spring post office, May 15, 1851, they found but seven Mormon families there, namely the two Pettengills, and Messrs. Marsh, Bunnell, Warner, Ferrin and Wicks and their families. There were also two charming Mormon widows who were supported and cared for by the families named. Jeremiah Bradshaw succeeded John Pettengill as postmaster at Cold Spring. Mr. Bradshaw bought three land claims from Mormons. He was a much respected "personage." His home was the largest in Indiantown, and it served as a stage coach stop and hotel. The election of 1853 was held at his home. He was 53 years old when he enlisted in the Civil War and he served for 14 months. After being wounded while on duty he received an early discharge. Two of his sons also served in the War of the Rebellion, and one of them was killed. Bradshaw was a man of grace and fairness. He criticizes "old Ferrin"--not as a typical Mormon, but he sees Ferrin as a no-good opportunist. The phrase "good neighbor" had a potent meaning for the early settlers. It meant someone who helped with a barn raising, would lend a hand--or a horse and wagon--in a pinch, one who could be trusted, and not least, someone it was a pleasure to "gab" with."

INDIANTOWN: THE MORMON SETTLEMENT IN CASS COUNTY, IOWA
by Floyd E. Pearce

Part I - Summary

The first white settlement in Cass County, Iowa, was made by Mormons in 1846. This was also the first white settlement between Fort Des Moines and Trader's Point, on the Missouri River--a distance of 14O miles.
Aware of the heavy burdens pioneers imposed on local timber and food supplies, many Mormons made temporary encampments outside Winter Quarters (later called Florence and now North Omaha, Nebraska). Settlements stretched for 75 miles north and south on the Iowa side of the Missouri River. About twenty Mormon families built log cabins at Indiantown, the east-most point for temporary settlement. The Mormon village came to be called Indiantown because it was near the Pottawattamie Indian village of Mi-au-mise.
The site the Mormons selected in (what was not yet) Cass County was on a trail that came from Fort Des Moines. The trail is known by local old-timers as the "Old Dragoon Trail." At Mi-au-mise, the Dragoon Trail connected with the Pottawattamie Indian Trail and continued to Trader's Point, 45 miles away on the Missouri River.
Once the county-seat town of Lewis was founded in 1853, it quickly absorbed Indiantown. By the time the seven Mormon handcart companies of 1856 and 1857 made their long trek from Iowa City to Salt Lake City, little remained of the once promising settlement.

Part II - Roads and Trails

(Note: William Clayton was one of the early biographers and historians for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in the "Nauvoo years" 1839-1846 and afterwards during the Exodus West. He also was a wonderful song writer and poet)

The valley of the East Nishnabotna River had produced a favorable impression on Mormons as they journeyed through in their exodus from Nauvoo, Illinois, during the summer and fall of 1846. The entry in William Clayton's Journal for June 10th reads in part: "We had to pass some timber and a river before we arrived at their [the Pottawattamie] village which is situated on a very beautiful ridge skirted by timber and beautiful rolling prairie. . . . Their musicians came and played while we passed them. . . . They manifested every feeling of friendship and nothing unkind or unfriendly transpired." It appears that the Mormons followed the Pottawattamie Indian Trail from Mi-au-mise to Trader's Point.
Lafayette Young, in his commendable History of Cass County, writes: "Several thousands of them [Mormons] reached the Missouri river where Council Bluffs now is, in July or August of that year [1846] and after a short parley at that point they scattered up and down both sides of the Missouri river, and went into winter quarters. A small number, probably twenty families, got as far eastward as the Nishnabotna River and Indian Creek in this county, and on those streams, in the neighborhood of the present town of Lewis, . . . those twenty families built cabins, made ‘dug-outs' and fixed for the winter of 1846-7."
After a few words about the difficulties Mormons experienced in crossing Iowa, Young continues: "The Mormon settlement in the county at Indiantown, was merely a branch of the main camp on the Missouri river. Other small settlements were to be found in Mills and other counties contiguous to the Missouri river. The first year that they were in this county (and the same was true of all their settlements in western Iowa) they were almost destitute of all provisions. No supplies could be had for one hundred miles in any direction."
Young continues in his History: "A Mr. A. G. Pettengill, now a resident of Utah, and who resided at Indiantown during all the years that the Mormons were in the county, writes us from Salt Lake, in reply to an inquiry as to early days, that ‘we ground corn (some we brought with us) in mills whose burrs were made of common boulders, picked up in Union County. Deer and elk were plenty and afforded us all the meat necessary.'

Mr. P. also says they got some corn at St. Joseph, Missouri where there was a ferry in operation across the Missouri. In 1847 they raised enough sod corn to feed themselves and their stock. In that year also they secured the establishment of a post office at their settlement. The post office was called ‘Cold Spring,' although the settlement was known as Indiantown. Mr. Pettengill was the first postmaster, and from him we learn that the mail was carried to Cold Spring once-a-week from the main Mormon camp at Kanesville (now Council Bluffs). The mail carrier also went on to Union county and supplied the Mormon settlement at ‘Mt. Pisgah' in that country, with mail facilities."
The first mail route between Fort Des Moines and Council Bluffs came through Indiantown and began operation in April of 1849. Coaches followed the Dragoon Trail from the Des Moines River, skirted the south bank of Beaver Creek, crossed Dallas and Guthrie Counties and entered Cass County from the north. These were ". . . once-a-week stages which plied their lumbering way along the ridges of the ‘Coon and the Nishnabotna river between Fort Des Moines and Council Bluffs. . . ." This trail was one of the routes through Iowa used by emigrants going to Oregon country starting in 1843-4.
Indiantown was central to numerous trails in southwest Iowa. Three routes that took the 49ers across Iowa toward California converged there: the Dragoon Trail, a middle route called Clark's Road and the Mormon Trail to the south. Clark's Road was a more direct route between Des Moines and Council Bluffs than the Dragoon Trail. From the Des Moines River, the Road proceeded west on the south side of the Raccoon River and entered Madison County. The Road facilitated early settlement in the area as it coursed through Madison and Adair Counties. In Cass, the Road traversed mainly the southern third of the county and joined other trails at Indiantown.
The point should be made that the Mormon Trail of 1846 did not pass through Indiantown. At that time the Trail followed the ridge just south of the East Nishnabotna River, two miles distant. It was not until after 1849 that an alternate spur moved north (about three miles east of the Nishnabotna crossing used by William Clayton) to take advantage of the trail opened by the Argonauts.
In 1850, the first coach route by way of Clark's Road was put in service. Being on stage and mail routes assured a town of outside contact and held definite economic advantages. In the first year of operation " . . . the hack (coach) had no house at which to stop between Cold Spring and Winterset"--a distance of some sixty-five miles. (The terms "coach" and "hack" appear to have been used interchangeably by local settlers.) An early diarist, taking the hack route along Clark's Road, wrote in May of 1850 that he " . . . came to the East branch of the Nishnabotna crossed Over and went down the creek about a mile to Indian Town a Mormon Settlement of 7 families. . . . We then went 7 miles further and camped in the Prairie hauling wood from Indian Town." In 1851 a State road was surveyed from Fort Des Moines to Indiantown that roughly followed Clark's Road.
Another early commercial route went south to St. Joseph, Missouri. Other coach routes going southwest through Indiantown went to Macedonia and Glenwood, Iowa. All of these routes were important to local settlers for commerce and communication, and they facilitated the huge western migration.
All during the 1850s, the several roads that converged at Indiantown were also an important part of the Underground Railroad in southwest Iowa. Early settlers sometimes wrote about local abolitionist efforts. In Cass County these activities centered around a Congregational minister, Reverend George B. Hitchcock, who settled near Indiantown in 1853. A reminiscence by a settler reads in part: "One beautiful Sabbath morning a farmer who resided on the west side of the ‘Botna, drove down to the ferry, having with him in the wagon two ladies closely veiled. The farmer was apparently on his way to church, and the two ladies members of the family. The farmer was ferried to the east bank and drove to Lewis--from there he drove on eastward to Adair county, and placed the two ‘veiled ladies,' who were really the two negro men, safely at another ‘station' in Adair."
Reverend Hitchcock had first visited Indiantown in 1850 when he temporarily left his parish at Eddyville, on the Des Moines River, and made a wide tour through southwest Iowa. He and a companion were looking for territory in need of missionaries. They traveled by way of the Mormon Trail and spent a night in Indiantown with a Mormon family. The Reverend does not give the family's name, but he does say they were originally from New York.
When Lewis was platted and established as the county seat in 1853, it was situated on the State road - and also at the confluence of the alternate Mormon route. In the same year, the State road was extended through Indiantown and on to Council Bluffs. In 1854 the circuitous Dragoon Trail was considerably shortened. Local settlers built a more direct route, running diagonally across Cass County, between Guthrie County and the new town of Lewis.

Part III - Elections and Other Matters

"The first election held in the county took place in 1849, when there were none but Mormons in the county. . . . the settlers at Indiantown or Cold Spring, had the privilege of voting for the first time after settling there. The ‘Mormon vote' was worth having then, the population of the State being small, and the ‘leaders of the church' were treated with great consideration by men seeking political preferment. At the election mentioned, Orson Hyde, the leading Mormon at the Kanesville settlement, came out to tell the sovereigns at Cold Spring how to vote, but our informant assures us that they let ‘Orson say all that he had to say and then voted as they pleased' - which custom prevails in Cass to this day."
In the spring of 1850, V. M. Conrad, an early permanent settler, arrived in Cass County with his wife and child. In the fall the Conrads decided to return to Dubuque for the winter because their provisions were running low. "Mr. Conrad had left upon his place a man named Weeks, a Mormon, who left shortly after the return of Mr. Conrad and family. . . ." Mr. Weeks remained custodian of the Conrad cabin and land claim until the spring of 1852, a year longer than anticipated. Heavy rains and flooded streams in 1851 delayed the return of the Conrads.
Another passage in Young's History gives information garnered from an early settler:
"Several of the Mormon families left for Utah, in 1849-50, when JEREMIAH BRADSHAW and family, arrived at Cold Spring post office, May 15, 1851, they found but seven Mormon families there, namely the two Pettengills, and Messrs. Marsh, Bunnell, Warner, Ferrin and Wicks and their families. There were also two charming Mormon widows who were supported and cared for by the families named."
A sad entry in the 1884 History provides the name of one of the widows. Under the title "First Events," the following information is given: "In 1850 the little daughter of a Mormon widow named Breeker, was playing with some embers left from an emigrant party's fire, and was so severely burned that she died in a short time. This was probably the first death of a white in the county."

ELECTIONS

Elections were times of both social and political excitement for the early settlers. Reports of the election of 1851 differ somewhat in the two Cass County histories consulted in writing this paper.

The History of 1884 gives this account: "The first election in which Gentiles figured in was what is now the county of Cass was held at JEREMIAH BRADSHAW'S house in the fall of 1851, while Cass was a township of Pottawattamie county, and was for township officers. Fifteen men voted at this election. They were: Jeremiah and Victor M. Bradshaw (Jeremiah's son), Jesse and Lewis Hyatt, John and Elihu Pettingill, James, Jacob and Joseph Ferrin, John D. Campbell, A. J. Milschlagel, W. S. Townsend, Johnson Brandon, and Messrs. Weeks and Elliott. The election passed off without any incident of note occurring. The voters stayed around during the day, and had considerable amusement, telling stories, etc."
The recounting in Young's History is briefer and differs slightly: "Mr. Bradshaw recollects of an election being held in his house in the Fall of 1851, while Cass was a township of Pottawattamie. At that election, thirteen votes were polled, only nine of which were legal, as four transient young men voted, who were not qualified as to time of residence. Mr. Bradshaw was chosen a justice of the peace, by the voluntarily bestowed suffrage of his fellow citizens."
Young writes of Mormon social life in his History: "James Ferrin was the Bishop who took the tithings from the brethren at Cold Spring. Messrs. Warner and Bunnell were the preachers. The Mormons did not devote themselves entirely to agriculture and religion. There were two violin players in the settlement, and the folks gathered in each other's houses every night or two and held social dances. One of the Mormon preachers would dance with his parishioners while the other would not, but it is said that other one's lack of sin in that respect was more than made up for in another respect. The joists in the cabins being low, the tall men would take positions when they danced, that would allow their heads to extend up between the bass-wood poles that crossed over head."
Another excerpt from Young's estimable History alludes to scenes both sacred and profane: "Eli Watson informs us that the first Sunday that he was in the county was in April, 1852. He visited Indiantown . . . on that day. At the ‘Botna river, where the Lewis bridge is now, he found a man preaching to a small number of people, at Indiantown he found Flan (Philander) Cranney (who was the dancing master) with his class out ‘hoeing it down' enthusiastically if not artistically, while Sam Peets played the violin. . . ."
Undoubtedly Mormons held school for the young during the time they lived in Indiantown. No local records exist on this subject. But so far as the permanent settlers were concerned, the first school in Cass County was taught in an old cabin at Indiantown. That was in the winter of 1852-3, and the teacher was named Mr. Hazen.
Mr. Bunnell did not leave the county with the other Mormons. Young writes: "Christmas night, 1856, the Grove City house, a new hotel in Grove City was opened. . . . Dan Bunnell and George Brown were the violinists." Mr. Bunnell's name does not appear again in the local histories. It can be assumed that he eventually moved to Utah.
Even after Mormons left the county, their presence continued to be felt. H. K. Cranny and his brother Philander [Flan], together with their families, came to Indiantown in 1853. H. K. Cranny was a farmer and served one term as County Clerk. In 1859, both H. K.. and his brother left Iowa and moved to Logan, Utah, where, according to a local history, they became Mormons.
From Young's History, the following passage appears: "Three or four years ago the bones of a human being were exhumed on the Nodaway [River], in Edna township, near A. J. Stewart's mill, which had probably been buried there by the Mormons on their march above described."
Not far from the site of Stewart's mill, on the Mormon Trail between Mt. Pisgah and Indiantown, stands an attractive monument in Reno Cemetery commemorating the Trail. (The monument is in need of repairs.) No grave stones exist at the east end of this modest and tranquil, rural cemetery. According to credited local legend, the Mormon section is the area without markers. Any wooden markers would have vanished years ago. The grass is kept neatly mowed and a few of the mounds are barely discernable.

Part IV - Commentary

This paper would be remiss if it didn't make mention of the generally approving tone of early references to Mormons in this section of the country.
In Council Bluffs the battle between Mormons and "Gentiles" was largely political. Both sides struggled for control of the county and for representation at the state level. Contention wasn't resolved until about 1855 when Mormons were outnumbered by non-Mormons.
But in Cass County, an exclusively farming area, the mood appears to have been warm and accepting. An explanation could rest partly in the fact that subsequent settlers credited Mormons when they found the rudiments of "civilization" in place. Roads and bridges had been made and improved; coach and mail routes had been established; several homesteads had been secured and cabins built. To come upon an area as lovely and fertile as the Nishnabotna valley and find these amenities would surely contribute toward good feelings.
The single exception this writer knows of one sect abusing another is found in letters written by the Reverend Hitchcock. A particularly vehement passage is found in a letter dated August 13, 1855. Reverend Hitchcock exults at the Mormons' loss of political power in the county and maligns the religion: ". . . last but not least, Mormon rule is finally overthrown. . . . Indeed, we have felt that this [Mormon rule] was our most serious obstruction in building the walls of Zion. But we trust that their time is past, and that henceforth we shall see their influence more and more impaired, until their monstrous fooleries and licentious practices shall be forgotten forever. At the last election the question was, Mormon and Anti-Mormon. The latter were entirely successful, in that none of the county officers now are Mormons." Hitchcock fails here to mention that most of those who voted were Mormons.
To what extent was Reverend Hitchcock's view commonly held? He was a highly respected preacher. His outburst of rage can be partially attributed to the two years of postponements he experienced in his attempts to found a Congregational Church. It is possible he saw the "Mormon influence" as the main cause for what must have been a frustrating delay. Whatever the reasons, the Reverend would have been keenly aware that the Methodists had bought a lot the first day of sales in Lewis in 1854--and their church was organized the following year.
With respect to religion, the early settlers in Cass County were overwhelmingly Protestants. And they had little sympathy for views that differed significantly from their own. To them Mormonism meant polygamy-- something they were firmly opposed to. One can generalize and say that the early settlers in the county had a strong resistance to Mormonism but not to Mormons. Early pioneer life was so demanding that little time was left for hostility or a brooding preoccupation with the personal lives of those outside one's immediate family.
Quite characteristically, the History of 1884 has the gently approving passage: "These were not permanent settlers [the Mormons], nor could they be viewed in that light, as they did not come with the intention of settling, but simply stayed here awhile to recuperate, while on their way to Deseret, or Salt Lake City, Utah. Their location was in the vicinity of Indiantown, west of the Nishnabotna river. Among the most prominent of these were A. G. Pettengill and his brother, James, Jacob and Joseph Ferrin, Marsh, Bunnell, Weeks and Warner. Some of these people remained here until as late as 1852, when the last of them left for their destination. . . ."
In a similar vein, Young makes the observation: "Mr. Bradshaw assures us that he found the Mormons to be upright people, and good neighbors, and that he liked them all except ‘old Ferrin,' whom he considered to be a scheming, selfish old sinner, who simply stuck to the Saints for the ‘loaves and fishes.'" Again, to quote from Young's History, "Mr. Bradshaw arrived in the spring of 1851 and the last of the Mormons did not leave until 1852, so he had a year's residence with them and ample opportunity to learn what kind of people they were."

SOURCE: HISTORY OF CASS COUNTY: Publ. in Des Moines, Iowa, 1894: BIOGRAPHY from an interview with JEREMIAH BRADSHAW in 1880s:

Besides having his own family with him, Mr. Bradshaw was accompanied by his son, V. M.. Bradshaw and his wife; Jesse Hyatt and his wife; Lewis Hyatt and his wife; and James Sprague and family. They all located landed in Audubon county, near where Oakfield now is, but were prevented from crossing the 'Botna river by the high water of that year, when they returned to the place where Mr. Bradshaw settled, as above stated. Mr. Bradshaw recollects of an election being held at his house in the fall of 1851, while Cass was a township of Pottawattamie. At that election, thirteen votes were polled, only nine of which were legal, as four transient young men voted, who were not qualified as to time of residence. Mr. Bradshaw was chosen as Justice of the Peace, by the voluntarily bestowed suffrages of his fellow citizens.
In 1851 Mr. Bradshaw had seven pet elks, four pet deer, two badgers and a sand hill crane and "longed for an owl and a prairie dog." He had one pair of large elks that were taught to work like horses. These he used to frequently sleigh-ride behind having had harness made to fit them. They could trot as fast as ordinary horses could run. He finally sold the pair for one hundred dollars to a man from Savannah, Missouri.
A full biographical sketch of this old pioneer of Cass county appears under the head of County Judges, in the Representative chapter, he being the first to fill that important office.

Part V - Epilogue

Cass had been a township of Pottawattamie County until it was made a county in 1851. The county was not organized until 1853, the same year Indiantown was platted. Previous to organization, any plats in the county had to be registered at Council Bluffs. That the town wasn't platted while occupied by Mormons is understandable. For them, although several lived in Indiantown six and seven years, it was a temporary encampment. The history books tell us that at one time or another, business in Indiantown was comprised of a general store, a blacksmith shop, a short-lived real estate office, a carpenter and shingle maker--who preferred moonlighting as a dance teacher, a stage coach stop and a post office.
When the town was surveyed and platted, it was done by Gentiles--the permanent settlers. Even then, it took the urgent threat of county commissioners surveying a county-seat to be built a short distance to the east to force them to survey. (To the consternation of residents of Indiantown, the commissioners had shunned their village as the site for the county seat.) Granted, it is likely that a semblance of order was needed at Indiantown; a grid of streets would impose a pattern on the few businesses and homes freely scattered at the top of the hill. Then too, one has to consider the loss of one or two families who had already moved west a mile and a half-- with more sanguine expectations for yet another town that was being platted on Indian Creek. Whatever the reasons, by this date most of the Mormons had moved away and numerous permanent settlers, the early "names," were arriving.
Unfortunately for Indiantown, the site for the county seat, Lewis, was too close --a mile and half to the east. From the very beginning Lewis thrived, and within two years most of the businesses and residents had packed and moved to the promising new town. Reverend Hitchcock had settled near Indiantown, and he sensed the direction of the wind. When he established the First Congregational Church, it was in Lewis.
The other settlement, a mile to the west on Indian Creek, was named Iranistan. First planned in 1852, a year before Lewis, Iranistan had the advantage of a saw mill and a plentiful supply of oak and walnut trees. But the die was cast. Iranistan would hold its own only a short while longer than Indiantown. It was a matter of time before the residents of both villages capitulated and moved to Lewis.
Cold Spring, the post office at Indiantown, closed August 11th, 1854. The post office at Lewis opened the next day. The town of Iranistan also acquired a post office in 1854. Though doomed, the town showed considerable resilience. Its post office didn't close until April of 1857.
In spite of the fact that many unsold lots still remained at the top of the hill, a subdivision to Indiantown was platted and registered in 1856. Definitely a vainglorious gesture! An empty boosterism intended to lure someone, anyone, to ward off the encroachments of oats and corn. As was to be expected, the new lots didn't sell either.
But if little was left of Indiantown, the road through the few remaining buildings had become a busy highway for emigrants moving west. It had, indeed, become a veritable interstate. Pioneers, who had already come this far west and settled onto fertile farms, felt the excitement of those still moving west.

One of those settlers wrote: ". . . we lived on the State road, so that all the great western emigration passed by our door. From two to four times a day the ponderous stage coach, loaded inside and out, and drawn by four good horses, passed by. In that summer of 1857, five hundred Mormon emigrants passed through Lewis en-route to Salt Lake."
When emigrants in the handcart companies of 1856 and 1857 trudged through what remained of Indiantown, it is doubtful if they knew it had once been a Mormon settlement. Little was left of the town that local settlers continued to extol in glowing words: "So well was it known, that travellers . . . would begin to inquire for THE Indian town, near the Nishnabotna, before they were within [a] hundred miles of the place."
The road remains. The same dusty lane angles west from Lewis, crosses old ‘Botna, climbs the slow grade and curves slightly, near the modest summit--as a gesture, likely, to any specters that may linger at the crest of the hill. The white gravel road continues for a couple more sleepy miles. It courses across Spring Creek and across Indian Creek and past the site of Iranistan: along the exact route it has taken since the 1830s. It is a venerable and a perfect road that, through the years, has managed to shun almost all improvements. Except for the gravel, and fences sometimes crowding on both sides, the narrow road has changed little since it moved through Mi-au-mise, the village of the Pottawattamies."

ENDNOTES

Biographical SOURCES

Lafayette Young's History. A few words about Young (1848-1926) may be in order. The Dictionary of American Biography (vs.. Young, Lafayette) provides considerable information. In Cass County he was a newspaper publisher-editor from 1871 to 1890. As state Senator he promoted legislation for better roads and fair railroad rates for passengers and freight. He also served as U.S. Senator. From 1890 until his death he published and edited the Des Moines Capital and his editorials were nationally quoted. During the Spanish-American War he befriended Theodore Roosevelt in Cuba where he was a war correspondent. A warm exchange of letters continued until Roosevelt's death. He was a guest of the Taft party in 1905 on the diplomatic mission that transferred ownership of the Philippines from Spain to the U.S. He then continued on a round-the-world cruise. He served as newspaper correspondent in the Balkan states in 1913 and again in Europe in 1915 where he was held a short time by the Austrian government on charges of being a spy.
Alan H. Patera and John S. Gallagher, Iowa Post Offices 1833-1986, Raven Press, p. 37. It is likely that when Mr. Pettengill began his office as postmaster in 1846 his services were limited to communications between Mormon settlers. The first U.S. post office at Indiantown was established December 24, 1849. The first post office at Kanesville was called Kane and opened February 17, 1848 (p. 148). The postmaster's name was Evan M. Green.
"The Stagecoach Era in Iowa," by Kenneth E. Colton, unpublished thesis, State University of Iowa, 1942, p. 43. S. Swearington was the postal contractor.
1851 & 1852 survey maps of Cass Co., Recorder's Office, Court House, Atlantic, IA. The map that accompanies this article was based on the survey maps. Interestingly, there is no conflict between the route Clayton describes and the Mormon route indicated through Cass County on the survey maps.
Young, op. cit., p. 6. From this passage it is clear there were no accommodations for passengers or horses at Indiantown the first year.
William Edmundson, "Diary Kept by William Edmundson, of Oskaloosa, while Crossing the Western Plains in 1850," Annals of Iowa, Third Series, vol. 8, p. 517, May 25th. Mr. Edmundson is specific about distances traveled each day and the absence of accommodations. He laments sleeping on river banks. Even with wayside amenities, coach travel was generally uncomfortable. Travel by coach was also frequently difficult and passengers were often asked to walk up steep hills. Male travelers were sometimes expected to help push coaches across streams and through the numerous sloughs.
History of Cass County, Iowa, Continental History Company, Springfield, Illinois, 1884. p. 282.
Early Road Legislation Records and Road Survey Maps, State Historical Society of Iowa, Des Moines, IA. The State road surveyed from Lewis to Council Bluffs in 1853 completed an "official" route across southern Iowa that connected the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. Roads between the two great rivers began in 1839 when Congress appropriated $5,000 to the Territory of Iowa for ". . . opening and constructing a road from Burlington . . towards the seat of Indian Agency on the River Des Moines." (See History of Road Legislation in Iowa by John E. Brindley, State Historical Society of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, vol. 1, p. 51. The two rivers had been connected by roads since the mail route to Council Bluffs in 1849. So far as I can determine, this route was not the result of legislation or surveys. (For a brief account of "agency" and "military roads" in Iowa Territory, see Wagon Roads West by W. Turrentine Jackson--University of Nebraska Press, 1964, pp. 9-11.)
The first quotation in this paragraph is from the History, 1884, op. cit., p. 257. The election issue was county officers, and Cass was still part of Pottawattamie County at that time. This is too early a date for even the earliest permanent settlers in the county. The second, and longer, quotation is from Young, op. cit., p. 4.
Young, op. cit., p. 5. Jeremiah Bradshaw succeeded John Pettengill as postmaster at Cold Spring. Mr. Bradshaw bought three land claims from Mormons. He was a much respected "personage." His home was the largest in Indiantown, and it served as a stage coach stop and hotel. The election of 1853 was held at his home. He was 53 years old when he enlisted in the Civil War and he served for 14 months. After being wounded while on duty he received an early discharge. Two of his sons also served in the War of the Rebellion, and one of them was killed.
Young, op. cit. p. 3. According to the 1884 History, p. 761, the Reno flouring mill was built by A. J. Stewart in 1867. It was situated on the West Nodaway River close to the cemetery.
Young, op. cit. p. 5. Delightful entry! Bradshaw was a man of grace and fairness. He criticizes "old Ferrin"--not as a typical Mormon, but he sees Ferrin as a no-good opportunist. The phrase "good neighbor" had a potent meaning for the early settlers. It meant someone who helped with a barn raising, would lend a hand--or a horse and wagon--in a pinch, one who could be trusted, and not least, someone it was a pleasure to "gab" with. Both quotations in this paragraph are found in Young, P. 5.

SOURCE:

HISTORY OF CASS COUNTY: Publ. in Des Moines, Iowa, 1894
(book is 909 pages long.)

There are historical biographies of many individuals as well as the history of the state, Civil War information, geographical, data on the climate, etc., contained within this book. There are sections for each of the existing townships containing data on some of the existing businesses, social organizations, churches, etc. There is 'so' much information, that if an individual biography does not exist, chances are something can be found if the township is known and the individual was 'active' in the community, such as P. G.. Hindorff (my Great-Grandfather).

SHERIFFS
The first sheriff of Cass county, Francis E. Ball, was elected at the time of the organization of the county, in the spring of 1853. On the 6th of April of that year, he filed his bond for the faithful performance of the duties of the office. This was in the sum of $1,000, and his sureties were Johnson Bradshaw and J. E.. Chapman. Mr. Ball did not hold this office for any great length of time, resigning it in August, 1853.
F. E.. Ball came to Iranistan in the fall of 1852, to superintend the construction of the saw-mill which was afterwards sold to S.T. Carey, of Council Bluffs. After finishing the mill, he went in partnership with JEREMIAH BRADSHAW in the mercantile business. The partnership continued about one year, when Ball bought Bradshaw's interest, and continued the business alone as long as he remained in the place. He had a wife and two children. He was a man of small stature, very excitable and nervous in disposition. When he first came to the county, he left his family at home, and boarded for a time with JEREMIAH BRADSHAW, then with Nelson Spoor. When his family came out, they went to house keeping. They went to Wisconsin about the spring of 1866.

The family
and Descendants of JEREMIAH BRADSHAW

Jeremiah BRADSHAW (male), son of Charles & Hannah (BATES) BRADSHAW
B. 17 Dec 1807 @ Madison Co., Kentucky
1st Married /1/ 15 Jan 1828 @ (Lawrence Co.)?, Ohio to
Azuba DOOLITTLE
b. 1807-1808 @ New York

2nd Married /2/ May 1865 @ Cass Co., Iowa to
Parmelia FERRELL b. 1805-1810 @ Ohio (no children by this marriage)
d. 1 Jan 1880 @ California

CHILDREN of Jeremiah & Azuba Bradshaw (1) thru (8):

(1.) Victor M. BRADSHAW (male)
B. 2 Nov 1829 @ Lawrence Co., Ohio
M. /1/ 1851 @ Cass Co., Iowa to
Mary A. JOHN b. 1830-1834 @ Indiana

Children of Victor & Mary Bradshaw
1. Jeremiah BRADSHAW (male)
B. 1851-1852 @ Cass Co., Iowa
2. Mary E. BRADSHAW (female)
B. 1854-1855 @ (Cass Co.)?, Iowa
3. Albert BRADSHAW (male)
B. 1857-1858 @ (Cass Co.)?, Iowa
4. Elmer/ E. Francis BRADSHAW (male)
B. 1861-1863 @ (Cass Co.)?, Iowa
5. Carrie S. BRADSHAW (female)
B. 1866-1867 @ (Cass Co.)?, Iowa

(2.) Henry L. BRADSHAW (male)
B. 1832-1833 @ Illinois
D. 27 Nov 1863 @ Saylor Ridge, (Catoosa Co.)?, Georgia
M. /1/ 5 Apr 1858 @ Cass Co., Iowa to
Mary E. LONG
b. 1842-1843 @ Michigan / Illinois

Children of Henry L. & Mary E. Bradshaw:
1. Vida S. BRADSHAW (female)
B. ca. Jan 1860 @ (Cass Co.)?, Iowa

(3.) Hannah BRADSHAW (female)
B. Jan 1834 @ Illinois
M. /1/ 23 Aug 1854 @ Cass Co., Iowa to
Garrison I. CHIZUM
(son of William J. CHIZUM & Mary MATTHEWS)
b. 6 Jul 1829 @ Indiana
d. 1880-1900 @ (Cass Co., Iowa)?

Children of Hannah & Garrison I. CHIZUM:
(Issue: 2 more children)
1. John H. CHIZUM (male)
B. 1858-1859 @ Nebraska Territory
2. Carrie A. CHIZUM (female)
B. 1860-1862 @ (Cass Co.)?, Iowa
M. /1/ to J. P. ANDERSON
3. Jennie May CHIZUM (female)
B. 1863-1864 @ (Cass Co.)?, Iowa
4. William J. CHIZUM (male)
B. 1865-1866 @ (Cass Co.)?, Iowa
5. Ellena C. CHIZUM (female)
B. 1870-1871 @ (Cass Co.)?, Iowa

(4.) Lucy Ann BRADSHAW (female)
B. 1835-1836 @ Illinois
M. /1/ 10 Oct 1856 @ Cass Co., Iowa to
Morris ALBAUGH b. 1829-1832 @ Ohio

Children of Lucy & Morris ALBAUGH
1. Clarinda ALBAUGH (female)
B. 1857-1858 @ (Cass Co.)?, Iowa
2. Hester E. ALBAUGH (female)
B. ca. Feb 1860 @ (Cass Co.)?, Iowa
3. Edwin ALBAUGH (male)
B. 1861-1862 @ (Cass Co.)?, Iowa
4. William ALBAUGH (male)
B. 1863-1864 @ (Cass Co.)?, Iowa
5. Emma ALBAUGH (female)
B. 1865-1866 @ (Cass Co.)?, Iowa

(5.) Harvey BRADSHAW (male) "Harve"
B. 1836-1837 @ Illinois

(6.) Lydia BRADSHAW (female)
B. 1838-1839 @ Illinois
M. /1/ to ----- JACKSON

(7.) Sarah BRADSHAW (female)
D. at age 3 years @

(8.) Calvin BRADSHAW (male)
B. 1843-1844 @ Illinois
M. /1/ 1860-1870 @ (Cass Co., Iowa)
Helen (-------)
b. 1845-1846 @ Missouri

Victor BRADSHAW, from compiled with information found in "HISTORY OF CASS COUNTY: Publ. in Des Moines, Iowa, 1894" - pages 364 and 367, and data obtained from divers other sources:

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 "Vick" , (the eldest) son of JEREMIAH and AZUBA (DOOLITTLE) BRADSHAW, was born in Lawrence county, Ohio, November 2, 1829. Aunt Zoobie, as she was known, was born in New York, possibly the daughter of Luther & Eliza (RUMSEY) DOOLITTLE.

NOTE:
PENDING recovery of Census records - This info has not been DOCUMENTED or CONFIRMED yet:

Luther DOOLITTLE
b.: Abt. 1804, <Cayuga county, NY.>
married: 2 Jul., 1828, Newfield, Thompkins, NY.
Spouse: Eliza RUMSEY
b.: 1808/1809, Cayuga Co., NY.
died: 3 Feb., 1888, Odessa, Schuler Co., NY.
Her father: Isaac RUMSEY
Her Mother: Jane KEENE

Isaac RUMSEY
birth: 16 Sep., 1763, Goshen, Orange County, NY.
death: 1829, Enfield, Thompkins, NY.
married: Bef. 1799, <Orange County, NY.>

Jane KEENE
birth: 1770/1775, <Orange County, NY.>
death: Aft. 1840, Newfield, Thompkins, NY.

VICTOR BRADSHAW was one year old when his parents removed to Edgar county, Illinois. He resided with them, removing with them to Wapello county, Iowa's, in 1847,
and one year later, to Mahaska county, where they remained till the date of
their removal to this county (Cass County, IA.) 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 Bradshaw (Click on image), who was the first child born in Cass county.

Mary Elizabeth Bradshaw (CLICK on image)

Albert G. Bradshaw (CLICK on image)

Elmer Francis or E. Francis Bradshaw (no photo)

Carrie S. Bradshaw (CLICK on image)

In March, 1862, Mr. (Vick) 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 Harrisburg in that State and returned home.

He was elected county sheriff 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.

Fun facts: Lewis is the home of the original KOOL-AID.

More to Come!!!