JEREMIAH BRADSHAW.
Jeremiah Bradshaw, who came more than a year later[*], shares with Vincent Conrad the honor of being placed in the local annals as one of the real founders of Cass county. By birth he was a Kentuckian, but in 1840, when he was eighteen years of age, he removed with the other members of the family first to West Virginia, and then to Paris, Ill. They left West Virginia in a small boat, which contained also their household goods and provisions for the journey, passing, on their route, the small village of Terre Haute. It should be stated, however, that the father, one of the three brothers and a cousin, made the trip overland, taking with them the cattle, horses and other stock. The other members of the fmaily consisted of a sister and the mother. On reuniting at their destination in Illinois, they settled down to the hardships and comforts of an agricultural life, Jeremiah remaining thus engaged until 1847. He then passed a few months in Wapello county and about four years in Mahaska county, Iowa, and on the 12th of September, 1851, arrived at Cold Spring, where he found about half a dozen Mormon families. There were also two charming Mormon widows who were supported and cared for by this remnant of the community. Mr. Bradshaw always asserted 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 Mormons Saints for the "loaves and the fishes."
Besides having his own large family with him, Mr. Bradshaw was accompanied by his son, V. M. Bradshaw and his young bride, Jesse and Lewis Hyatt and their wives, and James Sprague and family. They all located land near the present site of Oakfield, Audubon county, but were prevented from crossing the 'Botna river by the high water of that year, and returned to Cold Spring where they permanently settled.
[* more than a year later than Vincent Conrad, James Campbell, William Townsend and Peter Hedges]
From "Compendium and History of Cass County, Iowa." Chicago: Henry and Taylor & Co., 1906, pg. 48-49.
