William Francis Bradshaw (my great uncle) was born on the family farm in 1871, the second child of Patrick and Johanna Bradshaw. Besides showing up in state and federal census reports, he left no trace before leaving home around 1890, with his father, Patrick to head west. Patrick soon returned home to the family in Chateaugay , but William stayed out west.
He spent most of his short life working in the gold and silver mines of Colorado and Nevada. He married Annie McBreen, a girl from Colorado, and had one daughter. The family later moved to San Francisco where he died in 1927 at the age of 56.
My dad knew that uncle Will was a miner and lived out west, but he died young, and seldom if ever returned home for a visit. Our local paper “The Chateaugay Record and Franklin County Democrat” devoted several pages of every issue to the minutiae of family visits, dinners and trips to the county fair. There were lots of other records of other Bradshaw sons and daughters returning home from New York City or New England to visit the family farm but I found no mention of William Bradshaw, (known as “Billy” to his friends in Nevada) ever returning home for a visit.
A brief obituary shows up in the November, 11 1927 issue of the Record, It gives the basic facts, and contains the usual bland statements like “Many old time friends will learn of his death with regret.” Statements like that make my amateur historian/genealogist blood boil. What the hell does that mean? I want details, dammit. What was he like? Why did he leave? Why Colorado?
And then I stumbled onto the January 6, 1928 Edition Of The Chateaugay Record and hit the motherlode (mining reference very much intended). It was a re-print of an article from a newspaper in Tonopah Nevada (name unknown). It gave an account of his life that was as warm and detailed as the original obit was bland and perfunctory.
It’s a thoroughly wonderful account that tells the story of Billy Bradshaw, “The most popular foreman to ever check a shift in the mines of Nevada.” It describes his constant smile and hearty grip, his warm personality and the fact that his men would do more for him than any other boss on the property.
The details and the genuine affection make this piece is a genealogist’s dream. It’s a welcome ray of sunshine after researching the what must have been the grim, sad life of his older sister Catherine.
I won’t list all the details here – there’s a link to a timeline at the bottom of the page – but here are a few more facts:
By 1910, the family had moved to Goldfield, NV, about 26 miles south of Tonopah, where Billy was working in the Clermont Mine.
In 1918, William was living in Tonopah, NV, working as a mine foreman for the Tonopah Belmont Mining Company. Two years later the Federal census of 1920 showed that the family were still in Tonopah
Billy and family left for San Francisco, CA sometime after 1920, possibly due to declining health. The family story was that he suffered from a mining related disease.
He died in San Francisco on October 18th, 1927. He is buried in Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery in Colma CA.
It’s interesting that his obituary in the October 20th edition of the San Francisco Examiner in the San Francisco Examiner mentions his immediate family as well as his brother Richard, but makes no mention of any of the family Chateaugay, NY.
His only child Leona had a daughter, Patty. She attended a family reunion in Chateaugay in 1938 or 39. I’m still hoping to find her descendants, and I think I have found some leads on Facebook (I guess it’s good for something).
As usual, there are inconsistencies and unanswered questions, but I think there’s enough here to go to press (or at least click the “publish’ button).
Here’s a time line of his life
P.S. The rest of the articles in the page containing the obituary are a real treat. There’s an ad for a Hoot Gibson movie. I remember the name from the Beverly Hillbillies, but never realized he was a real actor . And the ads for shoes with those newfangled fasteners (zippers) are – dare I say it? – a real hoot. (sorry).