Bridget Alice Bradshaw 1874 – 1957

Bridget Alice Bradshaw was born in Chateaugay, NY on January 18th, 1874, the forth child of Patrick and Johanna Bradshaw. She moved to Manchester, NH at the age of 16 (around 1890), to work as a domestic servant for Ephraim and Mary Rowell, and their son Charles. By 1896, Ephraim and Mary had both died. For the next 31 years, Charles and Alice were the only two residents at the Rowell home at 1053 River Road, in Manchester.

When Charles Rowell died in 1927, he left Alice his $200,000 fortune.  Google tells me that’s $2.8 million in today’s dollars. He also left $10,000 to John Delaney, Alice’s brother-in-law (Mayme’s husband).

This article from the Ogdensburg Republican-Journal 01-06-1927 includes some details, and even a brief interview with Alice. The article starts in the third column, below the opening panel of the Mutt and Jeff comic strip (what is it with these old comic strips and heavy objects being thrown at someone’s noggin?). According to the article, Alice left the Rowell home when Mary Rowell died in 1892, and returned when Ephraim died in 1896.

Sometime after Charles Rowell died, Alice’s sister Agnes Bradshaw Boss (who was separated from her husband), and her son Herbert moved in with her, and stayed for at least ten years. My Uncle Gerald (Richard Gerald Bradshaw) also lived with her for a year while attending St. Anselm’s college sometime in the thirties.

Sometime between 1940 and 1947, Alice moved to 756 Maple street in Manchester. The house (which is still there) is a multifamily home. It’s not a shack, but it’s much smaller than the Rowell house which had been her home for more than 50 years. As they say, her circumstances must have been greatly reduced. My Uncle John told me that her fortune was “Gradually dissipated by the machinations of crooked lawyers.”.

Alice died of heart diease on 05/09/1957 at the age of 82, at the Northwood Convalescent Home in Manchester. Agnes was listed as the informant on the death certificate.

She’s buried in New Saint Joseph’s Cemetery, in Manchester. Herbert Boss (Agnes’ son), who died in 1952 is also buried there.

A few other thoughts about Alice and her life:

Her name is listed In church baptismal records and Chateaugay, NY census records as Bridget. However, she seems to have gone by Alice for most of her life. Her death certificate listed shows her name as Alice B. Bradshaw. When her fathers estate was probated in 1926, the legal documents list her name as Bridget. I have a completely baseless theory that maybe she was trying to pass as non-Irish. Or maybe she just didn’t like the name Bridget.

While she must have faced some financial difficulties later in life, she wasn’t destitute. When she passed away she left $3,000 each to my grandfather (her brother) Patrick, and my uncle Gerald. That’s about $50,000 in 2020. John also mentioned that the main beneficiary in the family was her nephew Tom Shea.

Alice was another of my next door neighbors in Manchester. For a while we lived less than a mile apart on River Road (if you forget the fact that I missed her by 31 years). For some reason, I think about her a lot while walking the millyard or driving past her old house. I’m haunted a bit by this young girl who left a small farm in NY to move by herself to a bustling mill city, who never married, who worked as a domestic for most of her life, and then found herself alone and independently wealthy at the age of 52 when Charles Rowell died and left almost everything to her. It’s none of my damn business, but I wonder about the nature of her relationship to Charles Rowell. I fret over what her later years were like after she had to move out of the big house on River Road that had been her home for 50 years or more. I hope that Agnes was there with her in her last days.

Like all of these lost aunts and uncles, she’s a mystery, but she’s also a connection. She’s part of the story.

Thanks for reading. Please leave comments if so inclined. I’d love to hear from you.