Here is another fascinating and detailed biography from cousin and fellow family history enthusiast Mary Bradshaw McNally. As an added bonus, Mary included a historical map of Providence showing the streets our ancestors lived on. Enjoy!
Margaret Gertrude Bradshaw was born on July 29, 1877 in Chateaugay, New York, the 6th of Patrick Bradshaw and Johanna Sweeney’s 11 children. It is not certain how old she was when she left the family farm at the northern edge of New York State and moved to New England, but she and four of her sisters were living either in New Hampshire or Rhode Island by the early 1900’s.
Margaret – also listed as Maggie and Margeruite on official documents – was married to Nicholas Shea in Providence, Rhode Island in May 1902, when she was 24 years old. She was likely eager for her parents to meet him as she and Nick traveled back to Chateaugay just after the wedding to visit Patrick and Johanna on the farm.
On Oct. 3, 1903, Maggie and Nicholas had a son, Thomas. No birth certificate can be found that states where they were living when he was born, but the birth date appears on other official documents. When Thomas was a year and a half, the family’s address for the 1905 Census was 61 Carpenter St. in Providence. Also living with them at this time were two of Maggie’s sisters ( our great-aunts), Anna Steward – a widow, whose husband had recently died by suicide, and her youngest sister, Agnes, 19 years old, who had recently left the farm to join her sisters in Rhode Island.
On October 12, 1906 the Chateaugay Record reported that Mrs. Nicholas (Maggie) Shay, Mrs. George Stewart (Anna) and Miss Annie Bradshaw (this must be Agnes) and Richard Bradshaw of Providence, R. I., and Mrs. John (Mary) Delaney and Miss Alice Bradshaw of Manchester, were called home for the illness of their mother Mrs. Patrick (Johanna) Bradshaw. From this, it appears that brother Richard had joined his sisters in Providence for a bit. It must have seemed quite dire to gather most of the siblings back at the farm, but their mother Johanna lived 2 more years and died in 1908.
However, after leaving Chateaugay, the sisters arrived back in Providence only to suffer a more shocking death less than 2 weeks later. Anna, who was now managing a boarding house, was accidentally shot and killed by a boarder named James Priest on October 26th. Maggie was tragically present when the shooting occurred. She had left her son Thomas with Anna while she went shopping, and upon her return found Anna in the parlor with James Priest. Little Thomas (3 years old) had found a bullet casing on the floor. Priest apparently had the firearm it belonged to and while trying to explain how the weapon operated, it fired and shot Agnes (he obviously lacked a few essential details of its operation). Maggie had her back turned to help Thomas get his coat on when the shooting occurred, so did not visually witness it, but it certainly must have been a quite traumatizing experience for the 2 of them. Anna died within hours at the hospital. Maggie had to testify at the murder trial and it was reported in the Providence News Democrat that she nearly fainted during her testimony, and was allowed to recover in the deputy chief’s office, where she was given a “restorative”. (You can get the full story here in Pat Bradshaw’s post on Anna Bradshaw Steward ).
Maggie and Nicholas also had a daughter, Agnes Christine Shea, who was born the 14th of December 1909 – likely named after Maggie’s younger sister Agnes. Unfortunately, baby Agnes only survived about 6 weeks; she died 5th of February in 1910. Around the time of the baby’s death, the family was listed in the 1910 Census as living at 62 Vernon St, Providence. This address is just a few blocks from their residence in 1905 on Carpenter St. At the time of this Census, Thomas was 6 and his father Nicholas was running his own barber shop. There appear to be 2 boarders also living at this address– a Mr. McGraw and his wife Anna.
Maggie’s husband, Nicholas Shea, was from Yarmouth, Nova Scotia and had emigrated to the US in 1894 when he was about 20 years old. He was naturalized as a citizen in 1905. His sister, Catherine Marsden, also emigrated to Providence with her husband and son in 1910, and his parents James and Elizabeth Shea, applied for emigration in 1918 to live with their daughter Catherine who resided at 112 (or 118?) Carpenter St. in Providence. This is just down the street from where Nicholas, Maggie, and Thomas lived in 1905, and even closer to Maggie and Nick’s 1910 address. As happens with immigrants, they find homes close to others of their clan. The boarding house where Anna died was also in the vicinity.
By 1915 Maggie and family have moved again. The census record lists them as living at 19 Pallas. St. They didn’t go too far as this is just around the corner from their last residence on Vernon St. But they did increase their boarding business as the dwelling lists 11 lodgers living at this address, with Nicholas listed as head of household. Their family name on this census is spelled Shia. Interestingly, Nicholas’ sister Catherine Marsden is living at 19 Pallas St 15 years later in the 1930 Census. A very tight circle indeed.
Nicholas registered for the draft in 1918 when he was 44 years old. His draft card lists his address as 33 Wood St., so they had apparently moved on again within this 3 year period. The boarding life may have worn its course. Wood St. is a fair distance away from the old neighborhood, relative to their other moves. The draft card states that he lives with his wife Margaret, that he is a Salesman for the Brewing Company, and that he is of medium height, slender build, has blue eyes and grey hair. It’s nice to get the visual.
It would have been nice to see a picture of Margaret around this time, as sadly she died 7 months later on April 27th, 1919, at 38 years of age. The death certificate states she died a sudden death of unknown cause, possibly nephritis – kidney failure. It seems like such a vague ending. You can’t but wonder what her life was like after the death of her sister and particularly what her health was like through the years. The death certificate states she died at 27 Somerset St, and that this was her place of usual residence. Hmmm….this would mean they moved again. Of course, these official documents do get some things wrong – they list her birthplace as Schenectady, New York – which seems a bit random. But perhaps Nicholas had a bit of an accent and that’s what they recorded when he said Chateaugay. Or maybe he had forgotten where it was his wife was from after 17 years. A present-day real estate listing for 27 Somerset St. says it was a multi-family home built in 1900. Perhaps they were moving up to a newish home.
With Maggie’s death came more change. By the next year, in 1920, their son Thomas, who was nearing 16 years had moved to live with his Aunt Agnes in Boston. Maggie and Agnes did seem to be close, but you wonder whose initiative it was for Thomas to go live with her? His father, Nicholas, remained in Providence and is listed as head of household at 124 Broadway St. in the 1920 Census (back in the old neighborhood). He is still working at the Brewing company. Living with him is his brother Frank who worked in jewelry shop, Frank’s wife Kate who had migrated from Ireland in 1910, and their 1 year old daughter Katie. Nick’s mother Elizabeth and father James were also living with them. A fairly full house and maybe financial concerns prompted Thomas’ move to Boston. Just a month after the census, Frank died of pneumonia at age 27.
Nicholas Shea’s family members who had moved to Providence all eventually died there and are buried in St. Anne Cemetery, as was great-aunt Margaret. Nicholas however died in 1943 in Chicago–working as a barber again- and he is buried there.
I will add that it seems their son Thomas did very well for himself. He married Florence Herberger in Manahattan in 1930 and moved to Delmar, New York in the Albany area, working in car sales. They had one daughter, Barbara born in 1951. As mentioned in a story about Agnes Bradshaw Boss (the aunt who took Thomas in after Maggie died), Agnes moved to Delmar NY at about age 73 after her other family members had passed, and so Thomas perhaps returned the favor and cared for her.
