Seth Bradshaw's Family Life

                                                                 Seth about age 12

I am grateful for Dan Bradshaw providing me with an extensive history of the Bradshaw family, from which this article was edited. Seth Stuart Bradshaw was born in Wellsville, Cache County, Utah, on 19 November 1902. He was the 6th of nine children born to Charles Hampson Bradshaw and Robenia Glenn Stuart. The children were: Mary (1/1/89-4/20/92), Charles S. (4/7/91-1/3/1974), Elizabeth (1/17/93-3/7/1979), Margaret (9/15/96-4/1/1979), Ethel (3/8/99-5/20/1971), Seth (11/19/02-10/21/1978), Allen (10/6/04-10/6/1904), Jessie 12/2/06-5/25/1988) and Sarah 11/11/09-1/12/2001) 

Seth’s father built a new home in Wellsville when Seth was 3 or 4 years old. They moved to White’s Valley in 1910. It was about 45 miles from Wellsville and took all day on a dusty old road. It is located about 16 miles west of Tremonton. His dad dry farmed, as there was not enough water for irrigation. He grew barley and other grain. He also had a steam thresher and a couple of headers to help with the harvest. There was a well on the property and he had a horse that went around and around in a small circle to pump water into a tank. Seth always wondered why the horse did not get dizzy and fall over, but he was a faithful horse, and did this every day all summer. 

Seth was just under 12 years old when his father died. He finished the 8th grade in Wellsville, and that completed his schooling. He did say that he was known as the little tough guy in school. When it came time to get shots for diphtheria, he laughed at the other kids who were crying. When it came his turn, they gave him the shot and he feinted. So much for being the little tough guy. He also said they burned the school house down so he did not go beyond the 8th Grade. 

After his father died, Seth went to White’s Valley to live with his brother Charles and his family In early 1919, Charles and family moved to Montana, so Seth went to live with an uncle in Tremonton and worked for him on his farm. He also worked in the sugar factory in Ogden for a while. Seth liked to ranch and owning his own ranch was something he wanted all of his life, so he decided to go to Montana and stay with his brother Charles and his wife and family for a while. Seth rode in a boxcar with some cows, horses, chickens and furniture that belonged to Charles.. He had a toothache all of the way to Montana. The train stopped at several places along the way and he had to feed the animals. They stopped in Garrison, Montana, and somehow the chickens got out, and he had to chase them all over town, and get them back into the boxcar. He did have some help. 

He arrived at Charles place on May 20, 1919 and worked there for a while. Next he stayed with Herb and Teen Leishman. They were old friends from Utah and lived in the old Robbins house up near the airport. The house has since burned down. Seth rented the place for one summer to put up hay. He used the horses that belonged to the Robbins. It was all dry ground, as the canal had not been yet built. Mr. Robbins taught him how to irrigate. 

His mother and younger sister Sarah (Sally) came to Montana in 1925 and stayed for a year. Those were rough times, as grain sold for only 10 cents per bushel. Seth worked for other ranchers in Granite County to try to save some money. He leased the old Fred Parker place before he was married. 

He met Ruby Stuart, a 2nd cousin, and they courted and were married on October 24, 1927 in Drummond, Montana. They left a few days later to be sealed in the Cardston Alberta Canada Temple. They drove his Ford Model T and camped along the way. They stayed with some relatives in Alberta while they were there, and were treated very nicely. They came back through northern Idaho, to Spokane and then back to Drummond. They lived in the old house around the hill, which Seth called the old Bunker house. 

                                                         The Old Bunker Hill House

The first four children were born while they lived in this house: Verlin, Dan, Keith and Allen. This was during the depression. Times were really tough. They lost the ranch in 1934 and then rented it back.  Seth always used to say that you could .......

While living in the Bunker House many male friends came to visit and get their hair cut, as Seth was a reasonable barber. He also cut all of his children’s hair until they left home. “The only difference between a good and a bad haircut was about three days.” While living at this house Verlin was told that if he could sneak up on the Hungarian Pheasants and sprinkle salt on their tales he could catch them. So being a kid, Verlin decided to try this at about 6 or 7 years old. After several tries, he could not get close enough to salt their tales, and gave up.  

Over the years all of the children had the usual chicken pox, measles, whooping cough, mumps and other childhood diseases. They were saved by eating Ruby’s soup. At the old Bunker Hill house, there was a ditch that ran along the southeast of the house. This was a place to play, and build dirt roads, and use imaginary cars that were actually rocks. Seth must have had a desire to be a cattle rider in a rodeo. He would tie a long rope to a calf and then put Dan or Verlin on the calf, and hold the rope as it ran in circles. Amusing to Seth while the boys usually were bucked off. One Christmas morning Seth told the children to come and see Santa’s sled tracks in the snow outside the front door. Verlin was convinced that he had no problem seeing them, but Dan was not convinced. 

Seth always had a few milk cows. Seth and Dan went up to get a load of hay for the cattle and on the way back a terrific thunderstorm came up. Seth stopped the wagon to open a gate and lightning struck the fence right close to where he was standing. He quickly got the wagon through the gate and ran the horses home. While at the old Bunker Hill house, Seth was injured and developed blood poisoning in one arm, which was serious. Doctor Wilcox, came out and put hot packs on the arm and after a few days he was okay. 

In the spring of 1935, Ruby was very pregnant and driving herself to Philipsburg to see the doctor. As she approached her sister Phyllis’s home, 10 miles from Philipsburg, she realized she would not make it to Philipsburg. They took her to the back bedroom in Ernest and Phyllis’s home, where Ernest helped deliver the baby. He said “I have helped deliver horses and cows, so I guess I can do this too”. This special child was Carol Ann, the only daughter in the family. 

       Front Row: Keith, Carol and Allen. Middle: Verlin and Dan. Back: Ruby and Seth holding Larry

After the “Bunker Hill” house, the family then lived in what was called the house on the corner. Located on the corner of Highway 1 and the old Mullan road, they lived there for a couple of years and Larry was born in this house While living at the house on the corner, Seth had a nervous breakdown. Jobs were scarce and so was money. It was a difficult time for many during the depression. In 1937 the family decided to go back to Utah and visit and this seemed to do the trick as after a few days Seth began to feel normal, so they returned home and he was not bothered with this malady the remainder of his life They moved from there to a house located about 50 yards to the south of his brother Charlie’s home. This was the house that was later moved to the ranch. 

He worked for Joe Mitton, on roads in northern Granite County, with 6 or 7 workers. Seth spent most of his time cutting their hair. In the boggy areas they would build the roads using rip-rap, where they laid poles along the roadway and filled the spaces with rocks and gravel. Seth also worked on homes in Drummond, running a horse drawn scraper to dig dirt out for a basement; Next for the WPA for a couple of years; then the Skalkaho Highway for a while using a horse and scraper (The scraper tripped one time, catching him under the chin, which knocked him out); then back to ranching and putting up hay for other ranchers. He had mowers, rakes, bull rakes, forks and other tools and would hire other men to help out. 

In 1939 he and Ruby borrowed money from the Federal Land Bank and bought the ranch where he lived the remainder of his life. He had now fulfilled the lifelong dream of owning his own ranch.

It is as if everyday is the last of days

Reading the January 19th Philipsburg Mail created many unsettled emotions for me. I have wandered around my home picking up and reading a lot of Montana books and Granite County history this past week trying to again accept the obvious fact that as I grow older, more and more of the history I value is being negated, altered and discarded. The book that helped me settle my feeling the best was “Montana High Wide and Handsome” by Joseph Kinsey Howard and published in 1943. 

Cited from page 327-28 “Montana will enjoy its role in all of this, next to being actually a frontier, there is nothing better than being the jumping off place for one. Ask St. Louis or Seattle, Omaha or St. Joe! Certainly frontiersmen will always be welcome, always feel at home when they hear the traditional greeting ‘get down and come on in!’ There will be room for adventurers here, In Montana everyone has a quarter of a mile (ten times as much space as the average American can claim for himself) in which to stomp about and shout, or just lie and look up at the vibrant blue-green sky. It always reaches just beyond the horizon and the horizon seems always to be still within Montana. Between the sky and the horizon edge is rainbow’s end. It is there the sun rests in intermission while the spirit dancers of the aurora thread their way silent and a-tiptoe, through the grave measures of their minuet: there too are the Sand Hills, where wander shades of dead warriors in perpetual pursuit of phantom buffalo. There is the goal of all the mysterious old trails---the green well watered pasture; the brimming reservoir; the never failing wheat. Even peace is there. The sky is so big that the newcomers’ mighty air transports roaring into the sunset will loom no larger than did the covered wagons creaking over a mountain pass. For an instant they will be noisy and important, and there will be a flick of flame on their wings, celestial tribute to gallantry; then the sky will be still again…save for the high chorus of color, which one learns ro hear after awhile. The sunset holds infinite promise. Fire sweeps up from behind the Rockies to consume the universe, kindles the whole horizon, and all the great sky is flame; then suddenly it falters and fades atop the distant peaks and the lonely buttes, ebbs and is lost in secret coulees. The Montanan is both humbled and exalted by the blazing glory filling his world, yet so quickly dead; he cannot but marvel that such a puny creature as he should be privileged to stand here unharmed, and watch. It is as if every day were the last of days. So Edward Arlington saw the mountain county: Dark hills at evening in the west, Where sunset hovers like a sound Of golden horns that sang to rest Old bones of warriors under ground, Far now from all the bannered ways Where flash the legions of the sun, You fade—as if the last of days Were fading, and all wars were done. But the sun’s fierce ecstasy will return tomorrow night. And next year.” 

Many banks failed in Montana and Granite county and especially during the depression. By 1939, the only banks were in Deer Lodge or Butte and caused great hardship for the people. Thus began a concentrated effort by merchants and ranchers to form their own bank. A four page document on legal sized paper is present in the family possessions of J.D. Kennedy, a Granite county rancher, Under-sheriff, Sheriff, State Representative and Senator, that was the original petition to establish this bank. The document dated October 26, 1939 contains the original signatures of 89 businesses, ranchers and citizens of Granite county. The names are all listed in “Mettle of Granite County Book Two” page 32. These people contributed their hard earned cash to buy shares in this institution and named it Flint Creek Valley Bank which opened in April, 1940. The major share holders became Board members and at the close of business December 31, 1940 a document shows $339,010.13 in Resources and Liabilities. Officers were: H.A. Featherman President, R.D. Metcalf Vice-president, B.G. Paige cashier and Clarice Superneau Assistant cashier. The Board of Directors were: J.D. Kennedy, H.A. Featherman, R,D. Metcalf, John Rodda and B.G. Paige. J.D. Kennedy was president of the bank for many years and until his death March 4, 1949. 

Blurring the history, around 2000 it became Granite Mountain Bank (not established in 1940 as the sign hanging over the door says). Some descendants still have their original FCV shares. This institution has now been sold to Citizen Alliance Bank. What is not written and remembered shall forever be lost. Question is: what will happen to all those shares people have held onto for decades?