My Genealogy Hound

ROYAL C. BRADSHAW.
Royal C. Bradshaw, trustee of Mission township, Shawnee County, is a veteran of the Civil War and makes his home in section 33, township 11, range 15, in the above named township. He is the owner of considerable real estate in Topeka, and is possessed of exceptional business ability. He was born in Chautauqua County, New York, August 4, 1842, and is a son of Solomon and Mary (Scott) Bradshaw.

Solomon Bradshaw was born in Connecticut in 1801, and died at the age of 84 years. He married Mary Scott, who was born in New York State in 1810, and died in 1894, just 10 years after the demise of her husband. They became the parents of seven children, as follows: Henry, deceased; Tirzah, wife of Levi Holmes, of Jamestown, New York; William, of Jamestown, New York; Nancy, now a resident of Fredonia, New York, who married Henry Boujean, and after his demise married William Bloomer, who is also deceased; Archibald, who lives on the home farm near Mayville, New York; Royal C.; and Margaret, who has attained distinction as an author and poet, among her best appreciated efforts being the novel, “My Heart Remembers How.”

Royal C. Bradshaw was educated in the public schools of his native town, and was reared on the old homestead in Chautauqua County. After the breaking out of the Civil War, he enlisted from Cattaraugus County, New York, June 1, 1861, as a private in Company H, 71st Reg., New York Vol. Inf., under Capt. Thomas Rafferty and Col. George B. Hall. He was mustered into service at Camp Scott, Staten Island, June 20, 1861, and served with distinction throughout a greater part of the war. He was promoted first to corporal, then to sergeant major, and on May 12, 1864, for bravery and meritorious conduct in the battle of Spottsylvania was made 2nd lieutenant. He was honorably discharged on June 21, 1864, and was immediately mustered in as 2nd lieutenant of Company E, of his old regiment, under Capt. Tom Murphy and Col. Henry L. Potter. This regiment was assigned to the Second Brigade, Second Division, Third Army Corps, in the Army of the Potomac, and saw the hardest fought battles of the war, participating at Stafford Court House; siege of Yorktown; Fair Oaks or Seven Pines; the Seven Days Battle, including Oak Grove, White Oak Swamp, Glendale, Malvern Hill and Carter’s Hill; Bristow Station; Groveton; Fredericksburg; Chancellorsville; Gettysburg; Wapping Heights; Kelley’s Ford; Locust Grove; the Wilderness; Spottsylvania; North Anna, Tolopotomy; Cold Harbor; Petersburg, and minor engagements. While in front of Petersburg, his term of service expired and he went to New York City, where he was honorably discharged July 30, 1864. He returned to his home in New York State, and there farmed until 1871, in which year he came West to Topeka. He located in Waubaunsee County, where he farmed in Maple Hill township for some years, also serving as trustee of that township during the years 1874, 1875, 1883 and 1884. He later removed to Topeka, where he owns considerable valuable town property, and there lived until a few years ago, when he purchased three acres in section 33, township 11, range 15, in Mission township and erected the handsome home in which he now lives. He is a man of strong personality and pleasing manner, and has a host of firm friends wherever he is known.

June 6, 1867, Mr. Bradshaw married Eva M. Fay, who was a daughter of Joseph B. and Martha (Haywood) Fay, of Chautauqua County, New York. Her father died at Chicago in 1886, aged 68 years, and her mother died in Topeka in 1896, aged 78 years. Mrs. Bradshaw, who died January 3, 1903, aged 58 years, was the mother of two children: Joseph F., who died December 22, 1890, at the age of 21 years; and Martha H., wife of Walter M. Cust, who is identified with the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway. Our subject is a Republican in politics, and belongs to the Masonic Order.