Mr. and Mrs. Bradshaw
  In 1885 Mr. and Mrs. Calvin Bradshaw and Ida came from Cedar Creek, Cass county, Nebr. and filed on a homestead about 21/2 miles north of Farnam. They moved here in a covered wagon from Kenesaw where Mr. and Mrs. Voodry came on with them in another covered wagon. They arrived here in February with snow on the ground. Mr. Voodry had been out here the year before and built a cave or dugout to live in until they could build a sod house. They sodded up the door until they came back to live there. The two families stood in snow until the sod was removed and the door opened and a stove put up. They then melted snow for stock and house use. Mr. Bradshaw drove through some milk cows and their feet were bleeding from being cut with ice and snow, from three hard days drive. When that snow thawed away then there were days spent hunting for water. Mr. Bradshaw for a short time hauled water 7 miles and later hauled water 4 miles for a long time. Then bought water by the barrel from the Keystone well until rain and snows came again.
All stock was tied out on picket ropes on the prairies. Both families lived in dugouts or caves until fall. The roof was covered with brush and poles and sod on top, and was papered over on the inside to keep dust and dirt from sifting through. One day there was a scratching of the paper overhead and Mrs. Voodry said, "There must be mice and she would break a hole in the paper and let them out," but to her surprise a snake fell through on the
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bed. There was great fear all the rest of that summer. Then in the fall Mr. Bradshaw built a sod house one half mile east of the Voodry homestead, the claims joining: Uncle Sammie Wycoff's tree claim joined them on the east and John Rylander's claim joined them on the south. Once during a blizzard some of Mr. Bradshaw's stock strayed away to Mr. Rylander's and when he went to get them he found that Mr. Rylander had put shocks of hay on his cattle's backs while they were lying dowm, to shelter them, which was all the shelter they had.
Neighbors were few and everyone was lonesome. The only amusement for old and young people before the railroad came through was for several families to go in a lumber wagon to a neighbors to visit in the evenings. The young people singing and playing games while older ones talked of the homes they had left to come to the wild and wooly west. One evening in the gathering of these people, one lady said she didn't have enough grease to grease her bread pans; another lady said that is nothing she didn't have the bread to put in the pans. There was much joy and pleasure and great hopes in those days. There was plenty of wild fruits in the canyons such as wild plums, raspberries, canyon currants and choke cherries and no fences to bar anyone out, but chiggers.
Mr. Bradshaw lived on his homestead until 1898 when he moved to Farnam and was postmaster for 18 years, then he resigned on account of poor health and died two years later. Mrs. Bradshaw had passed away five years before. Ida Bradshaw taught the North school in District 35 in Walker precinct in the dining room of the Scull house, before any school house was built here.
1886
1936
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