James Bradshaw

Ancestors

Husband of Mary Naomi (Williams) Bradshaw — married [date unknown] in Cherokee Co., TX

Died 25 Nov 1844 in Nacogdoches, Nacogdoches County, Texas, USA

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Marriage

Perhaps this was his first wife - listed for consideration only:

James N. BRADSHAW married to Anna Jane Brown dau., of Duncan Brown and Margaret Smith of Giles Co., TN. ^[1]

2nd marriage:

ABT 1840 Cherokee Co., TX

Military

Republic of Texas Militia 1836-1845

James BRADSHAW, Mounted Riflemen, 3rd Brig., Texas Militia, under Brig. Gen. K. H. Douglass Comm.

Oct 10, 1838 - Dec 1, 1838 (Pay) Oct 10, 1838 - Nov 1, 1838

Published materials or newspaper articles

History of Anderson Co., TX, pg. 244

Mr. Gad Watkins, "My great Uncle, Jim BRADSHAW from Tennessee came to Texas in the days of the Republic. He built a fort in Nacogdoches County (now part of Cherokee Co., TX). It was one of the strongest forts of the day and travelers made it a point to stop there for safety. It became a very famous pioneer hotel.

This Uncle amassed a great fortune in land and slaves. Upon his death my grandfather, William Bradshaw, inherited land and one hundred negro's from his estate. Grandfather took his slaves to Louisana and sold them for $1,000 a piece. As there were no banks, to get the money home was a problem. He was paid in gold. Putting it in a box, he set this in the stage coach and rode all the way home with his feet on the box.

A History of Texas, pg. 296-297

On Aug 15, 1835, a meeting was held at Teal's Tavern (the Old Stone House) and was presided over by James BRADSHAW, with William G. Logan as Secretary. Sam Houston delivered a stirring address, in which he set forth that the abolition of the federal system by force left the people of Texas in a state of nature, and placed upon them the necessity of deciding their own destiny. A consultation was necessary in order to obtain an expression of the sense of the people. The resolutions, which were presented by Solomon R. Peck, followed the same general argument and declared that, the federal constitution being destroyed, the Texan's must take measures to preserve themselves of anarchy. The citizen's of Nacogdoches, they declared, regarded war as a most fearful scourge, but they were opposed to despotism and monarchy, and should exposed parts of Texas be invaded by an armed force, they would support the people of those sections in resisting it. A committee consisting of James BRADSHAW, Sam Houston, Thomas J. Rusk, and Richard Sparks, was named to treat with the various tribes of Indians in East Texas for the purpose of preserving peace with them. Finally on a motion of Sam Houston, the ayuntamiento of San Felipe was requested to call a general consultation of all of Texas.

A history of the Presbyterian Church in Texas, pg. 153, Chapter III - The :Presbytery of Eastern Texas - About the year 1850 James BRADSHAW was the elder of the Emmaus Church and was one of the three ruling elders named of the Presbytery of the Brazo's of Eastern Texas.

History and description of Angelina County, TX, 1888, written by R. W. Haltom:

Nacogdoches was first settled about 1778, although there is some dispute among authorities as to the correctness of this date. When it was first settled a stone fort was built, 80 feet long by 20 broad, the walls being two and one half to three feet thick and two stories high; the building stands there to this day and is known as the "Old Stone Fort." As has been stated already, on April 18th, 1825 Hayden Edwards obtained a contract from the Mexican government to settle 800 families in the neighborhood of Nacogdoches. It was an unfortunate location, as his settlers had constant trouble with the Mexicans in regard to land titles, invidious distinctions were made against the Americans and finally the contract of Edwards was annulled and his expulsion ordered. He had expended thousands of dollars, bringing colonists to the country and felt incensed at this act of injustice. This state of affairs let to what is known at the Fredonian war, which resulted in the expulsion of the Fredonians after a skirmish in the town of Nacogdoches on January 4th, 1827. The next important event was the battle of Nacogdoches, fought August 3rd, 1832. It was brought about by changes in the Mexican government; President Bustamente changed it from a constitutional republic to a centralized military form of government. Gen. Santa Anna became the leader of the republican party and called on all the states for aid, the Texan colonists being among the number. Col. Piedras commanding the Mexican forces refused to declare in favor of the constitution of 1824 and the Americans in three companies under Capts. Samuel Davis, Baily, Anderson and BRADSHAW attacked the town. After fighting all day, the enemy withdrew and were pursued by a few volunteers, who overtook them at the lake, but their force was too small; they however passed the Mexicans and took a positionn on the west bank of the Angelina river, where at length the Mexidans surrendered; the Americans numbered by 17 men whild there were over 400 of the others. In 1834 the population of the municipality of Nacogdoches numbered 3,500; since that time, seven counties have been formed from Nacogdoches and it would be difficult to state the exact population today within the same limits; considerably over 135,000 however. It has well been said that Nacogdoches is as old as Texas and the history of one commences with the history of the other.

The First Baptist church was organized in Nacogdoches in 1838; the first synod of the Cumberland Presbyterian church in Texas was organized there in 1842; a Franciscan mission was established in 1816; the first Americans settled there in 1800 being Capt. Dill and his son-in-law, Joseph Durst, Samuel Davinport, and Rober Barr. In 1831 the land district of Nacogdoches was formed, embracing all the territory between the San Jacinto and the Sabine rivers. In July 1812 the place was occupied by the republicans under Magee and in June 1819 the town was taken possession of by Long, who organized an executive committee, and for a short time a newspaper was published. In 1839, the Cherokee Indians were driven from their village on the Angelina river.

NACOGDOCHES, BATTLE OF.

The battle of Nacogdoches, sometimes called the opening gun of the Texas Revolution,qv occurred on August 2, 1832, when a group of Texas settlers defied an order by Col. José de las Piedras,qv commander of the Mexican Twelfth Permanent Battalion at Nacogdoches, to surrender their arms to him. Tensions had been building since the passage of the Law of April 6, 1830,qv which halted immigration from the United States to Texas. Manuel de Mier y Terán,qv commanding the northern provinces, had stationed garrisons and customs collectors in Texas to implement the 1830 law. The situation also reflected a clash of states'-righters in Texas against the Centralists in power in Mexico. The Texans found support (they thought) from Antonio López de Santa Anna,qv when he declared in 1832 against the Centralist regime. Piedras issued his inflammatory order after investigating a confrontation between local settlers and Mexican authorities at Anahuac (see ANAHUAC DISTURBANCES). He feared a similar disturbance in Nacogdoches. The ayuntamientoqv of Nacogdoches resisted the order, organized a "National Militia," and on July 28 sent messengers to Ayish Bayou, Teneha, San Felipe, and outlying settlements requesting military aid. Samuel S. Davis and Bailey Anderson, Jr.,qqv brought men to Nacogdoches from the Ayish Bayou region, and James BRADSHAW arrived with a party from the Neches settlement; other groups came from the Sabine and Shelby settlements. They rendezvoused at Pine Hill, east of Nacogdoches, and elected as their senior captain James W. Bullock,qv of Attoyac Bayou. On the morning of August 2 Bullock demanded that Piedras rescind his order and declare for Santa Anna, but he refused. Piedras placed soldiers in the Stone House (now known as the Old Stone Fortqv), a church, and in his headquarters (known as the Red House). About 2 P.M. on August 2, Bullock's militia members entered the town from the east; they were fired upon, and drew back when Mexican cavalry charged up the main street. About 100 Texans remained, fought house-to-house, and captured the Stone Fort, Sim's Tavern, Thorne's store, and Robert's Store. The Mexicans retreated to the cuartel (the main fortification). Some Texans had gathered north of town and prepared to march into town down North Street; they succeeded in driving off Mexican cavalry near the Red House. Other Texans, Redlanders from St. Augustine, with the help of directions from local settler Nicholas Adolphus Sterne,qv moved along Lanana Creek and circled around to approach the town square from the rear. During the night Piedras evacuated his soldiers and headed for San Antonio. On the morning of August 3 James Carter and sixteen mounted men (including James Bowieqv) pursued the Mexican column, and at Buckshot Crossing on the Angelina River overtook them and began a running fight upriver toward Linwood Crossing. Here Piedras took refuge in the John M. Durstqv home (near what is now Douglas), where his men turned against him and Capt. Francisco Medina took command and surrendered Piedras and some 300 troops. The Texans escorted the Mexicans back to Nacogdoches. Asa M. Edwards took Piedras to San Felipe and turned him over to Stephen F. Austin.qv Piedras was given a parole and left for Mexico. James Bowie marched the Mexican garrison to San Antonio, where they were discharged. In the battle, Piedras lost forty-seven men killed and forty or more wounded. Three Texans were killed (a fourth died later) and four were wounded. The battle of Nacogdoches is an important lesser-known conflict that cleared East Texasqv of military rule and allowed the citizens to meet in convention without military intervention.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Robert Bruce Blake Research Collection, Steen Library, Stephen F. Austin State University; Barker Texas History Center, University of Texas at Austin; Texas State Archives, Austin; Houston Public Library, Houston. George L. Crocket, Two Centuries in East Texas (Dallas: Southwest, 1932; facsimile reprod. 1962). Marker Files, Texas Historical Commission, Austin. Archie P. McDonald, comp., Nacogdoches: Wilderness Outpost to Modern City, 1779-1979 (photocopy, Barker Texas History Center, University of Texas at Austin). James G. Partin, A History of Nacogdoches and Nacogdoches County, Texas, to 1877 (M.A. thesis, University of Texas at Austin, 1967).

1837 TAX LIST, NACOGDOCHES COUNTY, TX - listed James BRADSHAW.

1839 - James BRADSHAW was listed in the Freeholders of Nacogdoches TX.

1840 - Nacogdoches Co., TX Tax List - James BRADSHAW

Southwestern Historical Quarterly - Prehistoric Races in TX - volume 001 number 3 page 146:

During the years from 1842 to 1845, when I attended the district courts at Nacogdoches, in Eastern Texas, there was discovered an earth mound of oblong form fifty feet long and ten feet high, with a large sugar maple tree (then dead) that had grown near the middle of it, and in connection with the mound were four other less mounds, fifty yards apart, located in the line of a large circle, so that each of the small ones could be plainly seen while standing at the large one, indicating that they were constructed for some social purpose, either for habitations or for burial places, or for both, as has been the custom of the primitive races.

Another much larger mound, at least thirty feet high, stood in the edge of Mr. BRADSHAW's field, about eighty yards south of the traveled road (then called Old San Antonio road) running from Nacogdoches to Crockett, three miles east of the Neches river, in what is now Cherokee county. Though I often saw the mound when passing along the road, I never stopped and examined it, as I did those at Nacogdoches.

SOUTHEAST TEXAS INDIAN HOMELAND: THE BURIAL MOUNDS OF OLD PORT NECHES, By W. T. Block

Reprinted from Beaumont ENTERPRISE, June 30, 1977; February 5, 198_

According to the Houston "Telegraph" of June 2, 1841, the six burial mounds at Joseph "Grigsby's plantation, twelve miles below Beaumont," contained a variety of artifacts, weapons, pottery shards, and bones, and no similar mounds were known to exist anywhere in Texas except "BRADSHAW's Mound near Nacogdoches." Grigsby's slaves leveled one mound for use as a foundation for the plantation house and slave cabins. The second mound was leveled for construction material when Confederate Fort Grigsby was built nearby in October, 1862. Between 1865 and 1893, three more mounds disappeared, as shell hauled to Beaumont by steamboat to build the streets and railroad rights-of-way throughout the county.

Denson Springs Cemetery

Slocum, Anderson County, TX

Located 6 mi. east of Slocum on SH 294, then .5 mi. north on CR 1220

Early settlers of this area, known as Ioni after a nearby Indian village, began arriving in the early 1830s. The land on which this cemetery is located was granted to James BRADSHAW in 1835. When he died in 1844, the property was inherited by his brother, William, who moved here with his family from Nacogdoches in 1849. One of William BRADSHAW's daughters, Diana, married Kindred Watkins in 1850. When their first child, a son, was born and died on August 15, 1851, he was buried near their home. The child's burial was the first in what would become Denson Springs Cemetery. Over the years, this one-acre plot became a family burial ground. Later, other settlers of the area were also buried here, and when the name of the community was changed in 1878 to Denson Springs, this site became known as the Denson Springs Cemetery. Besides the marked graves, it is believed there are a number of unmarked burials. Veterans of the Civil War, World War I, and World War II are interred here. The graveyard was deeded to the Denson Springs Cemetery Association in 1980. Set in a grove of trees, it is a quiet reminder of the area's early pioneers and settlers. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836 – 1986.

Deed

(1844)

Originally published in the: EAST TEXAS FAMILY RECORDS VOL.14, NO.2, SUMMER 1990

Some Records from Deed Book "A" - Rusk County, TX (Continued)

Page 107 JAMES BRADSHAW to WILLIAM ELLIOTT

The Republic of Texas )

County of Nacogdoches )

Be it Known that before the undersigned Witnesses personally appeared James

Bradshaw, administrator with the Will annexed of Thomas Williams, Deceased, who Declared that in obedience to Two Several orders of the Honorable, the Probate Court partitioning the estate and requiring him to make Titles to the Heirs and Legatees of said Thomas Williams, Deceased, he hath this day bargained Sold Conveyed and Set apart to William Elliott TWO TRACTS OF Land as the purchaser from Brooks Williams and William Williams two of the Heirs of Said Deceased, to-Wit:

Two hundred & forty-Six acres of Land, situated in Rusk County and set apart to said William Williams, part of the headright of Thomas Williams, Deceased. Bounded on the Nort- by the tract set apart to said Polly Elliott and on the South by the Tract set apart to Brooks Williams and William Fields. East by a line running North and South dividing Said Headright Between Frost Thorn & Thomas Williams and on the West by a branch of the Angelina. Also a tract of land of Two Hundred and Sixty Seven acres set apart to Brooks Williams, bounded North by the Tract last mentioned, East by the Said Division line between Frost Thorn and Thomas Williams South by a tract Set apart to Naome Ware (?) & West by the tract set apart to William Fields.

To have and to hold said tracts of Land with all the rights, members, and appurtanences to the said Tracts of Land belonging or in any wise appertaining to the land William Elliott, his heirs and assigns forever in fee simple.

In testimony whereof the said James BRADSHAW, administrator, as aforesaid, hath hereunto Set his hand and affixed his seal, using a scroll for a Seal this seventeenth Day of June A.D. 1844.

Jas. Bradshaw ( SeAdministrator of the In presents of Estate of Thomas Williams, John H. Reagan, David Anderson, Henry Jeffery)

Page 108

The Republic of Texas )

County of Rusk ) Personally came before me Clerk of Said County,

Henry Jeffery, one of the subscribing Witnesses to the above Deed of Conveyance and acknowledged his Signature and Declared on Oath that James BRADSHAW, whose Signature appears to the above Deed did sign, Seal and acknowledge the same to be his hand and Seal free act and Deed for the uses and purposes therein expressed. Signed: EZRA WILSON, Clk. Rusk Co.

Diary of William Fairfax Gray, Virginia to Texas, 1835-1837 ...

Near BRADSHAW's, a few miles west of the Neches, met Major General Samuel Houston, accompanied by his aids, Major Geo. W. Hockley and Major Alex Horton, and a Capt. Lawrence, of the Tennessee Troop, and -----. Delivered our letters. He dismounted, and, sitting down on the ground, wrote a number of memoranda with his pencil on them, addressed them to Governor Smith, and returned them to us. Found on examination that his memoranda were highly flattering. He said he was going to hold a treaty with the Indians settled in Texas, north of Nacogdoches, Cherokees, Shawnees, etc, and that he would be back at Washington by the first of March. Spoke highly of Governor Smith; said he was as honest a man as ever lived, that the Council with which the Governor disagreed was bribed, etc.

Property

Geography of Nachadoches Co., TX, Telegraph & Register (TX), 14 Oct 1837 The most remarkable is the artifical circular mound near the Neches, on the plantation of Captain Bradshaw. (Note: James Bradshaw was the only land owner in this area at this time so they are surely speaking of a mound located on his land).

Newspaper articles

The Texas Republican (Brazoria, TX), 17 Oct 1835 Part 2 of 2 At Mr. Veal's Tavern on Sat., Aug 15 1835, Mr. James Bradshaw was called to the chair......the meeting attendees appointed Mr. James Bradshaw (and others) to council & treat with the different Indian tribes in TX, according to the promises made to them by the Mexican Govt to preserve peace with the Indians. James Bradshaw was a chairman of this committee or group.

Telegraph & Register (Houston, TX), 20 Mar 1844 - James Bradshaw of Nocogdoches Co., TX was appointed a commissioner to view, mark, and lay out, a road to be called "The Central National Road of the Republic of TExas, from the main Trinity River beginning within 15 mi below the mouth of the Elm Fork of said stream; thence the best route to the bank of Red River, opposite of the Kiamisha.

Death

BET 23 AND 25 NOV 1844 Nacogdoches, Nacogdoches Co. now Cherokee Co., TX

^[2] Rusty Thomas has date of 25 Nov. 1844, whereas the Vol. 10 had date 23 Nov 1844 Died from a pistol wound; bullet.

The George Louis Crocket papers state in Folder 109 - Box 28 - Item 29 that James BRADSHAW death resulted from a pistol wound. (Notes: Geo. Louis Crocket was the Episcopal rector of San Augustine and Nacogdoches, Texas. Collection includes correspondence, notebooks, lectures, articles, speeches, biographical studies, manuscript of Crocket's Two Centuries in East Texas, and other papers relating to feuds, rebellions, churches, secondary schools, and colleges in early San Augustine and Nacogdoches, TX. Also included are water colors of early East Texas homes, business streets, buildings, schools, and landscapes, and maps and charts.)

Sources

1. ↑ Source; FTM WFT Vol. 65 Tree 1187 dated 21 June 2000.
2. ↑ Death Sources; FTM WFT Vol. 10 Tree # 2579 dated 27 Mar 1997.

• This person was created through the import of PittsPenn_2010-09-21.ged on 22 September 2010 by MG Pitts.

• FTM WFT Vol. 10 Tree # 2579 dated 27 Mar 1997.