Family History Friday: Grandma Bradshaw

So after last week’s post about Abigail McBride, I have decided to change my approach slightly. I will still highlight one of my ancestors each Friday, but as the name of this blog suggests, I think it would be best to take baby steps backward not huge leaps to the top of my family tree. So I am going to start at the base of my tree, where the information is plentiful and the memories are fresh. Hopefully, I can recruit a few family members along the way and together we can try to wrap our arms around the trunk of this big, beautiful family tree.

Today's baby steps backward take us to my lovely Grandma Bradshaw. It seemed only fitting that I start this journey with Dorothy Ann Wilde Bradshaw as I have the honor of bearing her name, Rachel DOROTHY! I recently received a copy of her personal history and thought that I would use that as my primary text for this spotlight (all text taken from her personal history will be shown in italics below). I have also mixed in a few of my own thoughts and fun facts.

Note: In order to keep this post brief, I decided to focus today only on her childhood. Even then it was a challenge to pick and choice which parts of her history to include in this VERY abbreviated highlight and so I would encourage, nay insist, that you all take the time to go and read her full history. Contact me at rachelclawson@gmail.com if you want a copy.

So… ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, presenting the wonderful, amazing, inspirational, Dorothy Ann Wilde Bradshaw!

“I was born into the family of Erma Elizabeth Hiatt Wilde and Max A. Wilde on July 3, 1936, in Payson, Utah, at home. I have one sister. Betty Jeanne Wilde Clark is three years older”

Erma Elizabeth, Jean, and Dorothy 

What was going on in the world when Grandma was born?

• Nazis enact Nuremberg Laws against Jews to prevent "racial pollution." Heinrich Himmler starts breeding program to produce "Aryan super race." 
• Roosevelt opens second phase of New Deal in U.S., calling for social security, better housing, equitable taxation, and farm assistance. 
• Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind published. 
• The "Hindenburg" explodes at Lakehurst, N.J., killing 36 (May 6). 
• Amelia Earhart and co-pilot Fred Noonan vanish over the Pacific Ocean on their Round-the-World Flight. 
• Walt Disney's first full-length animated feature, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, hits theaters and becomes an instant classic. 

Young Dorothy 

“I have few memories of my father, but those I do have remain with me. One experience I remember is mother, Jeanne and I being chased around the center of town of Payson by my father. As a little four year old, when visiting my father he had asked if mother was dating someone and I guess I spoke right up and named someone. (One of the many times through my life that I have said the wrong thing.) I guess it was mother’s friend who was dating. My parents were separated at this time. My father got so mad that when he saw us in town later, he came after mother. We first ran into the bakery and I remember my grandmother, his mother, grabbing on to him and tearing his shirt. We ran out the back and went into the police station . No one was in the office and we hid behind a door and watched as my father passed by. My Uncle Rex lived in an upstairs apartment very close so we went up there until the danger was past. From what I understand, when my father was drinking, he was physically abusive to mother.”

My Thoughts: This story had a huge impact on me as I have spent a lot of time worrying about the young women in my ward (and throughout the world) who come from less than perfect homes. It gives me so much hope to see the amazing faithful woman Grandma became despite the difficult circumstances of her childhood. What an impact one righteous woman can have on her posterity!


“Mother met my step-father, Clarence Benjamin Lewis, a crane operator, when he came to the area to work on the building of the Geneva Steel Mill….. "Red" brought us treats when he came to pick Mom up for their dates and so we thought he was pretty nice. They took a trip to visit his relatives in Montana and came back married….We immediately moved into his newly purchased trailer house in Provo. (This was not like one of the mobiles home of today-more like a camping trailer) I was in the middle of the first grade and that trailer became our home where ever we lived until I was in the sixth grade. We had access to only the public restroom and washing facilities in the trailer parks for all those years, though we did have cold water and electrical hook-ups to the trailer.”

Clarence "Red" Lewis 

“During the first years of their marriage, we lived a rather nomadic life and with each move, we took our home with us, pulling the trailer behind a 1942 Buick....During the sixth grade, my parents purchased property in East Missoula and we moved our trailer on to that land and dad prepared to remodel a small building into a home for us. It seemed a mansion, though in reality, it was a very small flat-roofed two bedroom house with a bathroom, hot and cold water, oil heating stove, and wood cooking stove. We never did have a door on the bedroom Jeanne and I shared."

Top Left: Camping Trailer in Provo, Top Right: Trailer and Buick, Bottom Left: Home in Wyoming, Bottom Right: Home in Missoula 

Dorothy in 7th Grade 

"Growing up, I earned spending money by baby sitting. Though I had no experience with little children, I had a steady job on Friday or Saturday nights taking care of the five Nielson children. The family lived in a home that was in a perpetual state of remodeling. I was paid 25 cents an hour before midnight and 35 cents hourly after midnight. Most often, the parents would not get home until after 4:00 A.M. Of course, these were the days before television and the radio station went off the air at midnight. I spent my time reading when the children were asleep. As the house got quiet, the mice came out. The safest place was in the kitchen sitting on a high stool reading and watching the mice run back and forth. I would not have dared go to sleep! I made enough money to pay for the weekly movie and just a few extras."

Dorothy and Jean 

“Although Mother was not active in the church until I had married and left home, it seemed Jeanne and I always went to church if one was in the town we lived in, at least to Sunday School and I am not sure why except that we just did. Maybe it was the connection with our lives in Utah as we did go to church with family members there, but as long as I can remember both Jeanne and I believed in the church. If we were in a town for more than a few weeks, we would find the church if one was there.

Jeanne and I had to find our own way to church and were able to walk to the church except in Missoula. At first, after moving to East Missoula, we were able to take the bus from East Missoula to the corner of Broadway and Front Street, walk across the bridge and then several more blocks to the church. In our youth we were never driven anywhere unless it was deemed very important and if Dad or Mom were going anyway. In those days, church didn't fit that description.”

My Thoughts: I have often said "I just don't know where I would be without the gospel in my life". As I read this account from grandma walking to church eash Sunday I was struck by just how close I may have come to not having the gospel in my life. How easy it would have been for the two of them to stop attending church. I don't know at that age if I had the same commitment to walk each week to church. Think how the easy choice to stay home Sunday's might have affected me today. Maybe she wouldn't have married in the temple? Maybe my dad wouldn't have been taught the gospel in their home? Then how would he have taught it to me? Wow! What an impact our choices can have on our posterity!

Grandma- You are amazing! I am so proud and honored to share your name. It was such a treat to read more about your life and appreciate all the choices you made that have such a positive impact on my life and the lives of all your children, grandchildren, and great grand children!