Individual Details
Catherine Bradbury
(19 Sep 1817 - 13 Aug 1904)
This is from the book, Pike County Illinois History by Jess M. Thompson. This was found at the US GenWeb site for Pike County, Illinois. No date of publication.
Catherine Bradbury, another of this early family, was born near Ripley, Ohio, September 19, 1817 and was nine years old when the family landed at Naples. She married Francis A. Kirkpatrick near Naples on December 3, 1833. She died August 13, 1904 at the home of a son near Carney, Oklahoma. Her story, related in 1905 in the Methodist Recorder, is typical of this hardy pioneer family, and for that reason is here repeated in part:
"When 18 years of age she began her married life. Her first-born son was accidentally burned to death when only a few months old. About a dozen years after her marriage her husband was licensed to preach and in 1849 the family moved to Iowa where her husband became a prominent minister in the Iowa Conference of the Methodist Protestant Church. His first circuit could be covered only by about four weeks' travel on horseback.
"The family, already consisting of six children, had to be clothed and fed from a salary of less than $200 and what the mother earned by sewing. The first year she was sick, had to be carried on a bed when the family was moved to the new parsonage from a temporary home. The next year she was sick for a month almost unto death, but thought of Hezikiah and prayed for fifteen years more of life that she might raise her children. Finally, the doctor, after spending the night with her, declared that the crisis was past.
"A few years later, with the assistance of friends, a farm of 40 acres was bought in Davis county for two hundred dollars, upon which the family lived, improving it as best they could, while the husband and father preached on more or less distant circuits or performed his duties as president of the conference.
"The oldest son, William, who was afterwards killed at the battle of Fort Donelson, was just then entering his teens and did much of the work on the farm himself. After five years this farm was left to be sold (though nothing was ever realized from it) and for nearly a score of years, the family, which increased to the number of twelve, moved from place to place, as the father was assigned to one field of work after another.
"During this time the mother not only cared for the large family but often worked to help support it, for the father received from preaching only one to three hundred dollars a year which small sum he added to whenever possible by farming or other manual labor.
"Though not physically strong, her dwelling, however poor it might be, was always neat, clean and homelike. The children went to school in clean clothes free from holes, though sometimes the clothes had to be washed in the evening, dried at night, and ironed in the morning, and carefully patched many times.
"Although sometimes weak from overwork and the lack of sufficient nourishing food, she never failed to have a good meal for her husband when he returned from his weary travels, and also for the numerous brethren who in those days came as a matter of course to the minister's house for meals and lodging.
"At about the hardest part of this period her beloved second-born son, who, though only eighteen, had been a strong support of the family, went to war, and soon was laid in a southern grave.
"In 1875 a small farm was purchased near Rhodes, Iowa, and was cleared and improved by the boys while the father preached only in nearby places. In this year Laura, the youngest and only unmarried daughter, died and three years later the father and husband passed away.
"The mother remained on the little farm with the younger sons about a dozen years, then kept house for her youngest son until she was 78, when he was married. She then made her home with him in Winona, Minnesota, and in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, though occasionally visiting the other children. It was on one of these visits that she peacefully passed away at the home of her son in Oklahoma."
Thus The Methodist Recorder paid tribute to a pioneer Bradbury mother, who left four sons and four daughters scattered from the Atlantic to the Pacific, each with the memory of a mother whose love and sacrifice for her children never failed and who, in her sphere, had endured and wrought as patiently and heroically as ever did martyr or hero of history.
Catherine Bradbury, another of this early family, was born near Ripley, Ohio, September 19, 1817 and was nine years old when the family landed at Naples. She married Francis A. Kirkpatrick near Naples on December 3, 1833. She died August 13, 1904 at the home of a son near Carney, Oklahoma. Her story, related in 1905 in the Methodist Recorder, is typical of this hardy pioneer family, and for that reason is here repeated in part:
"When 18 years of age she began her married life. Her first-born son was accidentally burned to death when only a few months old. About a dozen years after her marriage her husband was licensed to preach and in 1849 the family moved to Iowa where her husband became a prominent minister in the Iowa Conference of the Methodist Protestant Church. His first circuit could be covered only by about four weeks' travel on horseback.
"The family, already consisting of six children, had to be clothed and fed from a salary of less than $200 and what the mother earned by sewing. The first year she was sick, had to be carried on a bed when the family was moved to the new parsonage from a temporary home. The next year she was sick for a month almost unto death, but thought of Hezikiah and prayed for fifteen years more of life that she might raise her children. Finally, the doctor, after spending the night with her, declared that the crisis was past.
"A few years later, with the assistance of friends, a farm of 40 acres was bought in Davis county for two hundred dollars, upon which the family lived, improving it as best they could, while the husband and father preached on more or less distant circuits or performed his duties as president of the conference.
"The oldest son, William, who was afterwards killed at the battle of Fort Donelson, was just then entering his teens and did much of the work on the farm himself. After five years this farm was left to be sold (though nothing was ever realized from it) and for nearly a score of years, the family, which increased to the number of twelve, moved from place to place, as the father was assigned to one field of work after another.
"During this time the mother not only cared for the large family but often worked to help support it, for the father received from preaching only one to three hundred dollars a year which small sum he added to whenever possible by farming or other manual labor.
"Though not physically strong, her dwelling, however poor it might be, was always neat, clean and homelike. The children went to school in clean clothes free from holes, though sometimes the clothes had to be washed in the evening, dried at night, and ironed in the morning, and carefully patched many times.
"Although sometimes weak from overwork and the lack of sufficient nourishing food, she never failed to have a good meal for her husband when he returned from his weary travels, and also for the numerous brethren who in those days came as a matter of course to the minister's house for meals and lodging.
"At about the hardest part of this period her beloved second-born son, who, though only eighteen, had been a strong support of the family, went to war, and soon was laid in a southern grave.
"In 1875 a small farm was purchased near Rhodes, Iowa, and was cleared and improved by the boys while the father preached only in nearby places. In this year Laura, the youngest and only unmarried daughter, died and three years later the father and husband passed away.
"The mother remained on the little farm with the younger sons about a dozen years, then kept house for her youngest son until she was 78, when he was married. She then made her home with him in Winona, Minnesota, and in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, though occasionally visiting the other children. It was on one of these visits that she peacefully passed away at the home of her son in Oklahoma."
Thus The Methodist Recorder paid tribute to a pioneer Bradbury mother, who left four sons and four daughters scattered from the Atlantic to the Pacific, each with the memory of a mother whose love and sacrifice for her children never failed and who, in her sphere, had endured and wrought as patiently and heroically as ever did martyr or hero of history.
Events
| Birth | 19 Sep 1817 | Brown Co., Ohio |  | ||
| Marriage | 3 Dec 1835 | Morgan Co., Illinois - Francis Asbury Kirkpatrick | | ||
| Death | 13 Aug 1904 | Carney, Lincoln Co., Oklahoma | | ||
| Burial | Eden Cemetery, Rhodes, Marshall Co., Iowa | |
Families
| Spouse | Francis Asbury Kirkpatrick (1815 - 1879) |
| Child | Richard Baxter Kirkpatrick (1836 - 1837) |
| Child | Martha Jane Kirkpatrick (1838 - 1920) |
| Child | Mary Ann Kirkpatrick (1840 - 1911) |
| Child | William Tragen Kirkpatrick (1842 - 1862) |
| Child | Melissa Emily Kirkpatrick (1844 - 1918) |
| Child | Sarah Carthena Kirkpatrick (1846 - 1899) |
| Child | Oliver Thomas Kirkpatrick (1848 - 1923) |
| Child | Elizabeth "Eliza" Esther Kirkpatrick (1850 - 1916) |
| Child | Laura Elvira Kirkpatrick (1853 - 1875) |
| Child | Francis Marion Kirkpatrick (1855 - 1917) |
| Child | Charles Anson Kirkpatrick (1858 - 1943) |
| Child | Edwin Asbury Kirkpatrick (1862 - 1937) |
| Father | Jacob Bradbury (1783 - 1880) |
| Mother | Patience Rounds (1782 - 1863) |
| Sibling | Thomas Bradbury (1807 - ) |
| Sibling | Lemuel Bradbury (1809 - ) |
| Sibling | Sally Bradbury (1810 - ) |
| Sibling | Ruth Bradbury (1811 - ) |
| Sibling | Lucy Bradbury (1812 - ) |
| Sibling | Nathan Bradbury (1813 - ) |
| Sibling | Samuel Bradbury (1815 - ) |
| Sibling | Eliza Bradbury (1818 - ) |
| Sibling | Jacob Bradbury (1819 - ) |
| Sibling | Jotham Bradbury (1820 - ) |
Endnotes
1. A Kirkpatrick Genealogy; Melvin Kirkpatrick & David Hudson, 1995.
2. Illinois Marriages On-line, Vol. A, Page 38.
3. A Kirkpatrick Genealogy; Melvin Kirkpatrick & David Hudson, 1995.
4. Ancestry.com.