Information inscribed on the tombstone at Lakebay indicating the Bradshaw family took passage aboard the USS Decatur in 1854 and traveled around Cape Horn to the Pacific Northwest cannot be backed up by any credible research. Lorraine McConaghy, author of an excellent book about the Decatur called "Warship Under Sail" has checked all available records and found no such mention of any civilian family, let alone the Bradshaws, traveling aboard the Decatur for any portion of it's voyage.

From obituaries written about Sarah's mother Elizabeth (Westover) at the time of her death in 1910, a clearer picture can be discerned. According to the obituaries Elizabeth came overland via the Oregon Trail with Sarah, but who she made the journey with is unknown. Joseph Bradshaw was in the U.S. Army, a 5-year enlistment beginning in New York in 1854, the year Sarah was born. Joseph came out with the military as part of the 9th Infantry by ship from the east coast to Panama, crossing the isthmus and then traveling by ship again to Steilacoom on Puget Sound, arriving in January of 1856. Elizabeth and Sarah would have come out separately, arriving in The Dalles, Oregon Territory sometime late summer of 1856 when Sarah was just 2-years-old. Elizabeth would have made this journey while pregnant because she had another child in August of 1856 at The Dalles, also named Joseph, who lived a long life but apparently did not marry or have any children. Nine months prior would have been November of 1855 while Joseph was stationed at Fortress Monroe, Virginia.

Joseph re-enlisted at Fort Dalles in 1859 for another 5 years. After Elizabeth married again to William Gilmer, the younger Joseph is recorded as Joseph Gilmer in the 1870 census along with his younger half-siblings, the first of which was born in 1861, but from 1880 onward he is recorded as Joseph Bradshaw, a cook for logging camps and later in Seattle hotels, until his passing in February 1920. Sarah was not counted with the family in 1870 because she was married by this time and already had two children with husband William Jackson Creviston.

Family lore has told us that Sarah's father, Joseph Bradshaw, died soon after the family settled in the area of The Dalles. But it seems to be the case that Sarah's father was alive and well at the time that her mother married again to William Gilmer, and that he lived long enough to marry again in 1866. The 9th Infantry was stationed on the West Coast for the duration of the Civil War and Joseph mustered out of the Army at Drum Barracks in Los Angeles in 1864. It appears he lived there for at least into the 1880s with his new wife. It is not clear if Sarah ever saw her father after he left Washington Territory.

Sarah and her brother Joseph had lived with their mother Elizabeth and step-father William Gilmer on the Washington side of the Columbia River, eventually homesteading in what is today known as the Gilmer Valley in Klickitat County. The part of Sarah's early history that is backed up by the record is that she was rather unceremoniously married off at around 13 or 14 years of age to a widower named William Jackson Creviston. There is no official record of this marriage but she can be found living with him at Underwood, Skamania County by the time the 1870 census was taken, along with his 8-year-old son Ira, and her own daughter Ida Alice.

Sarah's first child Ida was born in either Underwood or White Salmon in 1868. Ida listed White Salmon as her birthplace for the rest of her life, but the actual location of her birth could have been current-day Underwood. Underwood had not been given that name yet in 1868. It was named for the Creviston's neighbor, Amos Underwood. The broader area at the time was known as White Salmon. It is also possible that the Crevistons lived with or near the Gilmers in 1868, but by 1870 they were living on their own in Skamania County, not far from Gilmer Valley. Another son, recorded as William Jacob at first (in one territorial census), and later as Jacob William, was born to them sometime after June of 1870.

The year 1871 is commonly accepted as the year the Creviston family moved from the Columbia Gorge to Key Peninsula. They lived for a time at Taylor Bay after Charlie Taylor took them in. During this time daughters Virginia (1872) and Flora (1873) were born, joining oldest half-sibling Ira, oldest sister Ida, and brother Jacob. After one of her children nearly drowned in the bay, she pressed her husband to find a more suitable, terrestrial place to homestead. At this point, probably in the mid 1870's, the Crevistons homesteaded near Bay Lake, giving it that name and also naming the nearby bay on the east shore of the peninsula Lake Bay.

Daughters Catherine "Kitty" (1875), Judith (1877) and son William Victor Creviston (1878) were born. At some point, the year unknown, Sarah reportedly became the first schoolteacher on the peninsula.

Sarah would have four more children, sons Fred (1880) and Harry (1882) and daughters Angenette "Nettie" (1882) and Patricia Elizabeth "Minnie" (1884). This makes a total of 11 children born to her, excluding the eldest son of William Jackson Creviston, Ira. This information is consistent with the 1910 census record where Sarah is listed as a widow (William died in 1909), having given birth to 11 children, 9 of which were at the time still living (Judith died at 3 in 1880, Kitty died in January of 1909 at 33 or 34).

There are many unknowns surrounding Sarah, her life and her children. Many grandchildren went to their graves having known Sarah, but not knowing why so many details of the Creviston family were shrouded in this air of mysteriousness, false histories and vagaries. Those that did know, kept the stories to themselves. But it's taken research, much that is still underway, to piece together what actually happened to cause all of this lack of clarity.

The investigation continues...

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Previous information on Find-a-Grave:

After Sarah's father died, her mother married William Gilmer and after William dies, she married Stephen Whitcomb.
Following some family history:
Do you have any information that might indicate they actually were on the ship such as passenger and/or crew manifests in the USS Decatur's 1855 sailing around the horn? The family members who were on the ship are Sarah Frances Bradshaw and her parents, Joseph Bradshaw and Elizabeth Westover/Bradshaw.

The Bradshaw family left Waumer, Ohio in 1854 and traveled to the East Coast where they boarded the U.S.S. Decatur and spent many months on this ship coming around the Horn. At this time Sarah was only two years old. They sailed up the Pacific Coast to the Columbia River and crossed the Bar, then on to The Dalles, Oregon where they homesteaded above the small village of The Dalles. The homestead is now a part of The Dalles General Hospital and one of the buildings they lived in has been preserved and a plaque has been placed on it telling of the Bradshaw family. We visited this spot in 1969 and were thrilled to read of the Bradshaw family knowing they were my great-grandparents. This told of the year they homesteaded which was in the fall of 1855.
Contributor: Ralph Brown (49196639)

*** To correct the above record left on FindaGrave: The Bradshaw family didn't leave "Waumer, Ohio" in 1854. For one thing, there is no such place name as Waumer, or "Waumee" as it is recorded in other documents. They certainly did not take passage on the Decatur, a U.S. Navy warship, and they did not homestead in or around The Dalles.

The record now clearly shows that Sarah's parents, Joseph and Elizabeth, were married in Canada and lived in Detroit as of the 1850 census. Rather than departing in 1854 from Waumee or Waumer, Ohio, this is the date of Sarah's birth, 1854, which has now been determined to be Maumee, Lucas County, Ohio. A short time later Joseph enlisted in the United States Army at Buffalo, New York.

In late 1855 Joseph was attached to the 9th Infantry and stationed at Fortress Monroe, Virginia under the command of Colonel George Wright. The 9th was deployed to Washington Territory in December of that year. Elizabeth must have been there in November of 1855 as their second child Joseph Jr. was born in August 1856. In any event, the 9th traveled to Washington Territory first by sea from the Eastern Seaboard to Panama, then after crossing the isthmus by foot, boarding another sailing vessel which then arrived not at The Dalles, but on Puget Sound at Steilacoom in late January of 1856.

Elizabeth, who was pregnant, along with her infant daughter Sarah, came out to the Pacific Northwest via the Oregon Trail. There is no record of who she traveled with, but as her son Joseph Jr. was born in August of 1856 in Oregon Territory, likely at The Dalles, it is logical to assume that her departure from the area of the Mississippi River westward would have been sometime around March of 1856.

Parts of the 9th Infantry including companies that Joseph Sr. was assigned to were stationed at Fort Dalles, so Elizabeth may have found lodging there. Her obituary mentioned that she had worked as a cook at the fort, but no record of this has been found yet.

Joseph Sr., contrary to family lore and written accounts, did not die soon after arriving at The Dalles. Instead, he is still alive and well in 1859 when he re-enlisted in the Army for another 5 years at Fort Dalles, and is counted in the 1860 census at Fort Walla Walla along with other elements of the 9th. He mustered out of the service in 1864 with records confirming this honorable discharge at both the Presidio in San Francisco Bay area and at Drum Barracks in Wilmington, California. He was a Civil War Era veteran, but along with the rest of the 9th Infantry, he did not leave the West Coast for the duration of the war. He did however clearly fight in the Indian Wars of 1855-1858 in Washington Territory.

Joseph eventually remarried and died in the Los Angeles area at an unknown date and his burial location has been confirmed through newspaper accounts listing veterans. It is unclear if Sarah or her brother ever saw Joseph again after he left the territory.