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An article concerning the Brady family in, A History of Upshur County, West Virginia claims that the Upshur County Bradys are all descendants of Samuel Brady, the noted Indian scout of Revolutionary War fame. Comparisons of dates and locations of the different branches of the family has convinced me that this is an error.

From A History of Lycoming County, Pennsylvania, "The West Branch Valley," p. 21:

"The children of Samuel, eldest son of Hugh and Hannah Brady, and the descendants of his sons Ebenezer and James and of his daughters Mary and Margaret, married to Samuel and Archibald Hanna, early emigrated to Western Pennsylvania and are now scattered through the Western States, and many of them have attained prominence in Church and State.

"What a pity it is that no records have been kept so that the members of a family so large and so useful, and with so fine a record as this one, could show their relationship to each other.

"Little now is known in Pennsylvania about the families of Samuel, the eldest, and Hugh, the youngest sons of John Brady and scarcely anything East of the mountains relative to that of William P. Brady, his third son, who left Northumberland for Indiana County in 1806, who in his day was among the most prominent men in the State, and whose descendants have shown themselves worthy of him.

"The notion that most people have of Captain Samuel Brady is that of one who passed his days as a wandering modern Knight Errant, killing Indians at will. This is entirely erroneous.

"His father and brother both perished at the hands of the savages. His father was the most prominent defender of the Northwestern frontier until he fell--and his eldest son was then called to take his place."

"He had been cradled among dangers from their inroads, and knew better than any one else how to repel them, and whilst the accounts of his many conflicts and hairbreadth escapes are all well authenticated, there is no evidence that he was ever a cruel foe. A cousin of his, a daughter of Hugh Brady the second, spoke of him as a gentle and taciturn man, of handsome, lithe, graceful figure, warmly attached to his friends, never boastful nor given to harsh expressions in regards to persons or subjects. He was but nineteen years of age when he volunteered to go to Boston at the outbreak of the war of the Revolution, and behaved so well there that he had a commission as First Lieutenant under Washington before he left the East. In 1779 he was brevetted Captain and ordered to join General Broadhead, who had command at Fort Pitt. He remained in the service until the army disbanded at the close of the Revolutionary war, and was distinguished for gallantry."

Almost certainly, the Bradys of West Virginia are the descendants of Hugh and Hannah Brady, through a John Brady who emigrated to what is now West Virginia, sometime in the last decade of the 1700's. All the Bradys in central West Virginia, as well as Upshur County, seem able to trace their roots to this man. It is hard to separate fact from fiction and tradition. Tradition says that this John Brady was born in Pennsylvania and brought his first wife* (name unknown) to Brady Hollow near Fort Seybert, in Pendelton County, Virginia (now West Virginia). It is thought that after the death of his wife he left his farm there in the hands of his children (tradition says there were four) and emigrated to Randolph County. Here he married Suzannah Ware, his second wife, on March 12th in 1808. The ceremony was performed by Robert Maxwell, and is recorded in Record Book #1 in the court house in Elkins, West Virginia. [http://www.rootsweb.com/~wvbarbou/randmar.htm]

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