(Sept. 16, 1794-June 2, 1885). Henry W. Brady was born in Chambersburg, Franklin County, Pennsylvania, to Susannah Gabell. Although a history of Warren Township prepared by faculty and students of Warren Central High School stated that Brady’s father was the first sheriff of Franklin County, a detailed early history of the county, published in 1887, does not support this claim. Moreover, Brady was two-months old when his father died, and his first name remains unknown. After his mother married John McLaughlin, the family moved to Geneva, Pennsylvania, and then to Zanesville, Ohio, in 1804.
When he was 19 years old, Brady served in Captain Joseph Cairn’s company in the 27th U.S. Army Regiment from Ohio during the War of 1812. Later, Brady was assigned with troops in the pursuit of Chief Tecumseh. Upon his discharge in June 1814, Brady returned to his family farm in Zanesville. He married Hannah Dunn, with whom he eventually had nine children, in 1819.
The couple moved to Brownstown, Jackson County, Indiana, in 1820, where they farmed land. They moved to for a short period of time. Brady worked as a schoolteacher in both Jackson and Johnson counties.
Brady was the first schoolmaster at Moorhous School, the earliest frontier school in , . He and his wife moved to Warren Township after they purchased 80 acres, which they intended to farm, on December 10, 1823.
He built a cabin on the newly purchased land, where his wife and first two children moved on February 10, 1824. Farming did not provide enough income for the Brady’s, so they used their cabin, which Brady expanded over the years, as an inn for wagon train travelers.
In 1825, Brady taught himself surveying and opened his own business. He ran the survey lines to Crawfordsville and Logansport and part of . Brady also surveyed the town of , where he received two town lots as payment for his work.
When his cabin burned in 1832, Brady built a much larger cabin with seven rooms and a dining room, which was known as Brady’s Tavern. This structure served as his family’s home and business. General William Henry Harrison stayed at Brady’s Tavern when he passed through Warren Township on his way to South Bend in 1840 during his successful presidential campaign.
Aside from teaching, farming, and surveying, Brady actively participated in community affairs. He was the for Warren Township from August 25, 1828, to August 14, 1833. From 1831 to 1852, he served 10 nonconsecutive terms in the Indiana General Assembly as part of the House of Representatives and the Senate.
Brady was an advocate for the incorporation of Indianapolis and the establishment of a local municipal government. He supported the state’s Mammoth Internal Improvement Act of 1836 which led to the construction of canals and roads but also to near bankruptcy in the Panic of 1837.
Brady served in the 40th Regiment of the Indiana State Militia during a period of peace from 1832 to 1836. He rose from 4th corporal in Captain Redding’s Company to the rank of major.
From 1852 to 1861, Brady served on the board of commissioners of the Indiana Hospital for the Insane (see ).
Following the death of his first wife in 1863, Brady married Mary Schoemaker in March 1865. When Brady died, he was buried on his farm at the family cemetery, the first-known cemetery established in Warren Township.
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