Capt. Samuel Brady and Drusilla Swearingen

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Husband Capt. Samuel Brady ^{1 2 3 4}

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           Born: 1756 - Shippensburg, Cumberland Co, PA 3
     Christened: 
           Died: 25 Dec 1795 - near West Liberty, Ohio Co, VA 2
         Buried: 

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         Father: Capt. John Brady (1733-1779) 4 5 6
         Mother: Mary Quigley (1735-1783) 4 6 7

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       Marriage: 1784 2

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• Biographical Sketch: George Dallas Albert, History of the County of Westmoreland, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA: L. H. Everts & Co., 1882).
For an account of his exploits against the indians, click here.

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Wife Drusilla Swearingen ⁸

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            AKA: [Unk] Van Swearingen 4
           Born: 
     Christened: 
           Died: 
         Buried: 

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         Father: Van Swearingen (Abt 1742-1793) 9
         Mother: 

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Children

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General Notes: Husband - Capt. Samuel Brady

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He entered the Revolutionary Army at the age of twenty; was in the surprise at Paoli, where he narrowly escaped being taken prisoner; fought at Monmouth, and in 1779, at the age of twenty-two, was promoted to a captaincy by brevet. He was afterward ordered to join the command of Gen. Broadhead and to march to Fort Pitt, where he remained until the army was abandoned. In 1778 his brother James was murdered and scalped by the Indians, and some time after this he began a career which, interwoven as it is with fiction, is certainly one of the most remarkable which can be found anywhere in the annals of Indian warfare. On the Susquehanna, the West Branch, Beaver's Creek, the Ohio and Alleghany, out as far as Sandusky (where he was sent with despatches by Gen. Broadhead), the stories of his adventures, bravery and hair-breadth escapes were told. Says one (John Blair Linn, Esq.,) "When border tales have lost their charm for the evening hour, or when oblivion blots from the historic page the glorious record of Pennsylvania in the Revolution of 1776, then, and then only, will Capt. Samuel Brady of the rangers be forgotten."
Capt. Samuel Brady, the son of Cumberland County, is emphatically the hero of western Pennsylvania, around whom the concealment of romance has most been woven. The fact that his father and brother (who is described as a handsome and noble man) were both killed by the Indians, and that he is said to have sworn eternal enmity against them, has given rise to a popular but erroneous idea of his character. He has been considered as a devoted Indian killer, reckless of all sympathy and destitute of all humanity, whereas he was actually a gentlemanly, fine-looking man, "possessed of a noble heart and intellect of a high order." As Gen. Hugh Brady, his brother, said of him, "Never was there a man more devoted to his country," and few rendered her more important service. Active, vigilant, cool in the midst of danger, with deliberate courage and capacity for physical endurance, knowing all the wiles of Indian warfare, he followed and watched them until his name became a terror to his foes, but a comfort to those on the defenseless frontier who were in danger of their depredations. If he was vengeful, which is doubtful, he had cause. He was a patriot and a protector to the unprotected.
In appearance he was five feet, eleven and three-quarters inches in height, with a perfect form, lithe and active; somewhat reticent in conversation. His walk was peculiar, agile; his step light; his form erect, as was always his posture in sitting, he sat upright. His face was handsome, his manner quiet, and in speaking or turning he moved his head less than his eyes. His manner and conversation, as it has come down to the living from one who knew him, was, in their language, "that of as fine a gentleman as I ever met."

His wife was from Washington County, Pennsylvania, where he resided till about 1790, when he removed to Virginia.

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General Notes: Wife - Drusilla Swearingen

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from Washington Co, PA

1 George Dallas Albert, History of the County of Westmoreland, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA: L. H. Everts & Co., 1882), Pg 118.

2 —, History of Indiana County, Pennsylvania (Newark, OH: J. A. Caldwell, 1880), Pg 472.

3 —, History of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: Warners, Beers & Co., 1886), Pg 291.

4 —, Jefferson County, Pennsylvania, Her Pioneers and People, Vol. II (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Company, 1917), Pg 125.

5 —, History of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: Warners, Beers & Co., 1886), Pg 292.

6 Belle McKinney Hays Swope, History of the Families of McKinney-Brady-Quigley (Chambersburg, PA: Franklin Repository Printery, 1905), Pg 187.

7 —, Biographical Annals of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: The Genealogical Publishing Co., 1905), Pg 800.

8 Boyd Crumrine, History of Washington County, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA: L. H. Everts & Co., 1882), Pg 483.

9 Boyd Crumrine, History of Washington County, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA: L. H. Everts & Co., 1882), Pg 79, 238.