Captain Samuel Brady
By Brad Bolton

Captain Samuel Brady is probably the best known pioneer in Portage County, yet most people know little of his adventures here other than his famous leap across the Cuyahoga River. The local histories don't shed much light on the truth, either. His story can be quite different from one text to the next. After reading yet another version of Brady's adventures in Alan Eckert's That Dark and Bloody River, I was motivated to investigate Eckert's sources, as well as any other old accounts I could uncover. Brady lived in a time and place in which history was not well documented, so we can, at best, only approach the truth. But a probable scenario emerges from the most credible sources of pioneer times, and that is the story I relate here. But first, a little background on the Captain.

Captain Brady crossed the Delaware River with George Washington after joining the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. When his brother and father were killed by Indians, Brady vowed to take revenge on Indian warriors until they stopped attacking white settlements. With the war over, the army's focus shifted to protecting pioneers on the frontier, which at that time was western Pennsylvania and land south of the Ohio River. Brady was stationed first at Ft. Pitt (Pittsburgh), and later for many years at Ft. McIntosh, fifteen miles east of the Ohio state line on the Ohio River.

It was while based at McIntosh that Brady's most legendary missions occurred. Already respected as a great fighter, he was given free reign to do whatever necessary to learn when and where the Indians were planning their attacks. Brady in effect became a spy, hiking deep into Indian territory to eavesdrop inside Indian towns. He was also encouraged to track and kill Indians known to have attacked white settlements. To accomplish this mission, he picked about 20 of the best Indian fighters he could find. In addition to their fighting skills, they had to obey orders without fail, act quickly and decisively, and possess consummate survival skills. Brady's Rangers, as they were known, were to find themselves often in extremely dangerous situations deep in Indian land. Mistakes would not be tolerated.

Brady's adventures in the Kent area began in 1780 when he received reports of a large band of Indians that killed settlers in Catfish Camp, up Chartier's Creek south of Fort Pitt. Brady, seeking revenge, led his Rangers in pursuit of the Indians, who were headed toward home in the Ohio territory. The Rangers tracked them to where Ravenna is today, where they divided. Half travelled north, and the rest travelled west.

Brady divided his men, also. He led the westward half. Probably using the Mahoning Indian trail, Brady's men followed the Indians across the Cuyahoga River at Standing Rock, a popular crossing place.

There the Indians turned southwest, stopping at the north shore of the Cuyahoga near the old portage path in Northampton. Brady, hoping to kill several Indians, decided to attack.

As the Rangers rushed their foe, however, Brady realized the group they had tracked joined other Indians already there. Seeing they were outnumbered four to one, Brady gave the signal to scatter and return to Ft. McIntosh.

The rest of his Rangers need not have worried, however. Brady's status as an Indian fighter was legendary among Indians as well as whites. His capture would bring fame to the captor, and his torture would be extensive. Consequently, all the natives chased Brady.

He was on the north side of the river, and he knew he had to cross it to reach safety. Unfortunately, the only crossing places were near Standing Rock, from where he had just come. And the Indians knew it. So back he ran about eight miles with Indians in pursuit. To his dismay, upon sighting Standing Rock, he noticed Indians already waiting for him there. He knew another crossing place below the current Main Street bridge, so he turned and ran toward it. Unfortunately there were Indians waiting for him there also. The commotion upstream told this second group that Brady was nearby, so they ran upstream to meet him. Realizing he was surrounded, Brady headed for a narrow place he had seen during previous trips. Luckily, he reached the spot just before the natives, and jumped across.

Seeing the spot today, we may have trouble believing he could have done it, for the distance between the banks approaches forty feet. However, the Pennsylvania & Ohio Canal Company widened the river there in the 1830's to allow the passage for canal boats. When Brady jumped, it was twenty-two feet between banks, with a ledge a few feet lower on the east side where he landed. So Brady's jump is conceivable.

After landing on the ledge, he pulled himself up the bank, but was shot in the thigh before he could escape. The Indians could have killed him, but they wanted Brady alive so they could torture him. None of the Indians dared to try Brady's leap, so they headed for the two crossing places. This gave Brady the lead he needed, for he was now injured and moving slower. Leaving a trail of blood a child could follow, he headed for a nearby lake he'd seen many times along the Mahoning Trail.

He managed to secret himself under a fallen chestnut tree just before Indians arrived, stopping the flow of blood. The natives scoured the area for a couple hours. Brady then heard them walk out on the tree trunk above him, and knowing some of their language, found they assumed he committed suicide to avoid torture. Brady came out of hiding very late that night, hours after the Indians had left. He cautiously walked the sixty miles back to Ft. McIntosh, alone and injured.

There is a well-documented anecdote to the leap story. Legend has it that after Brady leapt across the river, the Indians, in disbelief, cried out that he was not a man but a turkey. Only a turkey could jump that chasm. In reverence, Indians carved a turkey's foot in a nearby rock. In a newspaper article dated 1873, Judge Moses Hampton of Pittsburgh wrote that he visited the site in 1856. The judge noticed not only the turkeyfoot carving, but that the area was being quarried. He had the quarrymen remove a section of rock with the carving intact, and he returned with it to Pittsburgh. It remained in his possession "until quite recently."

Merrill Road now follows the old Mahoning Trail in the Brady Lake area.

© 1999 Brad Bolton.