The Evansville daily journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ia. [i.e. Ind.]) 1848-1862, 1859-12-07

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The Life of asa Old Pennsylvanta
HerO---Sketch OF the. Life and Adj
ventures Of Captain Samuel Brady.
The following sketch of Captain Samuel
Brady, an old Indian fighter of Pennsylva-
mia, we clip from the Philadelphia Press
Nest probably Brady was
with Hardin as a volunteer fighting con
anlore. The relator gives substantially tie
| following as the leading incidents of the
encounter: The guard discovered the In
dians, and concealed themselves until the
! latter passed into q narrow raYine lying
between some rock and the river. They
were also throwR between the scouts and
/ the main body. They had no alternative
but to fight their way back through the
pass ere the army came up, or take to the
river. AS they attempted flight in either
direction they were mercilessly shot down.
Some of them escaped by swimming.
One of them, who had been so fortunate
as to reach the opposite bank, could not re-
frain from taunting Brady in the most in
sulting manner. The distance was great,
but Brady very coolly took aim and fired.
The Indian limped hastily away, evidently
very badly wounded. He was afterwards
trailed by an Irishman to tree top, where
he Lad hid himself and was killed before
Brady reached the opposite shore. 1t took
place about fifteen miles above Kittanning,
according to Brodhead's account. The
name of the celebrated bend in the Allie
gheny known as Brady's Bend, it is said
was taken from this incident. We deem it
probable that it took that name partly from
he fa that land Granted tn IOh0
Brady's heirs, by an act of the Legislature,
about 1906 was located not far from the
Bend.
The other adventure which took place in
this locality is thus beautifully related in the
number of hnickerbocker for July, 1S55.-
We have heard the incidents, nearly SHE
relates them, from the lips of old settlers in
that region, Peter Henry among the num-
ber. We prefer giving the story, so far as
we have deemed it necessary to qutoe the
narrative, in the words of the author:
The story am about to relate | received
from old Indian pilot of the Allegheny.
1t was many years ago, when that stern old
leader Cornplanter (whose remains now re-
pose in silence on the baaks of that beau
teous river he loved so well) was in his glo-
ry. His tribe roamed over the dense and
unbroken forests along its bank, fearless,
unmolested, and free. His people were hos
tile to the whites, and never lost an oppor-
tunity to lie in ambush and seize the lone
voyager as he descended the river, and con-
sign him to the stake and torture. But the
watchful, shrewd, deadly foe of Compliant
er, and the whole tawny race, was the in
domitable and fearless Capt. Samuel Brady
This veteran pioneer and Indian hunter was
one of those noble specimens of the hardy
foraafarS N r,lr1uera1 fnarlaocIv int fba
interninable forests which then overspread
so large part of the Western States.
Like Daniel Boone, Lewis Wetzel, Simon
Kenton, and others who made Indian hunt
ing pastime, his deadly hate of the saw
age, and his burning passion for hunting
them down, amounted to a monomania.
The scene of the present story is at place
known to boatmen and raftsmen as Brady's
Bend, and where now the hustle and noise
of new manufacturing town, called the
'Great Western" resounds along the shores
that then echoed only to the whoop of the
savage or the panther's scream. It is
bend in the river, of nine miles in length,
and is sometimes called the Nine Mile
Bend and is scarcely half mile across
the neck. Here, in this bend, Cornplanter
returning from some successful inroad upon
the whites, had secured several prisoners
and tied them to as many trees, while his
swarthy and hideously painted warriors
were busy in making preparations for the
faggot and the torture.
The stake was erec ed and the faggots
prepared with all the GOODNESS and refine
ment of Indian barbarity. Itwas beauti-
ful evening, the sun was just sinking behind
the lofty hill upon the opposite shore. Calm
ness had thrown its oily wand upon the AL
legheny's crystal tide, and it slept. The
full round moon, bursting through the tree
tops behind them, sailed calmly through the
distant blue, and cast its mellow beams upon
the sleeping river, and danced upon its pla-
cid bosom. The melancholy note of the
W whippoorwill, from the adjoining thicket,
fell sweetly upon the ear. The victims
were unbound and led forth to the place of
execution. At this moment a voice high
up among the frowning rocks that loomed
out from the thick hemloeks which crown
ed the opposite hill, hailed Cornplanter in
the Indian tongue, informing him that t" he
was an Indian warrior just returned from
the war path with goodly number of pris-
oners He desired that the ceremony of
| torture might be suspended until he could
ford the river and join them, when they
would celebrate the occasion with unusual
demonstrations of savage rejoicings. This
COTUpIduIGI 65ICGQ " OO- lac udAuc6 LllaL
had been kindled were extinguished, and
and the prisoners again bound to the trees
In the meantime Brady, for it was he who
had deceived the willy Indian, with a body
of men, moved silently up the river to
place known as Truby's Ripple, and there
fording the river, drew his men across the
neck of the bend, and moved noiselessly
down upon the savages. So cautious was
his approach, that the Indians were COM
pletely cut off from retreat before they be-
came alarmed. Bradys men hemmed them
in from behind, whilst the Allegheny rolled
in front. The first intimation that the saw
ages had of his approach, was communica-
ted by deadly discharge from his unerring
rifles. The Indians fought with desperation
but were overpowered; all were killed or
taken prisoners save the chief, Cornplanter,
who, on finding himself alone, plunged into
the river, and swan for the other shore
Being a good swimmer, he remained several
minutes under water, but as he rose for
breath, he was greeted with a shower Of
bullets. In this way, alternately swim