Robert Brady

MCCASLIN, DAVIS

Posted By: Donna Moldt Walker (email)
Date: 2/20/2004 at 23:17:13

Robert Brady, formerly connected with the industrial and agricultural interests of Iowa, has accumulated a good amount of property, and he and his wife are now living in retirement in one of the pleasant homes of Maquoketa, their residence being located on the corner of Second and Locust streets. Mr. Brady was a pioneer of Eastern Iowa, coming to this section of the country when it was still in its infancy, and he has not only witnessed its reclamation from the wilderness, but has done his part in promoting it.

Our subject was born in that part of Mercer County, Pa., now known as Lawrence County. His father, John Brady, was a native of Mercer County, and was there reared and married. He was bred to the life of a farmer, and, adopting that calling as the one in which he could best earn a livelihood, he bought a tract of land, partly improved in Lawrence County, which then formed a part of Mercer County. He was actively engaged in its clearance and cultivation until 1856, when he sold it and came to Iowa, attracted hither by the reports of the wonderful fertility of the virgin soil of its wild, undulating prairies. He became a pioneer of Jones County, buying a farm there, but after living there a few years he disposed of his property, and bought a farm in Muscatine County, fourteen miles from Muscatine, and there his pilgrimage closed, and his eyes were shut to the scenes of earth April 3, 1863. A life well rounded in years, and full of all that goes to make a good man, was thus brought to an end. The maiden name of his wife was Betsy McCaslin, and she was likewise a native of Mercer County, Pa. Her father, Robert McCaslin, was born in the eastern part of Pennsylvania, and in early life became a pioneer farmer in the western part of that State, clearing a farm from the forests of Mercer, afterward Lawrence County, and there dying. The mother of our subjects, a truly estimable lady in all respects, passed to the life beyond while visiting her children in Clinton County, Iowa. She and her husband reared a family of ten children, the subject of this sketch beging their second child in order of birth.

Robert Brady, the subject of this sketch, was reared in his native county, continuing to live there until 1852. In that year, actuated by the bold pioneer spirit that had animated his fathers, he came to Iowa to cast in his lot with its early settlers. The journey was made on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to Bellevue, and tence on foot to Maquoketa. He had learned the mason's and plasterer's trade in his native State, and he plied it here until the fall of the year. He then returned to his old home, going to Rockford, Ill., the nearest railway point at that time, with a merchant who went there for goods that had been shipped to him there, and from that city he performed the greater part of the journey homeward in the cars, which must then have been rather a novel mode of conveyance, presenting a striking contrast to the luxurious railway coaches to today. In April, 1853, he came again to Iowa, traveling on the rivers as before. Maquoketa was then but a small hamlet; but it already displayed considerable life and enterprise, and was slowly growing, and it has been his good fortune to witness almost its entire development to a wealthy and influential metropolis of a great agricultural country. He worked at his trade here, and during that year entered eighty acres of Government land in Brookfield Township, which formed a part of the wild prairie. Deer and other kinds of game still lingered, and for some years after he came here the nearest markets were the river towns, Davenport, Lyons, Dubuque and Bell.

In 1859 our subject built a shanty on his land, and commenced its improvement, although he worked at his trade the greater part of his time until 1861. In that year he took an important step towards the upbuilding of a home by his marriage, in the month of June, to Miss Roxanna Davis, and he built a good frame house, in which he installed his bride. He then commenced farming in earnest, and was prosperously engaged in agricultural pursuits in that place until 1877. He then bought land in Delmar, and, building a fine residence in a beautiful location, dwelt there until July, 1886. He disposed of that property in the same month, and bought his present home in Maquoketa, and has ever since been a valued residence of this city, where he has many old friends and acquaintances, who were glad to welcome him back to the midst. He is known to be a man of rugged honesty and blameless character, and in his relations with others is kind, considerate and helpful. He is well-liked in this community, where he has come to pass the closing years of a busy life.

Mrs. Brady is held in equal respect by their mutual acquaintances, and we cannot close this brief review of the life of her husband, to whose interests she has devoted her life since their marriage, without glancing at her early life and referring to her birth and parentage. She was born in Wolcott, Lamoille Co., Vt., and her father, Thomas T. Davis, is thought to have been a native of the same State; he passed the greater part of his life among its green hills as a tiller of the soil, spending his last years with his children. He was married in Vermont, to Lydia Haines, a native of New York. She came to Iowa in 1853, and made her home with her children until her death. Mrs. Brady's paternal grandfather, Capt. Thomas Davis, was for many years commander of a whaling vessel. He was for a time a resident of Maine; but, moving from there to Vermont, he bought a farm in Lamoille County, and followed agriculture there until his death. Mrs. Brady accompanied her mother to Iowa in 1853; the journey being made by rail to Rockford, Ill., thence by stage to Galena, and from there by the Galena and Mississippi rivers to Bellevue. After coming to this State Mrs. Brady lived with her brother until her marriage.

("Portrait and Biographical Album of Jackson County, Iowa", originally published in 1889, by the Chapman Brothers, of Chicago, Illinois)