Brady's Pond. — Legend of Samuel Brady. 43 



nearly as wide ; being embosomed among low green bills, they re- 

 sembled beautiful pearls, surrounded by emeralds. Their shores, 

 except at the outlets, are composed of a very white micaceous sand, 

 which gives the water a pure pellucid cast. One of these, called 

 " Brady's Pond," is seated about three miles from the cliffs, or the 

 narrows of the Cuyahoga. It is named after Capt. Samuel Brady, 

 who, as already stated, commanded for a number of years, during 

 the Indian wars, a company of rangers, or spies, as they were called 

 by the pioneers of the West. 



Legend of Samuel Brady. — Capt. Brady seems to have been as 

 much the Daniel Boone of the north east part of the valley of the 

 Ohio, as the other was of the south west, and the country is equally 

 full of traditionary legends of his hardy adventures and hair-breadth 

 escapes, although he has lacked a Flint to chronicle his fame, and 

 to transmit it to posterity in the glowing and beautiful language of 

 that distinguished annalist of the West. From undoubted author- 

 ity, it seems the following incident actually transpired in this vi- 

 cinity. Brady's residence was on Chartier's Creek on the south 

 side of the Ohio, as before noted in this diary ; and being a man 

 of herculean strength, activity, and courage, he was generally se- 

 lected as the leader of the hardy borderers in all their incursions 

 into the Indian territory north of the river. On this occasion, 

 which was about the year 1780, a large party of warriors from the 

 falls of the Cuyahoga and the adjacent country, had made an in- 

 road on the south side of the Ohio River, in the lower part of what 

 is now Washington County, but which was then known as the set- 

 tlement of " Catfish Camp," after an old Indian of that name who 

 lived there when the whites first came into the country on the Mo- 

 nongahela River. This party had murdered several families, and 

 with the " plunder" had recrossed the Ohio before effectual pursuit 

 could be made. By Brady a party was directly summoned, of his 

 chosen followers, who hastened on after them, but the Indians having 

 one or two days the start, he could not overtake them in time to ar- 

 rest their return to their villages. Near the spot where the town of 

 Ravenna now stands, the Indians separated into two parties, one of 

 which went to the north, and the other west, to the falls of the Cuya- 

 hoga. Brady's men also divided ; a part pursued the northern trail, 

 and a part went with their commander to the Indian village, lying on 

 the river in the present township of Northampton in Portage Coun- 

 ty. Although Brady made his approaches with the utmost caution, 



