Phoebe Elston Brady, a pioneer in the fullest sense of the word, was born in Sussex County, New Jersey on April 13, 1790. She died in Darke County, Ohio March 22, 1882. Her parents were William and Elizabeth (Walling) Elston. Her father was born in New Jersey in 1763; her mother was a daughter of Peter Walling, who was a native of Holland. (Peter Walling is said to have left his plow and horses standing in the field when he joined the army, fighting and dying in the struggle for freedom.) She married James Brady Feb. 9, 1811. He was born in 1787 in New Jersey and died in 1838.

They started for the West May 28, 1816, and finally settled on the northeast quarter of Section 26 in Washington Township, Darke Co., Ohio March 2, 1817. This place, located five miles west of Greenville, was their home for the rest of their lives. At that time there were only two other settler families in the area who had come only a year or two earlier.

Phoebe’s husband died at the age of 50 years, leaving her to live in the woods for 43 years with their children. The area at that time was a wilderness lined with Indians and wild animals. She often told how she kept friendly relations with the Indians by feeding them. She lived alone in the forest with her nine children, ranging in age from 29 to 5 years at the time James died.

She is said to have smoked a pipe for more than forty years and to have drunk no cold water for the last thirty years of her life. She joined the Baptist church in Wantage, NJ and remained a member of that denomination for sixty-six years. She was buried in the Snell graveyard at Sharpeye, Ohio.

We have an excellent portrait of Phoebe. This portrait was made by Elijah V. Mote, teacher-physician-photographer, who married Amanda Hayes, a granddaughter of Phoebe. We feel fortunate to have such a fine portrait of a person born only fourteen years after the beginning of the Revolutionary War.