Brady, John G., Mrs.

John Green Brady was born June 15, 1848 in New York City. Following his mother's death, he ran away from home and was later sent to a refuge for homeless boys on Randall's Island. In 1859 the Children's Aid Society sent him to live with John Green, at that time a state legislator and later a judge, on his farm near Tipton, Indiana. Brady worked his way through Yale College, graduating with the Class of 1874, then entered Union Theological Seminary, where he was active in city missionary work. After graduating in 1877, he travelled to Texas, where he planned to open a training farm for New York slum boys. However, lack of funds forced him to abandon this project.

In March, 1878, Brady arrived in Alaska, under the auspices of the Presbyterian Board of Home Missions, to establish a mission school at Sitka. His fellow missionary, Dr. Sheldon Jackson, became a close friend and associate for many years. In 1881, Brady founded the Sitka Boys' Home, but he soon resigned his official position when the Presbyterian mission board objected to the personal profits he gained from opening a saw mill business as a trade school for boys. Yet Brady continued to serve the native Alaskans as an independent missionary, while working as manager of the Sitka Trading Company.

John G. Brady married Elizabeth Patton on October 20, 1887, in Cochranton, Pennsylvania. Their five children were John Green, Jr., Hugh Patton, Sheldon Jackson, Mary Beattie, and Elizabeth Patton.

Brady soon became interested in Alaska politics. In December, 1884, President Arthur appointed him to the Sitka Commissariat. As a United States commissioner, Brady became a vocal opponent of Governor Alfred P. Swineford, whom he considered an enemy of Alaska's missionaries. Brady and his friends campaigned unsuccessfully for his appointment as governor after Benjamin Harrison was elected president in 1888. However, in June 1897, President McKinley appointed John G. Brady to be the fifth territorial governor of Alaska.

In his annual reports to Congress, beginning in October, 1897, Governor Brady extolled Alaska's bountiful resources and demanded changes in the territory's laws to meet local needs. As early as 1899, he called for statehood as the only remedy for the political and civil disadvantages under which Alaska languished. Brady's administration promoted development of Alaska's natural resources, expansion of trade, and increased settlement. He was re-appointed governor in 1900 and again in 1904, by President Theodore Roosevelt.

In 1905, Brady met H.D. Reynolds of Boston, an adventurer who headed the Reynolds-Alaska Development Company. He invested all his money in Reynolds' enterprises and allowed his name to be advertised as a shareholder and guarantor of the Company. Newspaper articles criticized this apparent conflict of interest, and Secretary of the Interior Ethan A. Hitchcock charged that Brady had acted improperly. This public clamor led Brady to resign as governor in January, 1906. However, Brady vigorously denied that he had been guilty of wrongdoing. Reynolds' various enterprises crashed in 1907, and Brady lost the savings which he had invested. Yet he refused to condemn Reynolds and worked for two years to restore the investments of stockholders who had relied on his advice in supporting Reynolds' schemes.

In 1909, Brady moved to New York to become vice-president of the Corporation Finance Company. He spent most of his remaining years travelling through the United Stages lecturing on Alaska and writing about its history, resources, commercial possibilities, and political needs. He later returned to Sitka, where he died on December 17, 1918.

From the guide to the John G. Brady papers, 1867-1937, (Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library)