Home Genealogy People Places Brady History Gravestones Documents A Short History of the Brady Family The Bradys are of Irish origin and the name was originally O’Brady. Later in America the “O” (son of) was dropped. The earliest Brady on record in America is Elbert Brady, born the 10th of January 1819. He married Mary S. Hoke on the 16th of July 1840. He died on the 30th of November 1889 and was buried at the Saint John’s Lutheran Church cemetery in Conover, North Carolina.   Elbert’s son Frederick A. Brady was born on the 18th of June 1848. He married Flora Henkel Bennich on the 22nd of August 1866. He died on the 5th of May 1897 and was buried in the Conover City cemetery in Catawba County, North Carolina. Frederick’s son John Georg Augustus Brady was born on the 7th of June 1867. He married Rhoda Isabelle Yount on the 22nd of March 1887.  The marriage was performed by C. T. Sigmon, Justice of the Peace, witnessed by F. M. Yount, J. F. Smyre and M. E. Yount. John Brady owned and operated a general store in Conover, North Carolina. He died on the 9th of December 1902 and was buried in the Conover City cemetery in Catawba County, North Carolina. His widow and son operated the store until 1906 and then sold it to E. A. Herman.  She then studied nursing and worked as a nurse until she remarried in 1918 and moved Jonesville, Michigan. John’s son Charles Alvin Brady was born on the 25^th of July 1889 in Conover, North Carolina. His father died when he was thirteen years old and he had to work at a young age. At first he worked with his mother in a general store his father had owned. The store was sold and he got a job at the Abernathy drug Store in Newton, North Carolina, across from the Catawba County court house. Mr. Abernathy encouraged him to study pharmacology.  He married Henrietta Clay Killian on the 5^th of June 1912. He died on the 5^th of May 1961 and is buried in Fairview Cemetery in Newton, North Carolina. Charles Brady graduated from Pages School of Pharmacy in Greensboro, North Carolina and received his license as a pharmacist in 1911. He continued to work for Mr. Abernathy and later for Mr. Clapp, who acquired the drugstore after Mr. Abernathy’s death. In 1919 Charles bought the Clapp drugstore in Newton, North Carolina. A family story was that Charles had not seen his brother Robert for twenty years when his brother walked into his drug store. Charles always remembered a face but had trouble attaching a name to the face. He recognized Robert's face and said "Hi how are you?"  Robert was amused that Charles did not know who he was and goaded him to say his name. Finally Charles said "I know you like my own brother" and Robert, to the amusement of customers in the drug store, replied "I am your brother." Newton is the county seat of Catawba County and a connon was on the lawn of the town square in front of the courthouse. Some young men had too much to drink and as a prank set off the cannon. It damaged the front of the drugstore across the square. They were said to be the “Coli boys”.   In 1930 Charles Brady sold the drug store to Ed Haupt and Gordon Wilfong and worked in pharmacies in various nearby towns. In 1938 he bought the Highland Drug Store in Hickory, North Carolina from Margaret Mauney.  He operated this pharmacy until his death.   Biographical article about Charles Alvin Brady Sr. Transcribed from the original newspaper clipping. Know your neighbor, By Mabel Miller Rowe If you were to ask a present day teenager for the definition of a mortar and pestle, of a pill tile, you would probably get a blank stare instead of an answer. Those items are almost as foreign to modern drug stores, the outgrowth of the old apothecary shops, as the old pot-bellied stove and cracker barrel are to our biggest super markets. Druggists no longer roll their pills - they come done up in shiny glass bottles, and medicine, when it reaches the drug store, is already ground fine. Charles A. Brady Sr., owner and manager of the Highland Drug Store, after forty years of experience in the drug store, says the use of a mortar and pestle and pill tile are almost a thing of the past. Few Tools Needed Certainly Mr. Brady doesn't use them. About all he needs now in filling prescriptions are a spatula, graduated scales, a pocket knife and a pack of razor blades, to scrape the labels off the bottles, and to count pills and tablets into boxes. Mr. Brady has become so much a part of Hickory, and has won so many friends by his congenial and happy disposition, that one forgets he isn't a Hickoryite, although he is a native of Catawba County. He has operated the Highland Drug Store since January 1938, when he purchased the store from Miss Margaret Mauney who now lives in Ashville. Born at Conover, a son of Mrs. F. M. Doty of Jonesville Michigan and the late J. G. A. Brady, Mr. Brady attended the parochial school and Concordia College.  He was only 13, the oldest of six children when his father died. On December 9, 1902, and he and his mother continued for a while to operate the general store that the elder Brady owned and managed at the time of his death. In 1906 they sold the store to E. A. Herman, and the mother studied nursing, and practiced her profession until she remarried in 1918 and went to Michigan to live. In February of 1906, the late attorney Sam H. Jordan of Conover was instrumental in securing a position for young Brady with the late T. R. Abernathy, Newton druggist. Wise Counsel It was the wise counsel of Mr. Abernathy and his late brother-in-law Dr. J. R. Campbell that encouraged the lad to study pharmacy. Mr. Brady says that in all the years he has been a pharmacist he has never regretted taking their advice. Mr. Abernathy was one of the oldest and best druggists in the state, Mr. Brady said, and in his store he compounded everything he used in the prescription department. The tools he used of course were the mortar and pestle and the pill tile. The elder druggist was a close good friend to the boy, and not only taught him how to roll pills, but was a great help to him in all the things a lad needs to know, Mr. Brady recalls warmly. When young Mr. Brady couldn't go back to Conover to attend services at the Lutheran church, where he was a member, Mr. Abernathy fulfilled a promise he had made to the boy's mother, and sent him to the Presbyterian Church. "I still have a tender spot in my heart for that denomination" Mr. Brady said "and I believe implicitly in some of their doctrines to this very day." Store Changes Hands In 1907 Mr. Abernathy died and the store was purchased in 1908 by the late Clarence Clapp of Newton. Mr. Brady continued to work with Mr. Clapp for several years and then entered Pages' School of Pharmacy in Greensboro, with financial help, as well as encouragement, from his former employer. In November 1911 Mr. Brady obtained his license as a pharmacist and went back to Newton to work for Mr. Clapp, and remained with him until 1913, when he purchased an interest in the Freeze Drug Store, and started on a business career of his own. Six years later, in 1919, Mr. Brady bought the Clapp Drug Store and returned to the store where he had started to work when he first went to Newton. Mr. Brady made another change in 1930, when he sold the store to Ed Haupt and Mrs. Gordon Wilfong. It is now known as the H & W Drug Store at Newton. After that Mr. Brady made several more changes, having been employed in drug stores in Concorde, Reidsville, High Point, and Rocky Mount, until 1938 when he purchased the Highland Drug Store and came to Hickory, although he continues his residence in Newton. In former years Mr. Brady would assert that "medicine is to sell and not to take." Now he speaks somewhat differently and takes some of his own medicine. He knows now what it tastes like. Likes to Fish Mr. Brady has one main hobby - fishing - but admits he is about twenty years behind in the sport. He has fished in Florida, George-Town, S. C. , northern Michigan and in the eastern part of North Carolina, but the biggest fish he ever caught, at least that's his fish tale, was right here at home in Catawba County. Outside of his activities at Beth-Eden Lutheran church at Newton, where he has been a member for forty years, Mr. Brady takes part in Masonic Lodge affairs and is also a Shriner. He was married on June 12, 1912 to the former Miss Henrietta Killian, and Mr. Brady said the romance began on a rainy day. His future bride got stuck in a shower without an umbrella and came into the drug store to borrow one from Mr. Brady. She never returned the umbrella and Mr. Brady found that a good excuse to call on her, ostensibly to ask for the umbrella's return. They became engaged in November and were married the following June. During the time he lived in Newton, up until his marriage, Mr. Brady boarded at the well-remembered summer boarding house, operated by the late Miss Alice Summer. Famed for its fine food, the boarding house was later known as the Piedmont Hotel.    Five Children The Brady family consists of three daughters and two sons: The girls are (Henri Killian) Mrs. León Phillips, Newton, (Rose) Mrs. B. R. McCreight Jr., Beltsville, Maryland, (Rebekah) Mrs. Rowe A. Mauney, Marion; and the boys are Lieut. Charles A. Brady Jr., now in route to Japan, and John Brady Sarasota, Florida. There are nine grandchildren, the pride and joy of Mr. and Mrs. Brady. The couple's children are all away from home now, but they have a young lad with them, Joe Killian, son of the late Mr. and Mrs. J. Merton Killian of Hickory. They took the boy following the recent death of his mother. Mr. Brady says there are two business steps in his life that he will never regret making: Taking the good advice of his older friends and graduating from a school of pharmacy; and choosing Hickory as a place to operate a business. He enjoys his large patronage, likes the community, and describes Hickory as the "nicest town in Catawba County." He dispenses not only medicine, but also "sweetening" in the form of pure maple syrup, which he receives from his mother in Michigan every spring. Mr. Brady's friends, whom he presents with liberal "samples" of maple syrup, is ever lengthening. But he is happier giving out a bottle of syrup than he is selling the costliest bottle of medicine, say his friends, who have enjoyed the gift from time to time. When reports come in that maple syrup is running in Michigan Mr. Brady's friend's start counting the days, almost until the syrup supply comes in. 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