Brady Family

In 2006, Mike Kidwell kindly responded to an article about the Haymarket Museum in the Manassas Journal in which we encouraged area residents to provide stories and pictures about Haymarket. The photo to the right is of Mike's great-grandfather, Gilbert Brady, who served as the town's constable for a few years. According to Mike's grandmother, her father's office was in the current museum building and he never carried a gun--just a billy club! Gilbert and his wife Lucy had four children: Alma, Isabel, Lillian (Mike's grandmother 1910-2003), and Harry.

The photo to the left is of Mike's grandmother, Lillian, and her brother, Harry, standing on the trestle bridge that used to span the North Fork Creek at the bottom of Jefferson Street. Lillian was raised in Haymarket and remembered being at the opening of the Haymarket Bank (now the "Old Bank Building") where she and other children were given oranges to celebrate. Harry, served in World War II and participated in the D-Day invasion.

When Lillian was older, she and her two sisters, Alma and Isabel, were known as the "Singing Brady Sisters" and would perform at local churches and other social events. The photo to the right shows Alma Brady and Jack Pearson sitting in front of the Haymarket Pharmacy during their courtship.

To the left is Janie Brady, cousin to Lillian, Alma, Isabel, and Harry (her father was Gilbert Brady's brother). She served as the town's switchboard operator (or "central") and lived at a house on Washington Street. According to Mike, his grandmother told him that "Anyone who wanted to make a call would have to pick up the dial-less phone and call 'central' so that Janie would get on the line and connect the call. If Janie was absent, no one in the town could make a call!" Janie Brady never married and is buried in Greenwich.