THE BRADY-TWOHY FAMILY, Our Yesterdays, Jefferson Co., MT USGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. Files may be printed or copied for personal use only. "List transcribed and organized by Ellen Rae Thiel, thieljl@aol.com All rights reserved." Copyright, 1998 by Ellen Rae Thiel. This file may be freely copied for non-profit purposes. All other rights reserved. THE BRADY-TWOHY FAMILY In 1845, John Brady, at 21 years of age, left Ireland for America. His ship docked at New Orleans, but he worked his way north to Kansas City. There he met Miss Ann Gillick, also an immigrant from Ireland, and in 1861 they were married. Excited by the gold rush to Montana, they brought an ox team and covered wagon and joined a wagon train leaving for Montana on their honeymoon trip. It was 1863 when they settled in Alder Gulch. They stayed there for five years, but did not like the life of a mining camp. With the Wickham and Dunn families they set out in search of land, settling in Boulder Valley in 1868. There they helped one another build one-room log cabins, and as Ann Brady said in her old age, "found happiness in that green valley." The Indians went through Boulder Valley each year on their way to Yellowstone Park, which was one of their favorite hunting grounds. After the battle of the Little Big Horn in 1876, the Indians were still on the war path and the settlers of the Valley spent several nights hiding in the brush by the river. When the war party failed to return by way of the Valley, they returned to their homes and the next year found the Indians friendly again, if they were permitted to have their choice of meadows upon which to graze their ponies. One settler asked the Indians not graze their ponies in his wheat field, so they turned all their ponies into the wheat field destroying it entirely. Gradually the Indians and settlers accepted one another and lived in peace. At first, the Bradys bought a herd of fifty milk cows, which they milked morning and night, then churned the cream into butter. Once a week John Brady drove his ox team over almost impossible back roads to Helena where he exchanged three hundred pounds of butter for three hundred dollars. The oxen were slow and the roads rough trails so each trip meant three days away from the ranch. Eventually, as they acquired more land, they bought and raised beef cattle. Mrs. Brady sent to Ireland for her half-brother, Phillip Gillick, to come to the ranch to work as foreman. Mr. Gillick stayed on as foreman for fifty years - first for the Brady s and then for their daughter, Mrs. D. D. Twohy. He married Nellie Doherty and they raised their three children on the ranch. The Bradys had one daughter, Sara Ann, who was a member of the first graduating class at St. Vincent's Academy in Helena. She met D. D. Twohy, a young railroad contractor, at a dance at the Boulder Springs. At that time, he was building the Great Northern Line between Butte and Helena. Three years later, they were married and eventually had six children. Mrs. Twohy and her children accompanied her husband on all his different projects, but they always spent the summer at the Brady ranch. Mr. Twohy loved Boulder Valley and, when he could find time away from his work, he joined his family there. He bought the Tommy Smith ranch and the McKenna ranch because of the fine fishing and hunting. When Mr. Twohy died, Mrs Twohy built their permanent home in Spokane and all her children attended school there, as well as in Washington, D. C. They also had a summer home in the Valley and continued to spend their summer vacations there with her parents. Even after the death of the Bradys, the Twohys continued spending their summer vacations at the ranch, and to this day, while only owing a portion of the ranch, they all consider the old ranch a little bit of heaven. SUBMITTED BY MR. AND MRS. WILLIAM A. TWOHY