Brady Township is rich in colonial history complete with dark deeds and minor mysteries.

According to “Along The Moraine’s Edge: A History of Brady Township 1776-1976” by Edna Maxwell McClelland, a booklet written for the township’s Bicentennial observance, what is now Brady Township was inhabited by members of the Seneca, Cayugan and Mohawk Native American tribes.

The land itself varied from Muddy Creek and swamps at its southern boundary to Slippery Rock Creek at its northern edge. The township was found to be rich in potter’s clay, iron ore. Coal and limestone deposits were found in the township’s northeast sections. Coal deposits were later mined in the aptly named Coaltown area under the direction of George Stage

When Butler County was formed in 1804, it comprised 13 townships. In 1835, the county was split into 33 townships with the intent that each township would comprise 24 square miles.

According to “The History of Butler County,” published in 1895 by R.C. Brown & Co., the township was named after famed Indian fighter and colonial scout Capt. Samuel Brady, who the history relates did not make his famed leap to escape pursuing Native Americans over Slippery Rock Creek — that actually took place near Kent, Ohio.

According to the Brown history, Brady Township was first settled in 1796 by Luke Covert, a Dutch settler. Covert was thought to be a Hessian mercenary captured in New Jersey during the Revolutionary War who converted to the American cause. His land was just west of where the Stone House was built in 1822. The area was named Covert’s Run.

Edward James and Andrew Douglass arrived in 1798 and cleared the land on which the old Stone House was built.

According to McClelland, the Snyder farm in the township has been passed down through the Snyder family since 1780. And the one-acre Snyder Cemetery on the north side of Burton Road contains many family members.

The site of what would become the borough of West Liberty was surveyed on Feb. 13, 1829, by James J. Hoge at the intersection of the Butler, Mercer, Mount Etna and Bassingham roads. It was chosen as a safe place to establish a town.

But, according to the Brown history, nothing more was done until 1845, when John and Jacob Covert resurrected plans for a town. A plan was made in 1847 and 15 lots were sold.

John J. Croll’s store was the first mercantile establishment in West Liberty in 1854, followed in 1882, when G.W. Eicholtz erected a stone building at the crossroads. The town gained a post office and at first was known as Bulger after the post office. When the post office dissolved and became a rural mail route out of Slippery Rock, the name changed to West Liberty.

In 1891, West Liberty had 16 homes, three stores, 4 churches, two blacksmiths and a shoemaker.

In an Aug. 2, 1989, Butler Eagle article, West Liberty was described as the smallest town in the county in terms of population but the largest in terms of area in relation to population, at 1,400 acres.

West Liberty’s incorporation came about because of a disagreement over school funds. McClelland wrote that West Liberty had more students than other schools in the county and asked for a greater portion of school funds. When the other school districts said no, a judge suggested its residents secede from the township.

In 1903 the West Liberty School District was formed and the village was incorporated as West Liberty.

The new municipality had its school taxes cut by a third and as a result landowners on the edges of West Liberty asked to join increasing the land area of West Liberty.

It left one oddity. One landowner later asked that his property be removed from the village and returned to the township. It resulted in one small rectangle of land belonging to the township north of Slippery Rock Creek being surrounded on three sides by West Liberty.

The village counts as a native Alf Landon, the ex-governor of Kansas and the 1936 Republican presidential candidate

In 1830 John Wigton founded a “writing school” where West Liberty now stands. He was good at writing and not good in other subjects, according to the Brown history.

John Ralston in 1808-09 erected a log mill later known as Croll Mill on the north bank of Slippery Rock Creek north of West Liberty. Ralston was born in 1776 near Greensburg.

In 1801 he acquired 800 acres in Brady Township. He erected a grist mill and a saw mill and operated them until his death in 1850. His son, Sam Ralston, was born in 1813 and worked as a miller and millwright, milling and erecting mill.

According to the Brown history, Sam Ralston’s oldest son, John. W. Ralston was born in 1839 and worked as a carpenter and a farmer. In 1862 he joined the Company E of the 100th Pennsylvania Volunteers and saw fighting at South Mountain, Antietam, Fredericksburg and Petersburg and witnessed the surrender of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee at Appomattox, Va.

The first church in the township was the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in West Liberty in 1845. It was a union church, meaning it was used by several denominations, although eventually the Presbyterians won out.

The United Presbyterian Church formed in West Liberty in 1875.

St. John’s Methodist Episcopal Church, known as Hall’s Church, was organized at the close of the Civil War but by 1890s, the Brown history noted its membership was in decline.

Other churches included St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church formed in 1878. However, McClelland’s history states no one no remembers where the church was located or when it was dismantled.

One structure steeped in Brady Township history was the Stone House. Built in 1822 at the site of the Douglass log cabin, it was first known as the John Elliott tavern. It was later rented to various tavern keepers.

It was principally known as a drover’s inn, a stopping-off point for farmers driving their cattle south to Pittsburgh. The inn’s stable and livestock holding pens were on land now part of the Jennings Nature Preserve.

However, according to the Brown history, the Stone House’s reputation was tarnished by events that began in the 1840s.

The history says Julius C. Holliday, a young man from Ohio, took up residence near the Stone House in the 1840s. Later, up to 20 strangers at a time took up residence in the Stone House. They were all well dressed and “fond of a good time,” according to the history. The young men didn’t use their real names but referred to each other by nicknames and military titles such as Colonel, Mayor and Doc.

It turned out Holliday was the leader of a gang that was counterfeiting silver coins. When he and his five children died during a diphtheria epidemic, the gang, deprived of its leader, was discovered and several of its members were imprisoned.

A rumor went around Butler County that the disappearance of William Turk, a stage driver, during a celebration at the Stone House on July 4, 1853, was because he discovered the counterfeiters’ activity and was murdered. In reality, an aged Turk reappeared in the area in 1885 looking for the wife and children he had abandoned. The wife had remarried and moved west and Turk’s children were scattered, noted the Brown history.

And the Stone House also factors into the infamous Sam Mohawk murders. One summer’s day in 1843, Mohawk, a Seneca Native American from Western New York, was turned out of the Stone House by its tavern keeper John Sill. Mohawk, who earlier had been found in a pathetic state in Butler apparently suffering from severe alcohol withdrawal or delirium tremens, had been put on a stage coach heading north but got out at the Stone House and caused a disturbance.

Mohawk apparently spent the night in the woods. The next day, either June 30 or July 1, Mohawk killed Margaret Wigton and her five children in an attack at their home, which was located near the current Kiester House Road in Slippery Rock.

A mob tracked Mohawk to a neighbor’s house where he was seized and almost hanged on the spot, before the sheriff and other officials arrived. Mohawk was tried, found guilty and hanged at the Butler County Jail on March 22, 1844.

After 1870, the Stone House was a private residence. Civil War veterans used its grounds as a mustering point for their veterans’ celebrations. By 1918, the Stone House was unoccupied and falling into disrepair.

Robert Thompson built a rival tavern to the Stone House in 1833 known as the Forest House, but in 1854 he closed it because he was unwilling to be brought into to disrepute because of the unsavory reputation that gathered around the Stone House.

Before its closure, Forest House also served as a post office and was the site of the Eyth store.

South of the Stone House the Elora post office was established in 1873.

Elora was created from land bought from the John Thompson Sr. homestead and was believed to be named after Col John M. Thompson, who served one term in Congress, for his daughter Anna Eloree.

On Jan. 9, 1894, fire destroyed Josiah Thompson’s store and post office destroying his stock, undelivered mail and post office equipment. The damage was set at $3,600.

Elora remains an unincorporated area near the township’s eastern border.

Another unincorporated area in Brady Township is Hallston, which was once a railway town in the northeast corner of the township. In the 19th century freight trains of the Bessemer and Lake Erie Railroad stopped at its depot to take on loads of coal, iron ore and potter’s clay mined in the surrounding area.

Another railroad, the Western Allegheny Railroad, ran from New Castle to Queen’s Junction in Clay Township, its tracks paralleling Muddy Creek. The railroad had a spur line that ran to the deep mines sunk along Muddy Creek.

According to Natalie A. Hall Hiles’ book “School’s Out! 150 years of Butler County Schools,” in addition to early setters’ schools, there were six schools in Brady Township.

The West Liberty School was built in 1868 on land bought from Jonathon and Margaret Clutton. In 1893 control of the school passed from Brady Township to the West Liberty Borough School Board. The school closed in 1963 and was converted to a private residence.

The Holliday School was located halfway between West Liberty and the old Stone House. It was named in memory of the five children of Julius C. Holliday, the counterfeiter, who died in a diphtheria epidemic. When tributaries of the Big Run flooded, students had a hard time reaching the school. It closed in 1914, and reopened in 1916 when a viaduct was built over Foltz Run. It closed for good in 1919. It was dismantled and its wood was used to build a home.

Foltz School was originally a log building and then an octagon-shaped building was constructed in 1845. A third school was built along Route 8 near the intersection with Route 173.

According to Hiles, students had to carry their own water to the school and when the Brydon Coal Co. sank a shaft just east of the school, the students and teachers had to contend with the fumes and smoke from the smoldering coal. The school was still in use when the Slippery Rock Jointure was formed in 1952. It was used to teach grades four through six until it closed in 1963.

It was used as a residence until it was abandoned and the building was given to the Western Pa. Conservancy in 1967, where it is now part of the Stone Hose historic site.

McKelvey School on Alexander Road 1.5 miles south of West Liberty, was built in 1874. By 1913-1914 school year there were only 3 students enrolled and the school was closed and the board paid $240 to send the students to the Barley School. McKelvey was reopened in 1917-18 when the school board sold the timber on the school property. It closed for good in 1933. The school was sold in 1942 for $228.

The Barley School was built in 1881 on the east side of Route 528 north of the present Moraine State Park. The students had to take many stairs to reach the schoolhouse. During the 1920s many of its students came from Filer Block, a nearby coal mining town. When the mine closed, student enrollment dwindled and the school was shut down in1946 and sold in 1947.

The Thompson School was built in 1882 at the intersection of Burton and W. Liberty roads. It was noted for the distinctive sound of its bell. Unfortunately, the bell tower blew off in a tornado, The school was closed in 1963 and the building donated to Brady Township for use as a municipal center.

One mystery from Brady Township’s past remains unsolved. In the past, the township had a Foltz Mill, a Foltz School, and records indicated that a Foltz tavern existed in the township at one time. But there is no record of a Foltz family in the township.