Papers of a Pioneer

One of the most interesting Georgetown alumni of the 19th century was Peter Rainsford Brady (1825-1902), midshipman, Texas ranger, Mexican War veteran, explorer, writer, rancher, sheriff, miner and Arizona Territory pioneer. Francis Brady of Leucadia, California has recently donated to the Library the archives of his remarkable grandfather. The collection consists primarily of letters from Brady's sisters, Margaret and Mary Ellen, and their respective husbands, Edmund F. French and Major Benjamin B. French, Commissioner of Public Buildings in Washington D.C. The French families were longtime residents of Washington, where Brady had been raised, and their letters tell much about the changing city before, during and after the Civil War.