Samuel Brady and his Journey to the Sandusky River

Vintage Postcard of Brady's Island to the right with Truss Bridges on the Sandusky River in the Background

In 1780, General George Washington dispatched scout Samuel Brady from Fort Pitt to the Sandusky River to learn of the area’s geography and the strength of the American Indians encamped there. Brady with a few trusted soldiers and Chickasaw guides force marched through the wilderness. He entered the Wyandot country along the Sandusky River under the cover of darkness. Fording the river, he hid on an island just below the falls of the Sandusky River. The following morning a war party had returned from Kentucky with fine horses. Concealed on the island, Brady watched as the Wyandots raced the horses they’d captured again and again. Brady escaped that night.

But on a second scouting trip to the Sandusky region, Brady was captured. He was taken to Upper Sandusky where his captors prepared to torture him. Brady made a daring escape. According to early histories, Brady was pursued for nearly 100 miles when he escaped by leaping the Cuyahoga River at Kent, Ohio, ever since known as Brady’s Leap.