Brady at Bellevue

I tried a different route from the west into Bellevue on Sunday afternoon’s ride. Then I noticed the name: Brady Road. Was this Brady road named after the Gen. Hugh Brady who was in charge of the roundup of Potawatomi Indians in 1840? A township in Kalamazoo County is named for him — much of the Nottawasepe Reservation was part of what is now that township.

Brady

Was this road named for him, too? This road is 2-3 miles from where a group of Potawatomi men had been seen in hurried consultation upon hearing that Brady’s men were coming.

I suppose it’s possible that the road is named after some other Brady. I saw a big “Brady” sign in somebody’s yard along the way, but didn’t stop to ask what it was for. I now wish I had. After I got home I looked in census records and on old plat maps for a Brady surname in the vicinity, and haven’t found one yet.

In my mind, I’ve always thought of the top of the hill on the west side of the Battle Creek River as the place where Potawatomi men were seen on horseback, horses all nose to nose facing inward in a circle, trying to decide quickly what to do about the soldiers who were coming. Here is the way the 1880 county history described it:

In 1840 the government of the United States removed the Pottawattornies from Michigan, beyond the Mississippi River. Government agents and soldiers, under the superintendence of General Brady, were scouring all through the woods to collect and remove them. David Lucas, of Bellevue, a great friend of the Indians, saw them in council just west of Bellevue. They had received intelligence that the troops were after them. Mounted on the backs of their ponies, huddled together as closely as they could stand, with the heads of their ponies all towards a common centre, they were in deep, anxious consultation around their wisest heads. Soon they scattered like a flock of blackbirds. One company fled north, far into the forest. They had with them a sick squaw, which impeded their travel….

This old-fashioned drive-in on the west side of Bellevue, at the top of the Battle Creek valley, has cars instead of horses all pointed toward a common centre. I’ve stopped here for a bite to eat on bike rides once or twice, but it’s only 20 miles from home, so I’m not usually in need of food at this point.