My Genealogy Hound

CAPT. ALLEN J. BRADER. Lehigh County sent many brave, patriotic men to the front during the Civil War, that trying time which tested a man’s loyalty and devotion to his country. Among them was Mr. Brady, who won honor as a soldier, and rose from the ranks to an important official position in his regiment. He is now quietly pursuing farming in North Whitehall Township, and has done good service here in the aid he has given his fellow agriculturists in promoting the growth of this part of the county.

Allen J. Brader was born in Allentown, June 23, 1836, and is a son of Charles and Mary (Drollinger) Brader, also natives of this county. The Brader family originally came from Germany, and the first to locate in America made settlement in Northampton County in a very early day. On his grandmother’s side our subject is of Revolutionary stock. The family, which bore the name of Frantz, consisted of seven members, all of whom were killed by the Indians and were buried in one Grave in Salisbury Township.

Captain Brader, of this sketch, passed his boyhood days in Allentown, and when sixteen years of age decided to learn the trade of a machinist. He entered the agricultural works, and for three years was in the employ of his father, who, in company with John Young, was the proprietor of that establishment. He followed this line of trade until the outbreak of the late war, when, in October, 1861, he went to the front as a member of Company K, Fifty-fourth Pennsylvania Infantry. They operated principally in the Shenandoah Valley, and May 15, 1864, fought the battle of Newmarket. Later they participated in the engagements at Piedmont, Lexington, Va., Lynchburg, Snicker’s Gap and Winchester, at which latter place Mr. Brader was captured, and was confined in prison in Columbia, S. C., where he was compelled to stay for seven months. He was also captured on another occasion on the Potomac River, and held for two months in Richmond and Libby Prisons. Our subject was honorably discharged in March, 1865, after which he returned to Allentown and followed his former business for a time in company with his brother Frank, under the firm name of Brader Bros.

Upon dissolving partnership with his brother, our subject removed to the place where he is now living, and has been a resident of Cherry Ford since the spring of 1869. He was married to Miss Amanda Newhard in 1858, and to them have been born a son and daughter, Henry and Ella. The wife and mother departed this life in November, 1886, beloved by all who knew her. She was a most worthy Christian lady and a member of the Reformed Lutheran Church.

Mr. Brader embraces every opportunity for aiding and advancing the interests of the community in which he makes his home. He belongs to the Democratic party in politics, and on all subjects his judgment is good. Well educated, he has naturally been called upon to fill responsible positions, and served as School Director for some time. He owns a half-interest in one hundred acres of land in this township, on which he resides and from which he derives a satisfactory income.