The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture

BRADY, WYATT TATE (1870–1925).

Pioneer, entrepreneur, member of the Oklahoma Bar, politician, and early booster of Tulsa, Wyatt Tate Brady was born in Forrest City, Missouri on January 20, 1870. He arrived in Tulsa in 1890 as a shoe salesman and quickly opened one of the town's first mercantile stores. On April 10, 1895, he married Rachel Davis, of a prominent Claremore Cherokee family. Brady was adopted into the Cherokee tribe and became a strong advocate for their tribal claims against Washington. In 1896 he was one of the original incorporators of Tulsa. In 1902, as a result of the boom caused by the oil discovery at Red Fork, he built the Hotel Brady. This hotel, the first in Tulsa with baths, soon became the center for oilmen and Democratic politics.

Brady was also active in the Sons of the Confederacy and KKK, and his home, named "Arlington," was modeled after that of Robert E. Lee. After Oklahoma became the forty-sixth state in 1907, Brady was the first named member of the Democratic National Committee and was a great supporter of Gov. Charles N. Haskell. In 1910 Brady and others, among them Will Rogers, hired a train at their own expense and went east to promote Tulsa. On August 29, 1925, despondent over the accidental death of his oldest son, John Davis Brady, Tate Brady committed suicide at his home.

Paul S. Vickery