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Part of the American
History & Genealogy Project |
Molly Brandt
No pen picture has been left of Molly
Brandt, and yet her influence had much to do with the colonists'
success in subduing the most savage of the Indian tribes.
She was the sister of Joseph Brandt, that mysterious character
who was supposed to have been born an Indian chief among the
Mohawk tribe, and who was the young Nation's intermediary with
the Indians. It was through her shrewdness and the influential
position which Molly Brandt came to occupy in the family of Sir
William Johnson that her brother came to the attention of those
in authority and received his education. She arranged to have
him sent to the Moor Charity School at Lebanon, Connecticut, in
1761. Through this training of his mind, and the cultivation of
sympathy with the colonists, he became as valuable an assistant
as many trained diplomatists have been in later years.
We find, moreover, that in 1770, Sir William, after the decease
of Lady Johnson, "took to his home as his wife, Mary Brandt, or
Miss Molly." And this may be the first historic instance of an
American girl marrying a title!
Women of
America
Source: The Part Taken by Women in
American History, By Mrs. John A. Logan, Published by The Perry-Nalle
Publishing Company, Wilmington, Delaware, 1912.
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