Now this article concerns an attack on a farmhouse which was located on what is now known as Bellamy Blvd. in Pasco County. In this particular version of events there has been a number of exaggerations. It is always fascinating to see how the media takes an event and then stretches the realities in order to change public opinion. 
Bradley Massacre at Darby in 1856 (1922)
A Daughter and a Son of Major Bradley, Pioneer, Killed by the Indians
This article appeared in the Dade City Banner on Aug. 4, 1922.
By C. B. TAYLOR
With the close of the first Seminole war in 1837, most of the Indians were moved to the reservation set aside for them by the government in the Indian Territory, now the great state of Oklahoma. The remnant were confined to the Everglade country in the southern part of the peninsula. All of the territory north of the Everglades was thrown open to settlement. It was not long before many of the men who had served in the war as volunteers began to move into the territory which they had seen and admired while engaged in conquering its former savage owners.
The first settler to cross the Withlacoochee was Major R. D. Bradley of the regular army. He had served throughout the war, being stationed at Tallahassee first, where he gained a great reputation as an Indian fighter. In fact, so active was he against them that he gained their undying hatred, and it was in an attempt to revenge themselves for the losses they had sustained at his hands that the events here recorded took place.
Among the incidents of the great war in which the doughty major figured, the following were told me by Mrs. O. A. Darby of Tampa, who was a daughter of the major. While in the fort at Tallahassee, the Indians made an attack and captured a boy whom they carried off and, it is said, intended to adopt into their tribe. At any rate, they did not torture him, as was their custom with prisoners. Major Bradley immediately went in pursuit, and after several days came up on the redskins, who were sitting in a circle around a fire, the prisoner being in the center. Carefully creeping up on the savages with his command, he surrounded them, and gave the order to fire. As the volley rang out, the boy sprang to his feet, leaped between the surprised Indians and safely gained the soldiers. According to the tale as given me, not an Indian was hurt by the shots, but this does not seem probable.
Among the officers who served under Major Bradley was a First Lieutenant Whittaker, who was killed by the Indians while on a scout, and his body hacked to pieces. The Lieutenant was a particular friend of the major and it is said that he swore in revenge to kill an Indian for every piece in which the body was cut. Another officer, Capt. McNeil, was killed in the battle of Olustee during the Civil war.
Major Bradley’s health being much broken by the fatigues and exposure of the Indian campaign, he resigned his commission and moved south, being, as before stated, the first white settler to cross the Withlacoochee river. He first took up a homestead at Chuckichatte, near Brooksville, where he lived for some time, but as he was in danger of roving bands of Indians, he afterwards moved to Fort Taylor, just north of the present northern boundary of Pasco county. His health failed him and he became stricken with severe hemorrhages of the lungs so moved to Tampa Bay where he could receive treatment from the army surgeon stationed at Fort Brook. Some time later he moved again and settled at what was then known as the 26 mile house on the Brooksville and Tampa stage road, where Ehren is now, later moving into what is known as the Darby settlement.
With the breaking out of Indian Troubles which resulted n the Seminole War of 1856, moccasin tracks were frequently noticed in the settlement and especially in the vicinity of Major Bradley’s farm. At first there was considerable alarm and the neighbors all gathered around living in little log huts about the place. As no outbreaks occurred, the conclusion was finally reached that the tracks were caused by runaway slaves, and that Major Bradley’s negroes were harboring them, and the neighbors all went back to their homes.
In May, 1856, life was moving along with its usual regularity on the Bradley farm. Major Bradley was in bed sick and the farm was being run by the overseer, a man named Bowen, and the negro slaves. A cousin from the Carolinas was visiting and enjoying the delights of frontier life, and incidentally making life miserable for the son of a neighbor, one Mack Johnson, who suddenly discovered that it was his bounden duty to help the sick major rather than stay home and ten his own farm.
As the sun set one evening, two of the Bradley girls, accompanied by the visiting cousin and Mack Johnson, went to the cow pen to oversee the negroes as they attended to the cattle. Bowen, the overseer, was busy in the smoke house some twenty-five yards away from the double penned log building that was the home of the owner. On the porch of the house one son, William B. Bradley, was sitting in a chair, a candle in another [illegible] by the light of which he was [illegible] a saddle. The other children [illegible] playing about the hall.
Suddenly, a file of Indians crept out of the woods and, giving their war whoop, fired into the house. One of the girls, Mary Jane, was shot through the shoulder and heart; she managed to walk into the bed room where her father lay helpless and fell dead. William was shot through the chest and bowels. Mrs. Bradley rushed out on the porch, picked up the wounded boy, and carried him into the room and laid him on the bed. He got up, grabbed a rifle, and fired through a crack between the logs, handed the gun to one of his brothers, saying, “fight till you die” and fell to the floor dead.
While this was going on, Mrs. Bradley was rushing about seeing that the children were safe. She ran across the hall into another room where one of the boys was looking for a gun and as they hurried back to where the others were, bullets were shot through the boy’s shirt and one burned his upper lip; not a shot touched the mother.
The Indians advanced, firing as they came, until they reached the steps. Mrs. Bradley called to the major “They are coming in,” and he managed to get a crack in the logs and shot, killing the leader as he put his foot on the steps, who fell exclaiming “Waugh.” The Indians fell back and kept up an irregular fire for some time at the house but did no damage. One of the boys shot at two Indians who were trying to hide behind a tree and afterwards more blood was found there than anywhere else.
While all this was going on at the house, there was considerable excitement at the cow pen where two of the children, the visiting cousin, and Mack Johnson were. As the first shots and the war whoop rang out the young lady from the Carolinas promptly fainted; Mack grabbed her in his arms and ran with her to his home about a mile distant. The other children and the negroes scattered like quail and hid in the woods near by. Bowen, the overseer, made a break for the house but was cut off by the savages and ran to the cow pen, afterwards slipping back to the house where he arrived too late to take part n the fighting.
The firing aroused the entire neighborhood and a married daughter, Mrs. Colding, sent a negro boy over to find out what was the matter. He was immediately sent to Fort Taylor to get help from the soldiers stationed there. On the way he stopped at the McNatt homestead and gave the alarm and it was from William McNatt, then a small boy, now a farmer living at Loyce, that I first heard the story of this battle. Mr. McNatt’s account differs in some minor points from the accounts given by Mrs. Darby and her sister, Mrs. Susan Hays, and as these ladies were both eyewitnesses of the event I presume that their stories are more likely to be correct.
With the arrival of the soldiers from the fort next morning, the pursuit of the Indians was taken up. All of the men of the neighborhood went with the party, the women and children again taking refuge at “Fort Bradley.” The camp of the redskins was found in the big cypress swamp and nearby the grave of the Indian killed by Major Bradley. Lying on the grave was a book, evidently stolen from some settler’s home, entitled “The Story of the Spoiled Child.” The Indians were followed for some time retreating south and a battle was fought near the old Tillis place on Old Tampa Bay. The pursuit continued according to some accounts till Fort Meade was reached where a second battle was fought and the entire band either killed or captured.
During the First Seminole War Major Bradley killed the brother of Tiger Tail, one of their chiefs, and revenge for this act is said to have been the cause of this attack on his home some twenty years later. Mrs. Bradley always declared that the Indians were led by a white man and insisted that she heard him talking to the savages during the battle directing their movement. Major Bradley only survived this massacre two years, dying in 1858, and was buried in the cemetery at Brooksville. Of the eyewitnesses of the event, I believe only two are now living, Mrs. Darby and Mrs. Hays, of Tampa. A younger brother of theirs, whom I understand was born just afterwards, also is living.
Mrs. Darby married shortly after the event I have just told and lived in the Darby neighborhood during the civil war period. She says that they had a good deal of trouble with the negroes during that time but no other especial hardships. Her husband was in the Confederate home guards and while on a scout was captured by Union sympathizers (“deserters” she called them), and was confined on Ship Island and guarded by negro troops till the close of the war.
Note: The reference to the First Seminole War should be the Second Seminole War. The discovery of the Indian camp and an Indian killed by Major Bradley are not confirmed in contemporary newspaper accounts, nor is any contact with or help from Fort Taylor. This article indicates that a third child was wounded by the Indians; this is also not mentioned in contemporary newspaper accounts. The contemporary accounts do claim that son William fired on the Indians, but do not confirm related details. According to Jeff Cannon, the brother of Tiger Tail was killed by Tiger Tail himself. He writes, “According to military records Tiger Tail killed his own brother, a result of his brother wanting to surrender to the white man at Fort Brooke. Records indicate Tiger Tail killed his brother and took over his band to prevent them from surrendering. I believe the citation of Bradley killing Tiger Tail’s brother can only be attributed to one source, J. A. Hendley’s writings. Prior to Hendley I don’t believe it appears anywhere and after Hendley appears in frequency.”
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