William Paul Brady (February 12, 1876February 27, 1943) was an American lawyer. From 1909 to around 1914, he served as the first district attorney for Texas' 70th judicial district, and from 1917 to 1919 he was the judge for the newly created El Paso County Court at Law. Brady prosecuted several high-profile murder cases as a district attorney, including of Agnes Orner, and in a death-penalty case that has since been termed a "legal lynching" of a Mexican boy charged with killing a white woman.
Brady was born to a pioneering Austin family and grew up there. An older brother, John W. Brady, also became a Texas lawyer and judge; a niece, Caroline Brady, would go on to become a philologist. Will Brady spent three years after graduation as a county school teacher, then ran for county superintendent. He won and ultimately served two terms, from 1900 to 1904. Brady thereafter obtained a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Texas and moved to Pecos, where after several years in private practice he was appointed district attorney by Texas Governor Thomas Mitchell Campbell. Brady moved to El Paso in 1915 and resumed private practice, but was soon named judge, this time by Governor James E. Ferguson. Brady resigned in 1919 and moved to California to pursue interests in oil; he spent the remainder of his career as an oil attorney, and then with the National Farm Loan Association.
In Austin, Pecos, El Paso, and San Luis Obispo, Brady remained deeply involved in the social, political, and business milieu. The El Paso Herald described him as "one of the best known public men in west Texas". A Democrat, Brady spoke at and organized numerous gatherings and attended county and statewide conventions. A Catholic, he was involved in innumerable social functions, and at one point served as the state president of the Catholic Knights of America in Texas. Likewise, "for many years among the front ranks of our business men", as the Pecos Times put it, Brady incorporated both the Cruces Oil Corporation and the Pecos Valley Southern Railway.
Early life and education
William Paul Brady was born on February 12, 1876, in Austin, Texas. His parents, James and Agnes Brady, were early settlers of the city, having arrived five years earlier. Will Brady was one of five children; his siblings were John W., David John, Agnes Margaret, and Helen Gertrude Brady. His brother John would also become a lawyer and judge, with a successful career upended by a three-year prison sentence for murder. Meanwhile, his niece Caroline Brady would go on to become a philologist.
Brady was raised in Austin and attended the public schools there. He graduated from Austin High School in 1895, although he had matriculated at the University of Texas a year earlier. He graduated from the university's College of Arts in 1896.
Career
Education
Brady began teaching in Sprinkle, Texas, around 1897, where he led the country school. Term typically began around September or October, after the cotton crop had been gathered, and ended around June. While a teacher, Brady was involved with the Travis County Teachers' Association. At gatherings of the Association, he co-led discussions of a new text book law and of a paper entitled "School Law", and spoke on "Needed Changes in the School Law", "Truth v. Fiction in the School Reader", "How to Teach Texas History", and "Professional Courtesy". He also helped organize a circulating library intended to supply the teachers in the county with professional books, and in 1900 taught physical geography at the Elgin summer normal.
In 1900, his third year at Sprinkle, Brady ran for the position of Travis County school superintendent, responsible for the rural, rather than city, schools in the county. An endorsement signed by three Sprinkle residentsW. B. Barr, T. J. Rowzee, and F. T. Maxwelldeclared that Brady "is a young man, well educated, full of ambition, and will strive hard to build up a reputation for himself", and by the end of March Brady was making what the Austin Daily Statesman termed "an energetic canvass" for the position. Brady's opponent in the April primary was James H. Day, a school principal in Austin. The election was close, but Brady won with 2,679 votes to 2,524. Brady won the November election uncontested, and was sworn in to begin his two-year term on December 1. Days before the election, Brady submitted an affidavit, read at a political gathering, accusing a district judge, Frank G. Morris, of summoning a grand jury to investigate a political opponent. The following year Brady took a three-week vacation that included stops in Buffalo and New York City.