Brady is the grain marketing and distribution center for 5,000 acres of farmland that is watered by the Bynum Irrigation Project. Water is conveyed to Brady ranches and farms through Muddy Creek from a reservoir thirty miles to the west. There are two ideas about the origin of the town's name: one, according to some residents, is that it was named in honor of Doctor Brady, who was employed by Tohey Brothers Contractors while they constructed a narrow gauge railroad from Shelby to Great Falls in about 1885; when an epidemic of smallpox broke out at the construction camp just as the steel was being laid, Brady came from Great Falls to treat the sick and check the disease (
Montana, a Guide Book). The other idea is that Brady was named for the attorney for the Great Falls-Canada Railroad, who was also the father of Mrs. Kranz of Great Falls (Floerchinger). (from Cheney's
Names on the Face of Montana, Mountain Press Publishing Company)
