Life in Pennsylvania and Ohio
His first pencil drawings of farms and homes were made in Pennsylvania as early as 1876. It is thought he did some 300 pictures in Pennsylvania, although the exact number is not known as he did not number many of his Pennsylvania pictures. Brader's Pennsylvania renderings were done in Berks County, Lancaster Co. Montgomery Co., Lebanon Co. and as far west as Somerset, Beaver and Allegheny Counties. While best known for his hundreds of carefully rendered farmstead pictures, he is also known to have recorded scenes of local rural industries, such as grist mills, potteries, mines and quarries.
The majority of Brader's drawings were done in Ohio. His Ohio drawings first appeared in 1884 in Tuscarawas County and Brader continued do make drawings through 1895. From drawings that survive it is known that Brader's Ohio pictures were done in 8 different adjoining counties; Portage, Medina, Wayne, Stark, Summit, Carroll, Columbiana and Mahoning counties. Most of his Ohio pictures seem to have been done in the counties of Portage and Stark. Both of these counties had county infirmaries or "Poor Houses" where Brader is known to have stayed.
The registry book of the Portage County Infirmary show that he was there from December 12, 1891 through April 19, 1892 and cite his birth in Switzerland as being in 1833. These records further state that the reason for his stay was, "mind impairment" and that he was "insane". It also states that he had asthma, "very bad but got better of it and left for himself to go to Kentucky". He apparently never made it to Kentucky as no evidence of him being there has been found and he continued to produce drawings in Ohio through 1895.
Read more about this topic: Ferdinand A. Brader
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