Emory Parady

Emory Parady was born in New York in 1844. On April 24, 1865, he was one of twenty-seven men from the 16th New York Cavalry Regiment who rode with the two detectives tracking John Wilkes Booth after the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. On April 26, the patrol found Booth hiding at a Virginia farm. Two days later, Parady wrote to his parents about how a fire was started to force Booth from the barn, the shot that mortally wounded him, and rushing in to carry him out. In 1866, Parady received a $1,365.84 reward for his role in Booth’s capture. Emory Parady settled in Nashville with his wife and son in 1870, one year after the village incorporated. In 1872, Parady purchased property at 102 N. Main St. and worked there for many years as a cobbler. He served as justice of the peace in 1879 and was president of the village council from 1883 to 1884. Parady also worked as the village postmaster for several years. Parady and his wife raised five children in Nashville and lived in the village for most of their adult lives. In 1906, Parady and his family moved to Portland, Oregon, where he lived until his death in 1924.