This township was erected March 9, 1885. August 29, 1884, upon petition of a number of citizens of Wilkins for the division of that township, the court appointed as viewers of the proposed line Charles Davis, J. G. Weir and R. S. P. McCall, who reported favorably. When the question was submitted to popular vote, March 9, 1885, it was decided affirmatively by a majority of one hundred and four, and the name Braddock was given the preference by a plurality of one hundred and four.

This region is pre-eminently rich in historic associations. The circumstances of its settlement possess an interest not merely local, but important in the history of the county. The first white settler in the lower valley of the Monongahela, Lieut. John Frazier, was living at the mouth of Turtle creek in 1753, engaged in trading with the Indians. Washington remained with him over night, November 21, 1753, on his journey to the French posts of Venango and Logstown. The locality was known as "Frazier’s Fields," and the house in which Frazier lived was still intact as late as 1804. He was the only resident of the township for many years.

It is upon the memorable defeat of Braddock, however, rather than the experiences of the frontier trader, that public interest centers.

The trader Frazier is not again mentioned after this; and for some years no remarkable happening disturbed the quiet seclusion of the locality. After the Revolution, when the state militia organization was completed, the annual brigade muster was held here. A muster of an unusual character occurred August 1, 1794; it marked the culminating point in the progress of the "whisky insurrection," and in the far-reaching possibilities of its results takes equal rank with the memorable defeat of Braddock forty years before.

The national excise law of 1791 was regarded with much disfavor by the people of Western Pennsylvania. Their opposition to its enforcement was expressed in unequivocal terms by the burning of Gen. Neville’s house in July, 1794, the meetings of the populace at Mingo creek and Parkinson’s ferry, and the robbery of the United States mail. The information obtained from the latter source was the immediate reason for the assemblage at Braddock’s Fields. The intercepted letters were found to contain opinions of the leaders of the popular party not agreeable to them, and a self-constituted committee of six, among whom were Parkinson and Bradford, forthwith issued at Cannonsburg a summons to the different colonels of militia throughout the survey to appear at the accustomed place of rendezvous with their respective commands. Their avowed purpose was the seizure of the magazine and fort, the capture of the offensive individuals and the United States marshal, and, if necessary, an attack upon the town of Pittsburgh. On Friday, August 1, 1794, the militia assembled to the number of several thousand. Bradford and Parkinson were there; the brother of James McFarlane, who had been killed in the attack on Neville’s house; James Boss, United States senator, and subsequently one of the commissioners appointed by the president to offer amnesty to the insurgents; John Scull, the pioneer journalist of the west; Gen. John Wilkins, Alexander McNickle, John McMasters and other prominent citizens of Pittsburgh at that period; George Wallace, the first president judge of Allegheny county, and H. H. Brackenridge, the diplomat of the occasion, whose skill and tact, and his intricate knowledge of the men with whom he had to deal, performed their greatest triumph in diverting the strong current of popular indignation from expending the force of its unrestrained and misdirected energy in acts of violence. The fort was not attacked; the town was not burned; the persons of those who had rendered themselves obnoxioixs were not molested — they had fled; the "army" marched through the town, and, after having been regaled with whisky and refreshments, dispersed. A little less of tact on the part of certain individuals, and of moderation on the part of others, might have precipitated a sanguinary civil conflict; but the threatened crisis had been averted, although the magnitude of its importance was not generally recognized. The pacification of the western country was not finally effected until the following year, and disorder was frequently manifested; but at no other period in the course of the insurrection was the gravity of the situation so apparent as during the few days that Braddock’s Fields were the encampment of seven thousand undisciplined men, patriotic at heart, but under control of a reckless and irresponsible leadership.

It is worthy of note that the battle-ground was owned, at this time, by George Wallace, president judge at the first session of the courts after the erection of Allegheny county, December 16, 1788. He continued in that capacity until the reorganization of the judiciary, in 1790, and continued as associate lay judge until his death, in 1814. He was first appointed a justice of the peace for Westmoreland county in 1784.

The next noteworthy occurrence was the visit of Lafayette, in June, 1825. After being sumptuously entertained at the house of Maj. John Walker, at Elizabeth, the marquis and his suite left that place in two batteaux, and thus proceeded to Braddock’s Field, where they were met by a delegation from Pittsburgh. The general was accompanied on this occasion by his son, Gabriel Peterson, Joseph Markle, John Walker, James A. Stewart, James Pollock, Harvey Peterson and E. C. Stephens; Henry Stewart, Walter Loomis, Laban Turner, boatmen.

Two years after this event the locality became the seat of Edgeworth Seminary, the first ladies’ seminary west of the Allegheny mountains. This institution was organized at Pittsburgh in 1825, by Mrs. Mary Gould Giver. The property in which the school was conducted at Braddock’s Fields, a large stone building near the Pennsylvania railroad depot, is yet standing. It was leased for ten years, and at the expiration of that period the seminary was removed to Sewickley, where it was continued under various auspices until 1865. Its patronage under Mrs. Giver’s administration was derived from Cincinnati, Marietta and other cities of the west, as well as Pittsburgh and the immediate vicinity.

The opening of the Pennsylvania railroad in October, 1851, and of the Pittsburgh & Connellsville (B. & O.) several years later, with the improved navigation of the Monongahela river, conferred upon this locality unequaled advantages for manufacturing purposes, to which its present importance in this respect is directly traceable. The Edgar Thomson Steel-works rank first in importance among the present industrial establishments. The construction of these works was begun by Carnegie, McCandless & Co., Andrew Carnegie, William Coleman, John Scott, David A. Stewart, Thomas M. Carnegie, Andrew Kloman, William P. Shinn, David McCandless and Henry Phipps, Jr., constituting the firm, which was organized January 18, 1873. The Edgar Thomson Steel company, limited, was formed June 2, 1874, by the same parties, and the works were operated under this name until April 1, 1881, when the firm of Carnegie Brothers & Co., limited, assumed control. Henry Phipps, Jr., is chairman of this association; D. A. Stewart, vice-chairman and treasurer; S. E. Moore, secretary; the board of managers including, also, John Walker, George Lauder, Henry M. Curry, William L. Abbott and William H. Singer.

The first purchase of ground, one hundred and six acres, was made from Robert and John McKinney. Ground was broken April 15, 1873, and the work of construction began five days later. Owing to delays incident to the panic, more than two years elapsed before the final completion. August 28, 1875, at a quarter past 5 o’clock in the afternoon, the first "blow" was made; and the first rail was rolled at five minutes of 1 o’clock in the afternoon of September 1st. Capt. William E. Jones has been general superintendent of the works throughout their history, the different superintendents being as follows: James Gayley, blast-furnace department; John Rinard, converting-works; Thomas Lapsley, railmill; Thomas James, machinery; F. L. Bridges, transportation; S. A. Ford is chemist, and C. C. Teeter, chief clerk.

West of the borough are the Braddock Firebrick works; the nailmill of Chess, Cooke & Co., erected in 1887, and previously operated in Pittsburgh; Duquesne forge, owned and operated by the Miller Forge company; a glassfactory, recently placed in operation, with a ten-pot furnace and full complement of other appliances necessary in producing pressed ware; the tannery of Owen Sheeky & Co.; the works of the Braddock Wire company, William Edenborn, president, Wallace H. Rowe, secretary and treasurer, Thomas W. Fitch, superintendent, removed from St. Louis in 1885-86, and comprising four trains of rolls, with an annual capacity of twenty thousand net tons No. 5 iron and steel wire rods; Carrie furnace, operated by the Carrie Furnace company, James S. Brown, president, E. L. Clark, secretary, H. C. Fownes, treasurer, and W. C. Fownes, manager, removed from Ohio in 1883, and blown in February 29, 1884, there being one stack, eighty feet high and eighteen feet bosh, with a capacity of fifty thousand net tons mill, foundry and Bessemer pig-iron annually. The Union Switch & Signal company’s works at Swissvale, and the recently abandoned car works at that place, complete the industrial features of the township.

The villages are Swissvale, eight miles from Pittsburgh, on the Pennsylvania railroad; Copeland, North Braddock and Rankin, suburbs of Braddock borough; Brinton, Bessemer and Hawkins, stations on the Pennsylvania railroad.

The Swissvale Presbyterian Church was organized in 1870, and received as its first pastor Rev. Samuel J. Fisher. Sole’s chapel, United Brethren, of North Braddock, was built in 1875. The other places of worship are Wesley chapel and Mount Olive church. There are three cemeteries, Monongahela, Union and Braddock, a noticeable feature of the latter being the monument to deceased soldiers of the late war, dedicated in September, 1887.