The morning call., 1890-08-19
A FAMILY OF FIGHTERS.
Thirty five Sons and Seventeen of The
in the Union Army.

Thirty -hye sons ana seventeen VI Ahehf
in the Union Army.
"If it came within the line of his in
uuiries," said W. C. Meyer of St Glars
vile, W. Va, 1.-THE census enumerator tor
Mouudsville, near where live. plust have
found about as wonderful domestic his
tory as any enumeraIor will run against
elsewhere in this country. l refer to fam
lily of the name of Brandon. The father
of that family, Charles Brandon, died
when he was 50 years old, but his young
est child was then less than year old.
He died Just as the civil war broke out
from a broken heart, his wife hav-
ing refused to live with him any
longer and brought. suit for divorce
against HIM lie had at the time thirtyfve
living children, and had been married three
times His first wife bore him only two
children. His second wife died after bear
ing him eighteen. AT the age Of 20 he mar
ried Sarah Barker, she being 10, and the
youngest of sixteen children. She lived
with him twenty-one years, bearing him
fifteen children, and then left him. taking
her year-old baby with her, and sued for
divorce on the grounds OF lncompatlbillty
Of temper Brandon was then still hale and
hearty, but the deSertion of his wife broke
him down. and lie died within month
after she left him.
when mis- third wife married him the
Oldest Of his twenty children by his two
previous wives was 80, and the entire
twenty lived under the paternal roof. The
young wife reared all of the twenty that
were young enough to need rearing, besides
caring for the fifteen of her own, the oldest
of whom was but 20 when she left their
father. The family of thirty-fve kept to-
gether for many years after their fatherS
death, and if the patriarchal Brandon had
lived a few months longer he would
have seen seventeen of his sons enlist in
the Union army. 1t is a question if in this
or any other country an instance can be
found where one family ever before con-
tributed seventeen sons to their c0untry's
aervice. There were two CharleSeS and two
Johns among these brothers. The names
OF the other thirteen were Simeon, Evans,
Peter, Josephus, Hiram, James, Van Buren,,
Jacob, Abraham, Alexander, David, An
drew, and Ruse;, Besides these, three Of
Charles Brand % sons IONS served spHsn team in
brothers were all in Ohio and IT,
diana regiments. Two of them, one of the
Johns and one of the Charleses, were sons
of the third Mrs. Brandon. They were
both taken prisoners at the battle of Chick
amauga and placed in Andersonvile
was there twenty-one months wnen ne es-
capped. All the rest of the sons were chill
dren of the second wife. They were in
every important battle of the war, and all
lived 10 get nome when the war was over
except Peter, who was killed at Shiloh
These boys all cane of good lighting
stock, for their father was a famous Indian
fighter himself. and veteran of the war Of
1872 and the Mexican War. When Western
Pennsylvania was the frontier, and the In
dian fighter was the most important and
Indispensable person in the settlements,
Charles Brandon, according to all tradi-
tions. was one of the best and most daring
of all the active foes Of the red men.
His father was killed by Indians when
Charles was only years old. He HIM
self was made prisoner, and lived with the
Indians twelve years, hating them more the
longer he was with them. At the age Of 10
he escaped, and, after learning his mother
tongue, spent all his time until they were
driven away to more remote settlements in
hunting and killing Indians. He was 81
years of age when the War of 1872 broke out,
and he was one of the first to join the Amer
lean army, and was in 1t when peace was
declared. He was IA when he enlisted in
the Mexican War.
The third wife OF this virile old fighter
| is living at MoundSyille, hale and hearty at
the age OF g. She is over six feet high and
as straight as an arrow. OF her thirty-fiye
children aud stepchildren, she knows posi-
lively Of the whereabouts of but fifteen.
The rest are scattered about the country
and dead. The thirty-fve children were all
IN Y SIM