The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1890-11-13
sEvENTeEN BROTHERS IN THE WAR.
They Came of q Remarkable Family 81
Thirty-ffve Children, All Sons.

They Came of q Remarkable Family o.
Thirty-ffve Children, All Sons.
eff it came within the line Of his inqui-
ries," said ". c. Meyer, of st. GAINESVILLE,
". Va, "the census enumerator FOR
Moundsville, near where / live, must have
found about as wonderful domestic his
tory as any enumeration ran against else
where In this country. | refer TO a family
by the name of Brandon. The father OF
that family, Charles Brandon, died when
he was go years old, but his youngest child
was then less than year old. he died
just as the civil war broke out, from
broken heart, his wife having refused to
live with him any longer. be had at that
time thirty-five living children, and had
been married three times.
''HE first wife bore him two children.
His second wife died after bearing him
eighteen. At the age of 20 he married
Sarah Barker, she being 10, and the young
est 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. Brandon was still
hale and hearty, but the desertion of his
wife broke him down, and he died within
a month after she left him.
~ ALCAl LIE bliiEu WIG nm bhC
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, be-
sides caring for the fifteen Of her own, the
oldest of whom was but 20 when she left
their father. The family of thirty-ive
kept together for many years after their
fathers death, and if the patriarchal Bran
don had lived few months longer he
would have seen seventeen of his sons en-
list in the Union army II is a question if
in this or any other country an instance
can be found where one family ever before
contributed seventeen sons to their coun-
try's service.
"These boys all came of good fighting
stock, for their father was a famous In
dian fighter himself, veteran OF the war
of 1872 and the Mexican war. When west
ern Pennsylvania was the frontier, and the
Indian fighter was the most important
and indispensable person in the settle
ments, Charles Brandon, according to all
traditions, 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 8 years old. He himself
was made a prisoner, and lived with the
Indians twelve years, hating them more
the longer he was with them. At the age
Of Is he escaped, and after learning his
mother tongue, spent all his time, until
they were driven away to more remote set
Elements, 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 American army, and was in it
when peace was declared. He was "a when
be enlisted in the Mexican war.
'The third wife of this virile old fighter
is living in Moundsville hale and hearty at
the age of 81. She is over six feet high and
as straight as an arrow. OF her thirty-five
children and stepchildren, she knows posi-
lively of the whereabouts of but fifteen.
The rest are scattered about the country
and dead. The thirty-five children were
all sons. st. Louis Globe-Democrat.