Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1890-10-30
A FAMILY OF FIGHTERS.
Thirty-five Sons and Seventeen of Them In
the Union Army.


'.If it came within the line of his in
quiries," said W. G. Mover of st.
Clairsville, West Va, 1.-The census emu
merator for Moundsville. near where I
live, must have found about as won
derful domestic history as any emu
merator will run against elsewhere in
this country. [ refer to a family of
the name OF Brandon. The father of
that family, Charles Brandon, died
when he was IS years old, but his
Youngest child was then less than a
year old. He died Just as the civil war
broke out from a broken heart. his
wife having refused to live with him
any longer, and brought suit for di-
vorce against him. He had at that
time thirty-ive living children, and
had been married three times His
first wife bore him only two children.
His second wife died after bearing him
eighteen. At the age of IS he married
Sarah Barker, she being 16, and the
youngest of sixteen children. She
lived with him twenty-one years, bear
ing him fifteen children, and then left
him, taking her year-old baby with her,
and sued for divorce on the grounds of
incompatability of temper. 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.
when his third wife married him
the oldest of his twenty children bv
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-five kept together
for many years after their fathers
death, and if the patriarchal Brandon
had lived 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 contributed seven
teen sons to their country's service.
There were two Cha rleses 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, Andrew, and Ruse.
Besides these, three of Charles Bran
don's sons served in tie Mexican war.
The seventeen brothers were all in
Ohio and Indiana regiments. Two of
them, one Of the Johns and one of the
Charle5es, were sons OF the third Mrs
Brandon. They were both taken
prisoners at the battle of Chickamauga
and placed in Andersonvilie prison.
John died in the prison. Churles was
there twenty one months when he
escaped. All the rest of the sons were
children of the second wife They
were in every impo rtant battle of the
war, and all lived to get home when
the war was over except Peter, who
was killed at Shiloh.
These boys all came Of good fight
ing stock for their father was "A famous
Indian fighter himself veteran Of the
war of 1872 and the Mexican war.
When Western Pennsylvania was the
frontier, and the Indian fighter was the
most important and indispensable per-
son in the settlements, Charles Brandon,
according to all the tradition, 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 3 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 10 he escaped, and, after learn
ing his mother tongue, spent all his
time until they were driven away to
more remote settlements in hunting
and killing Indians. He was 81 wears
of age when the war of 1912 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 he enlisted in the Mexican
war.
The third wife of this yirile old
fighter is living at Moundsville, hale
and hearty ri the age of 81. She is
over six feet high and as straight as an
arrow. Of her thirty -five children and
step children, she knows positively OF
the whereabouts of but fifteen. The
rest are scattered about the country
and dead. The thirty-five children
were all sons