Rowan County NcArchives News.....Old Families of Rowan - Brandon Family November 4, 1880 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/nc/ncfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Glinda Edmonds GDVEdmonds@aol.com December 18, 2009, 11:26 pm Copy Original - The Carolina Watchman Newspaper November 4, 1880 ROWAN COUNTY. ______ BY J.R. ______ OLD FAMILIES OF ROWAN ______ While the territory now comprehended in Rowan county was a part of Anson county, or further back still, while it was part of Bladen county, there were settlers in this region. It was 1745 when Henry McCulloh obtained his grant for 100,000 acres of land on the Yadkin and its tributaries. This probably about the beginning of the settlement. The deeds and grants between this date and 1753, if recorded, would be registered in these counties. Hence it is not always possible to determine the date of the settlement of a family by the date of its oldest deed, since the oldest deeds may have been registered elsewhere. But among the earliest grants registered here are those of the BRANDON FAMILY. This family came to Rowan from Pennsylvania, but they were originally from England, where for many centuries the Brandons played a conspicuous part in public affairs, as every reader of English history knows. Upon coming to Rowan county they settled in three different neighborhoods. In 1752, John Brandon obtained a grant of 630 acres of land from Earl Granville upon the waters of Grant’s Creek. In the same year Richard Brandon obtained a grant of 480 acres on the South Fork of Grant’s Creek. In 1755 John Brandon purchased from Carter & Foster, lot No. 4, in the South square of Salisbury adjoining the Common, and near the Court House near where the stocks and pillory then stood. This was near what is known as Cowan’s Corner, now Hedrick’s block. It is not certain whether the adobe named John and Richard Brandon were brothers, or father and son, or more distant relations. Another member of the family, William Brandon, said by tradition to be the youngest son, purchased from James Cathey, in 1752, a tract containing 640 acres on Sill’s Creek, beyond Thyatira Church - then Cathey’s Meeting House. He also procured a grant of 350 acres adjoining the Meeting House lands and between the lands of John Sill and James Cathey. William Brandon married a Miss Cathey. He was perhaps a brother of John Brandon of Grant’s Creek. Another branch of the Brandon family settled on the north side of Fourth Creek. Here James Brandon in 1760 and 1762 obtained grants from Granville and deed from Patrick Campbell for 1592 acres of land. Among the Brandon’s of Fourth Creek there was one George Brandon, whose will, dated 1772, names the following persons, to wit: His wife Marian, his sons John, George, Christopher and Abraham - the latter residing at Renshaw’s Ford on South River - and his daughters, Jane Silver, Mary McGuire, Elinor Brandon, and Sidney Witherow. Of these families the writer has no knowledge. John Brandon appears among the justices who presided over our County Courts in the year 1753, along with Walter Carruth, Alexander Cathey, Alexander Osborne, John Brevard, and others. We would infer from this fact that he was somewhat advanced in life, and of prominence in his neighborhood, and the county. When the Rev. Hugh McAden passed through Rowan, he stopped a night with Mr. Brandon, whom he styles “his own Countryman” that is from Pennsylvania, where McAden was born. From a deed dated 1753, we learn that John Brandon’s wife’s name was Elizabeth. John Brandon had three sons, named Richard, William and John. Richard Brandon married Margaret Locke, the sister of Gen. Matthew Locke. The children of Richard Brandon and Margaret Locke, were Jno. Brandon, Matthew Brandon, and Elizabeth Brandon. The latter is the fair maiden who furnished the breakfast for Gen. Washington, and who married Francis McCorkle, Esq. John and Matthew Brandon resided in the same neighborhood. Col. John Brandon, brother of Matthew, and son of Richard named above, resided about five miles southwest of Salisbury, on the Concord road. Among his children was the late well known Col. Alexander W. Brandon, who resided in Salisbury and died here about the year 1853. Col. Alex W. Brandon never married. While in Salisbury he boarded with his nephew, James Cowan, in the old historic “Rowan House”, where Gen. Jackson once boarded - the house now owned by Theo F. Klutzz, immediately opposite the Boyden House. Col. Brandon possessed a considerable estate, was a general trader, a dealer in money, notes and stocks. By his will he provided that his body should be laid in Thyatira church yard amongst his kindred, and left $400 to the elders of the church, as Trustees, for the purpose of keeping the graveyard in repair. He also bequeathed $3000 to Davidson College for the education of candidates for the ministry, besides legacies to his nephews, Thomas Cowan, James L. Cowan, James L. Brandon, Leonidas Brandon, Jerome B. Brandon, George Locke, and to his brother, John L. Brandon. Col. Brandon was an upright, steady, moral man, of fine appearance and dignified demeanor. Besides Alex W. Brandon, John Brandon left a son John L. Brandon, and two daughters. One of the daughters, named Sally, was married to James Locke, son of Gen. Matthew Locke, and after his death to a Mr. Dinkins of Mecklenburg. The other daughter named Lucretia was the first wife of Abel Cowan, Esq. of Thyatira. To return a generation or two, we find that Richard Brandon had another son besides Col. John Brandon, whose name was Matthew. This Matthew Brandon was the father of two daughters. One of these daughters, named Elizabeth, became the wife of Gen. Paul Barringer of Cabarrus, and the mother of the late Hon. D. M. Barringer, Gen. Rufus Barringer, Rev. William Barringer, Victor C. Barringer, Mrs. Wm. C. Means, Mrs. Andrew Grier, Mrs. Dr. Charles W. Harris and Mrs. Edwin R. Harris. All these were well known and honored citizens of Cabarrus and Mecklenburg counties. The other daughter of Matthew Brandon, named Elvira, became the wife of Rev. James Davidson Hall, then pastor of Thyatira Church, and left no children. Not far from Thyatira Church many years ago there lived two brothers named John Brandon and James Brandon. They were the sons of William Brandon, who settled there as early as 1752. Wm. Brandon’s first wife was a Cathey, the mother of John and James. After her death he married a widow Troy of Salisbury, and moved to Kentucky. From Wm. Brandon and his second wife there descended in the second generation a family of Davises. Two ladies of this name, grand daughters of Wm. Brandon lived for a while in Salisbury, with Miss Catherine Troy, afterwards Mrs. Maxwell Chambers. One of these young ladies married George Gibson and moved to Tennessee. The other married James B. Gibson, and died a year after her marriage. John Brandon, the son of Wm. Brandon, of Thyatira, married Mary - the daughter of Major John Dunn of Salisbury. This couple died childless. Their residence was on the west side of Cathey’s Creek, a mile from Thyatira Church. The place was known of late years as the residence of Dr. Samuel Kerr, and still later as the home of our fellow citizen, Jas. S. McCubbins, Esq. The other son of Wm. Brandon, known as Col. James Brandon, married Esther Horah, sister of Hugh Horah, and aunt of the late Wm. H. Horah. He resided near Thyatira Church in his early married life. After the Revolutionary war he was “entry- taker,” and lost nearly all his property by the depreciation of continental money in his hands. In his latter days he lived in what is now Franklin Township, where Wm. R. Fraley now resides. Col. James Brandon died about 1820 and left a number of children. 1. Among these was a son named William Brandon, who was a merchant in Salisbury, and kept his store about the place now occupied by Enniss’ Drug store. He never married and died young, about the same time his father died. 2. Priscilla Brandon married Wm. Gibson, and their children were Dr. Edmund R. Gibson, late of Concord, James Brandon Gibson, now an elder of Thyatira, George Gibson, who moved to Tennessee, now dead, and Mrs. Margaret G. Smith, now living with Jas. B. Gibson. 3. Margaret, who never married, and died about 1828. 4. Clarissa Harlowe, who married Thomas Kincaid. These were the parents of Mrs. Mary Ann Bruner, Mrs. Jane E. Fraley, and Wm. Mortimer Kincaid, Esq. 5. Sophia Gardner, who never married, and died in 1846. 6. Mary, who married Wm. Hampton of Rowan. Their children were Nancy Reed, the wife of Hon. Philo White, Margaret Gardner, wife of Montfort S. McKenzi, Esq., Mary Ann, wife of John C. Palmer of Raleigh, and James, who died young. 7. Elizabeth, who married Francis Gibson. Their children were Clarissa, the wife of Benjamin Julian of Salisbury, Esther, wife of Jesse P. Wiseman, Esq., and Emmeline, wife of Rufus Morrison. Of the Brandons if may be remarked that they were a thriving, industrious and prosperous family in their day, devoting their chief attention to agriculture and local affairs. Some of them wore the military titles of their day, and were doubtless leaders of public opinion in their neighborhoods, resembling the English County Squires, who took deeper interest in the sports and institutions of the country, than in national affairs. Though the Brandons did not generally aspire to Legislative and Judicial honors, yet some of them were elevated by their fellow citizens to places of trust and dignity. Matthew Brandon, son of Richard, and brother of the second John, represented Rowan county four times in the House of Commons, and once in the Senate of North Carolina. Col. Alex W. Brandon was once a member of the House of Commons. Though they were generally men of substance they did not seem to desire for their sons a college education, preferring that they should walk in the peaceful avocations of an independent farmer’s life. But they were a race possessed of intellectual force, and many of the scions of this house have achieved success as scholars, as lawyers, legislators and devines. These branches of the family are scattered over many counties in North Carolina, though the historic name of Brandon has almost disappeared from the land of their forefathers. Additional Comments: The Carolina Watchman - Salisbury N.C. November 4, 1880 File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/nc/rowan/newspapers/oldfamil637gnw.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/ncfiles/ File size: 11.1 Kb