Brandon

(submitted by Janet Firman, with additions from When Horsepower Meant Just That by Donald Brandon, 2002)

The Brandon family of Warwick Township originated in County Tyrone, Ireland. James Brandon (1812–1895) and his wife Matilda McElroy (1811–1888, originally from Scotland) came to Canada in 1852 with six children. They settled on Lot 11, Con. 5 NER, which belonged to John McElroy, who had come a couple of years earlier and cleared some land. In a 1947 letter to June Baird, her Aunt Annie stated, “Grandfather [James Brandon] was 40 years of age and never learned to use the axe very well, but he dug ditches and made roads. His boys, of course, learned to chop.”

Three more children were born in Warwick. Their children were: John Vincent (1841–1915) who taught school in Warwick Twp. before he became a doctor in Ancaster, Ont., Letitia (1842–1914) who married Adam Baird and stayed in Warwick Twp., Margaret (1844–1893) who married James Campbell, Agnes (1846–1936) who married Alexander Karr, William (1847–1897), James (1851–1876), Thomas (1856–1907) and Matilda (1858–1935) who married Robert Porter. One child died as an infant.

William farmed, but also worked as a cattleman, along with his brother Thomas, shipping stock to England. Thomas, who married Mary Burns in 1894, managed the homestead and eventually became one of the largest landowners in Warwick Twp. Thomas was politically minded, and served 4 years as Deputy Reeve of Warwick Twp. He was also a member of the East Lambton Farmers' Institute. William, James and Thomas were well known as the Brandon Bros., cattlemen.

William Brandon (1847–1897) started farming on his own on Lot 9, Con. 5 NER in 1872. He married Alison Robertson. He and Alison had four sons: James (1877–1948), William John (1879–1962) who married Grace Vance, Robert Robertson (1882–1959) and Dr. Thomas A. (1886–1918).

Dr. Thomas A. Brandon took over Dr. Auld's medical practice in Watford before he enlisted with the Royal Army Medical Corps (R.A.M.C.). He spent six months in France, but was invalided home. He died of pneumonia in 1918, leaving his widow Anna Clark Brandon and a 3 year old son.

Wedding photo of James Brandon and Margaret Crocker, 1905. Courtesy D Brandon.

The oldest of William and Alison's sons, James, married Margaret Crocker (1881–1966). James and Margaret had eleven children: Alison (1907–2002, m. Rome), William Matthew (Bill, 1909–2002), Thomas Albert (Tom, 1910–1999), Amelia (1912–1982 m. Huctwith), John Robertson (1915–1988), Margaret Matilda (1916–, m. Lester), Robert James (Jim Jr., 1918–2000), Marion Agnes (1920–, m. Johnson), Oliver Crocker (1921–1945), Alexander (Alex, 1922–2006) and Donald Stewart (1923–1986).

The James Brandon family were outstanding farmers, especially noted for their Clydesdale horses and six horse hitches. In 1909 James, along with his brothers William and Robert, decided to establish their own horse breeding program. They supplied horses for logging camps, large mercantile ﬁrms, prison farms and the show ring. This was also the era when large American companies started using 6 horse hitches for advertising.

In 1920, the Brandon Bros. imported Carbrook Buchlyvie, the horse which made them one of the top breeders of the world. In the November, 1926 Forest Standard it was reported that “Brandon Brothers of Warwick exhibited 17 of their famous Clydesdale horses at Toronto Winter Fair.”

On July 17, 1929, the barns on the homestead were set on ﬁre and ﬁve of their twelve prize stallions died, including Carbrook Buchlyvie. During that barn ﬁre they lost many pedigreed Clydesdale horses. This ﬁre had been deliberately set by a neighbour who rode away from the crime on his bicycle. The police were able to follow the bicycle tracks to the culprit's house. He was convicted and sentenced.

The ﬁre did not deter their eﬀorts. They came to an agreement with August Busch of Anheuser-Busch in 1933, when he wanted to get into the Clydesdale business and was looking for horses, harness and wagons.The Anheuser- Busch six-horse hitch is still a well-known advertising tool across North America.

James and Margaret's third son, John Robertson, married Edna Adelene May (1923–). They had ﬁve children: Judith (1941–), Richard John (1943–), Peggy (m. Jack O'Neill, 1944–2001), Patricia (m. Michael Allerio, then William Gwodz 1946–) and Donald (1951–). Donald is an avid horseman who worked extensively with Clydesdales in the United States. John Robertson spent his lifetime in the Clydesdale business, ﬁrst in the 1950s in Chicago, working for the Wilson Meat Packers and Sports Equipment Company, then returning to Warwick to the family farm. He and his son Don ran a pig operation, but continued to keep Clydesdales and their involvement with 6 horse hitches and horse shows.

James and Margaret's fourth son, Robert James Brandon, married Hazel Irene Stonehouse (1926–1995). They had two children: Nancy Dianne and James Oliver. Nancy is musically gifted. In the 1960s she received an Ontario Centenary Festival of Music Award and a Music Talent Foundation Scholarship in piano. She obtained her ARCT in Solo Performers in 1967.

Margaret (Brandon) Lester, Marion (Brandon) Johnson and Donald Brandon are the surviving family members of James and Margaret who live in the Forest area.

Margaret Lester recalls many incidents during her lifetime, some good and others not so good. She remembers their terrible barn ﬁre in the summer of 1928 which caused the rats which inhabited the barn to look for another home. Naturally they chose the farm house. The story goes that, to try to get rid of them, some rat poison was mixed with graham ﬂour in a saucer and left in a kitchen cupboard. The following morning Margaret saw the ﬂour in the saucer and, not knowing, thought it was left over from the previous day, put it back into the regular ﬂour bin. It then got mixed in with the porridge the next morning and within a short time ﬁve of her brothers became violently ill. The cause of their illness was not determined until her mother asked who put out the special meal prepared for the rats the day before. It was soon ﬁgured out what had happened. The doctor was immediately called and advised of what had taken place. When told that they were all bringing up, he replied, “That's good. Give them lots of water.” To this day Margaret wonders how her brothers felt about eating porridge after that incident!

Margaret's brothers, Oliver, Alex and Bill Brandon, all served in World War ll. Oliver was killed February 1945; both Alex and Bill were wounded in action. Alex Brandon once spoke of his war experiences to a secondary school class. He went overseas just before D-Day, 1944. He was a gun tractor driver. He was injured by shrapnel. It took three years in hospital and 27 operations for him to recover from his wounds.

Margaret's brother Robert James (Jim) carried on with the farm, specializing in the breeding, care and maintenance of the horses. But after World War II, with the advancing mechanization in industry and agriculture, the demand for draft horses diminished. The war years had already closed down the major horse shows; gasoline was no longer rationed and tractors were more aﬀordable. It was a hard blow to Margaret's father and to her brother Jim to recognize the change in times.

At the same time it was found that pregnant mare horse urine had a signiﬁcant place in the medical ﬁeld, speciﬁcally in the development of the hormone estrogen. So, the Brandons went into the business of “manufacturing” urine. For the next few years they were in that business, along with farming, until the introduction of synthetic estrogen.

The Brandon Brothers' ﬁrm ended with the death of James in 1948. After his father's death, Jim Jr. oﬀered stud service for a few years during breeding season, but by the early 1950s that did not pay. He continued his involvement with horses by judging at horse shows.

Chapter 24 of 25 - Brandon Family

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