The Brandon Children
Shanna Riley March 25th, 2007
I would be remiss if I did not, on a blog about my graving excursions, talk about The Brandon Children.
They all lived, and died, in the mid-1800s and stumbling upon their beautiful resting place - a small, unmarked cemetery off the Natchez Trace - in May of 2006 was the start of an on-going project to find out just who "The Brandon Children" were...and what happened to them.
The cemetery itself is unmarked, and sits a ways off the Natchez Trace in Natchez, Mississippi. My mother, sister, and I saw what looked like a fenced-in graveyard from the Trace, and made the short walk up to it.
There was an ornate black, ironwork fence surrounding a small cemetery that was surrounded by a perfectly-planted circle of oak trees. The tomb and headstones inside were ornate and had beautiful verses inscribed into the stone; all by a mournful mother...who we soon realized had seven young children interred within. We couldn't begin to imagine the pain she must've gone through, losing so many of her precious children at such young ages.
Intrigued by this hallowed ground that held so many children of one ill-fated couple, I wrote down the names and dates of them all. When I returned home, I began my research into who these children, and their parents, had been and to try and learn what might have become of them.
The fruits of my research became The Brandon Children website; my labor of love. I plan to write more about each of them, and their family, as this blog grows.
