CHARITY AND TRAGEDY
Charity was a child of tragedy in that age of sometimes unbearable hardship, yet shining hope, when the interior of the Deep South was being settled in the late 18th century and the early 19th by that great migration of Anglo-Saxon people from Virginia to the Carolinas and then to Georgia, then to Alabama and points farther west.

Those hardy pioneers usually would travel in groups of two or more couples or families. The banding together was partly for protection against pockets of wild Indians still inhabiting the area. A typical group of settlers would be two or more brothers and their families.

Isham Hagen and his wife, Charity, made that fearful but hopeful journey in the company of another couple to whom they were not closely related. As the two couples headed for what they hoped would be a bright new beginning in an area east of the Oconee River in Georgia, which was later to become Laurens County, they came onto a scene of almost indescribable tragedy. Sprawled on the ground on the banks of a small stream bisecting the trail, beside a log bridge that spanned the stream, were the bodies of four young adults, two men and two women. The four had been scalped and savagely slain, obviously by Indians. Smoke still rose from the embers of a fire the Indians evidently had used to burn whatever of the settlers' belongings the Indians did not wish to take with them. The wagons and horses (or mules) that had brought the two ill-fated couples to their deaths were nowhere to be seen.

Fearing the Indians might return and thus not wishing to tarry long, the two men hastily dug shallow graves and buried the four bodies. As they hurriedly got back into their wagons and were preparing to leave, the attention of one woman was attracted by a strange yet familiar sound. She asked the others to be quite for a monent and sure enough, there it came again.

This time the sound,though muffled, was unmistakeable. It was a baby crying. The sound seemed to be coming from beneath the small log bridge that spanned the stream. One of the men looked under the bridge and saw a cradle-like box. He pulled out the box and found inside not just a whimpering infant, who obviously was only a few months old, but also another small, wide eyed child who appeared to be less than two years old.

The Hagens and the other family took the children and departed the scene as hastily as they could, numbed and heartsick by the horror their eyes had beheld. The children, the two couples surmised must have been hidden under the bridge by the ill-fated adults when they realized an attack by the Indians was imminent.

It is not known how the two couples decided which would take which child. But it turned out that the Hagens took the infant, a girl and the other couple took the other child, a boy. The baby girl was given Mrs. Hagen own given name of Charity.

There appeared to be enough difference in the two children's ages that they could have been brother and sister. But there was the other possibility, of course, that one child had belonged to one couple and the other child to the other couple. The children thus could have been brother and sister, cousins, kin in some other way, or without any blood relationship at all. They never knew. But the two always assumed they were brother and sister and visited each other frequently throughout the long lives they both lived.

Both families settled near the now-disappeared community of Branchville east of the Oconee River, a few miles south of where the city of Dublin now is located. That's where Charity Hagen grew up and married David Branch, son of James (Jimmy) Branch, a Revoluntionary Soldier and early settler, for whom the community had been named.

Charity had black hair and was olive-skinned, leading to the speculation among some of her descendants that she may have been of partial Spanish or--irony of ironies-- Indian Descent...
But there were very few if any people of Spanish descent in the Carolinas, where Charity undoubtedly had been born. And despite the real-life Pocahontas of Virginia and legend to the contrary, there was very little intermarriage, or even fraternization, between white settlers and the native Indians.

Though not a person of imposing physical stature--she reportedly never reached the height of five feet--Charity Hagen Branch became legendary for her ability to do the work of a man.

When the Civil War came, she was past the age of 60 and had been a widow for almost 20 years.

While some of her sons were away in the Confederate Army, she lived with the wife of one of them and tended the fields while the younger woman kept house and looked after several children. As soon as word came that Sherman's legions were coming through on their march of pillage and destruction to the sea, Charity cut logs and used them to build livestock pens deep in the Oconee River Swamp. There she kept the horses (or mules) until the danger was past.

Charity died September 6, 1885, at the approximate age of 84 and is buried beside her husband in Wilkes Cemetery--sometimes known in later years as the Pattie Wilkes Cemetery for the oldest of Charity's 13 children, Martha (Pattie) Branch Wilkes-- high on a ridge overlooking the Oconee River Valley in southern Laurens County.

The date of birth on her crude, weatherbeaten grave marker is indicated only by a year, 1801, for she never knew what her birthday was-- or even what her real name was.

There probably are more than 1,000 Currently living descendants of Charity Hagen Branch, including 100 or so in Montgomery and Toombs counties, and I'm proud to be one of them. I'm likewise proud to be a descendant of two of the unfortunate souls, whoever they may have been, who died so tragically on their way to the promise of a new life in Georgia.

And I have a feeling of sadness whenever I think of four other ancestors back somewhere in the Carolinas, whoever they may have been, who never saw or heard from their adventurous children again after they left home.
And never knew why.

(This is the text of a column written by Ray Tapley for the April 16, 1980,issue of the Advance, a Vidalia, Georgia Newspaper).

Her children were:

Martha (Pattie) Branch - Born 19 May 1818. Died 9 May 1902. Buried in Wilkes Cemetery, Laurens County, Georgia. She married David (Dave) Wilkes, son of Elisha Wilkes & Elizabeth Gay Mosley. They are both buried in Wilkes Cemetery, Laurens County, Ga.

Nancy Branch - Born 9 Dec 1819. Died 20 May 1873. Buried in Wilkes Cemetery, Laurens County, Georgia. Occupation 1850 census lived w/b-i-l & sister Martha in Laurens County. History Never Married. Buried in Wilkes Cemetery, Laurens County, Ga.

Isham Isaac "Isom" Branch - Born 23 Sep 1823. Died 5 Nov 1908. Buried in Bracewell Cemetery, Laurens County, Georgia. He married Mariah Elizabeth Gaines on 9 Oct 1851. They are both buried in the Bracewell Cemetery in Laurens County, Ga.

Rachel Branch - Born 1825 in Laurens County, Ga. Died between 1910 & 1920. She married John Emmett Henry in May 1862 in Laurens County, Ga. She had 3 illegitimate daughters, Nancy, Annie Eliza & Charity by John "Pappy" Wilkes. In the 1900 census, she is living with her son Francis Marion "Buddy" Henry. She is assumed to be buried by John Emmett Henry in Lamb's cemetery, Emanuel County, Ga.

Elias (Like) Branch - Born 19 Feb 1827. Died 14 Aug 1902. He married Penelope (Penny) Spivey. He is buried in the Wilkes Cemetery, Laurens County, Ga. If Penny is buried there, her grave is unmarked. He served in the Confederate Army in Company A, 2nd GA Militia.

David Duncan "Dunc" Branch - Born 1829. He married Sarah Carolina Cooper. He served in the Confederate Army in Company B, 57th GA Infantry CSA

Charity "Oud" Branch - Born 1830. Married John "Pappy" Wilkes. Died 1918. They are both buried in Mt. Zion Methodist Church Cemetery in Rockledge, Laurens County, GA.

James Benjamin "Jim" Branch - Born December 24, 1831. Died May 1, 1922. Married Susan Ann Warnock. Both are buried in Red Bluff Cemetery in Treutlen County, Ga. He was a Private,
Company B 57th Georgia Infantry, CSA.

Ann Eliza Branch - Born 1835. Died 1905. Buried in Wilkes Cemetery in Laurens County. She had an illegitimate son, James Jimmy Branch. It is said his father was Jim King. She later married Moses Ricks. Her son James married Mary Ann Samantha Kea.

William (Bill) H. Branch - Born 17 Oct 1837. Died 14 Aug 1866. He married Mary Allen on 5 May 1861. He is buried in Wilkes Cemetery, Laurens County, Georgia. If Mary is there, her grave is unmarked. He was a Private, Company "A", Phillips Legion CSA Lost left arm. Also listed in Company B, 57th GA Infantry CSA

Tabitha "Bitha" Branch - Born 1842. Died December 20, 1925 of pneumonia. She married Benjamin Franklin Dixon, Sr. They are both buried in Rock Springs Baptist Church Cemetery in Laurens County, Ga.

John Branch - Born 1843. Died 1918. He married Martha Elizabeth Ricks. They are both buried in Blue Springs Baptist Church Cemetery, Rockledge, Laurens County, Georgia. He served in Company B, 57th GA Infantry CSA

Mary Branch - Born 1848. Died 1918. She married Cicero G. Beacham. They are both buried in Mt. Zion Methodist Church Cemetery, Rockledge, Laurens County, Georgia

Charity is my GGGG Grandmother. I am very proud to be a decendant of such a strong woman.

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