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Henry Brandon was a member of the North Carolina Senate. He was born in the mid to late 1800’s. The son of a confederate captain and his wife, he was raised in extreme wealth; wealth which would be roughly equivalent to being a multi-millionaire today. After finishing his education Henry Brandon would proceed to spend the majority of his life wasting his fortune and life in an extreme state of inebriation and ever decreasing living standards.[1]
Biography
editEarly life
editHenry Brandon was born in the mid to late nineteenth century. His father was a confederate captain in the civil war and his mother was not mentioned in the record taken by the Federal Writers’ Project author. Highly educated, he obtained a Law degree from Harvard and after graduation travelled around Europe furthering his education at La Sorbonne under Le Conte: in-between which his father passed away and left Henry a massive inheritance. After a year in Europe he sailed back to America where he killed his lawyer, that had been entrusted with the estate he inherited from his father (45,000$ cash 25, RR shares and seven plantations covering 11,000 acres), for stealing most of his entitlement. While convicted for the murder, he was let off light due to his late father’s standing in society.
Adulthood
editAfter his trial Henry began to drink excessively. Despite this he was elected to the North Carolina State Senate. After serving one term he left office and once again began to drink. Not long after he returned from Raleigh and his single term as a politician, Henry net Susan Harrison. After falling in love with Susan Henry proposed only to be rejected due to his constant alcohol abuse and mismanagement of what funds he had left. These ultimatums made Henry stop drinking and begin paying attention to his tenants. Before they could be married though, Susan died of the Typhoid Fever. Once again Henry took up drinking. Four years of constant drunkenness later he imbibed a bottle of horse liniment and almost killed himself. The doctor who saved his life informed him that there remained 26,000 of his inheritance. Henry proceeded to drink this away over the course of two years. After being rescued by a person Henry refers to as ‘N----- Ben’; Henry lives off basically nothing for fifteen years being taken care of by this man. Once Ben dies, Henry once again almost starves until the United Daughters of the Confederacy introduce him to a rich Yankee who buys his last property for 15,000$. This money, monthly doled out by the daughters lasts for another fifteen years. Just as the money ran out The New Deal was put into place and Henry lives off this old age pension, seven dollars every two weeks. The Federal Writers Project Folder does not mention how Henry’s life ends but where the record leaves him is as a drunk old man living in a packing box on the street with nothing to his name but tattered memories of a life larger than the world he now inhabits.