Notes

ZACHARIAH BRANSCOMB & MAZY TOWNS

and THEIR DESCENDANTS

Contributed by Fred Tubbs

February 2003 with corrections 2004

INTRODUCTION

      A considerable discrepancy exists between statements made by members of later generations concerning the ancestry of Zachariah Branscomb and the documentary evidence currently available for him.  Details about Zachariah’s life are sparse.  This account presents (1) a summary of the family stories; (2) a review of all of the known documentary information for Zachariah and for his wife Mazy Towns, and  (3) hypotheses for reconciling the family accounts with the documentary evidence. Next it summarizes the known information for the descendants of Zachariah and Mazy through three additional generations.

      In this account I use the same numbering system that is used in my book, Isaac Branscum, his Ancestors and his Children (p. 187): each child of Zachariah is assigned a single-digit number representing the position in the birth order as shown on p. 13 below. Each grandchild’s number has the single digit of his parent plus a second digit representing the offspring’s position in the birth order, and so forth. When there are more than nine children in a family, as in the case for #5 George, the tenth, eleventh and twelfth children are represented by capital letters A, B and C respectively. Thus George’s tenth child Jane is designated as #5A, and her second child James is numbered 5A2.  A spouse has the number of the lineal descendant with a “0” appended, and additional spouses add “02,” “03.” etc. If there is any possibility of confusion with another line of Branscombs, (none occurs in this account), a “Z-” before the number distinguishes Zachariah’s line.

      Although the writing is mine, most of the information and documentation herein was obtained by modern descendants of Zachariah and Mazy.  These individuals are identified directly in the text or in end notes.  Published sources are cited directly in the text and are identified appropriately at the end. 

      Following is a list of the unpublished sources which I used: 

1.   A trove of more than one hundred letters written during the period 1854-1864, most of them by four of the sons of #2 Bennett Hill Branscomb while they were in military service during the Civil War.  Frank A. Chappell (#215132) transcribed the letters, and his brother James (#215131)  distributed them.  Also included are several letters from relatives and former acquaintances in Abbeville, SC, to Bennett Hill and family members after the move to Alabama.  Additional letters were discovered by #21471 Donald C. Parker (note 1), and he, Frank Chappell and #23382 John Rufus Branscomb continue the search for even more letters.  Frank has now  published a book, Dear Sister, which includes the letters and background information for them. I refer to the letters herein as the BHB letters.  In order to clarify the meaning when quoting portions of the letters I inserted a few words in brackets [thus] and infrequent punctuation marks.

2.   Several pages from Bennett Hill Branscomb’s Bible. (Note 2)

3.   A notebook prepared circa 1932 by Emma Clayton Hunter Anderson (#215).  This notebook is apparently the earliest available written account which gives the family lore about Zachariah’s Branscomb ancestry.  Emma’s daughter Carrie Anderson (#2152) augmented her mother’s notes with information about later generations.  (Note 1)

4.   Louise Branscomb (#2233) visited Emma Anderson and #238 Richard Clayton Branscomb in Union Springs in June of 1938, and upon her return she prepared a handwritten statement about the family of Bennett Hill Branscomb.  It did not contain information about Bennett’s ancestry.  John R. Branscomb transcribed the account.

5.  More recently James A. Chappell prepared a synopsis of “The Branscomb Generations” and added  details from various sources. The subsequent papers included summaries of the Belott family (Eliza Belott/Belotte was the wife of #2 Bennett Hill Branscomb) and the Hunter family (Caroline, eldest child of Bennett Hill & Eliza, married James Hunter).  The file also contained some newspaper clippings and copies of photographs.  (Note 1)

6.   Correspondence and notes collected by Vivian Shannon Mullen (#5A21), dating from ca. 1956-1958 (Note 3). Starting ca. 1956 Vivian Mullen contacted relatives in quest of genealogical information about her ancestry and extended family.  It appears also that a Branscomb reunion was held that year.  Information from her files is cited herein, wherever necessary, as “(VSM).”

7.   Several pages from an account prepared by #2232 Bennett Harvie Branscomb (1894-1998). (Note 4) He was known generally by his middle name.  Harvie wrote, “I found materials accumulated in old files on four lines of my descent. . . data which over the years has come my way.”  The account is undated, but internal evidence suggests that it drew upon Emma Anderson’s notebook (item #3 above) as well as upon information which Vivian Mullen collected; in one letter dated 6 February 1957 he wrote to Vivian, “I did not have the full list of Zachariah’s children and am glad to get it.”  (VSM)  Harvie’s information about Bennett Hill & Eliza and their children appears to have come from his sister Louise’s 1938 account (item #4 above). 

8.   Frank Chappell shared with me copies of a family bible and a genealogical chart which he obtained in late December 2002 during a visit to #5266 Armstead Branscome in Tuscumbia, AL. These items had useful information principally about the descendants of #52 James W. Branscomb.

9.   During the summer of 2002 John Ottinger  (#57141) made contact with two individuals, Carole McCaig and Margaret Mary Kimbrough.  Both Margaret and Carole’s husband Chet descend from Lucinda, the youngest child of Zachariah and Mazy; both Margaret and Carole added significant information about Lucinda and her descendants. Margaret’s published article is listed in the references.

10.  Additional sources include federal and state censuses, marriage records, cemetery records, probate files, county court records, county tax rolls, records from the Federal Bureau of Land Management, military files, newspaper clippings and family records, which were collected principally by John Ottinger, Kenneth Vance Smith (#434C1) and John Rufus Branscomb.  John Rufus also provided information about the regiment in which Bennett Hill’s sons served during the Civil War.   Jim and Frank Chappell, who grew up in the vicinity of Bennett Hill’s residence near Union Springs and Three Notch, and Donnie Parker, who is currently a resident of Union Springs, provided information about the locality.  Frank sent me a map showing the location of the home site and of Ridgely Cemetery.  Gladiola Harris (#5523) wrote a letter giving information about her ancestors.  Other contributors are identified directly in the text.

I. FAMILY LORE CONCERNING THE ANCESTRY & EARLY HISTORY OF ZACHARIAH BRANSCOMB

A.  Emma Anderson’s Account. 

      The typewritten account by Emma Clayton Hunter Anderson begins with the following statement:

      The Tradition of our ancestors or Foreparents is as follows:

James Greene Branscomb and his wife immigrated to the United States from England with two children about 1750 and settled in Culpepper County, Va. In 1756 they had a son born to them whom they named Zacariah Branscomb. He grew to manhood and in 1776 when the United States of America declared its independence from its mother country England the said Zacariah volunteered in the military service of the new Republic and became a soldier of the revolution and he served them the seven years war of the revolution.  In 1793 he married Maysie Towns who was born in Virginia in 1772. From this union several children were born, as follows: Rebecca, Bennett Hill, Mahala, Edwin, Jas. W & Lucy. R. E. & G. C. [These last two sets of initials were added in pen.] The father of Maysie Towns wife of Zacariah Branscomb was also a soldier in the Revolutionary army.

      Zacariah Branscomb died about the year 1820. His widow and his two oldest sons Greene and John remained in Virginia. His eldest daughter Elizabeth married and moved into Mississippi. His son James W. moved into north Alabama. His other son Bennett Hill Branscomb soon after the death of his father moved to Mount Carmel, Abbeville District, South Carolina.

On a second page Emma’s account begins with a summary for James Greene Branscomb:

Immigrated from England about 1750. Soon after arriving, he married Lucinda Caroline Williams of Virginia. In 1756 they had a son born to them whom they named Zachariah Branscomb.  James Greene Branscomb died in 1787.

      Zacariah Branscomb born in Virginia on October 11^th, 1756.  Maysie Towns born in Virginia on September 8^th, 1772. They were married in Virginia in 1791, and the following were their children:

            Rebecca, born in 1801

            Bennett Hill                1803

                        Richard B.                  1805

            Mahalie                     1807

            Edwin                         1809

            James W.                   1811

            Lucy                            1813

                        George                      1815

      Zachariah Branscomb and Maysie Towns Branscomb died about 1815.  Mr. and Mrs. Defurr adopted Lucy and George, who were quiet [quite] small, and moved with them to north Alabama, near Tuscumbia.  Edwin Branscomb moved to Mississippi. . .  .  B. H. Branscomb moved to Abbeville District, S. C.  Richard, Mahalie and Rebecca remained in Virginia and raised families.

B. Harvie Branscomb’s Account. 

      Harvie repeated much of the content of Emma’s account.  A handwritten cover page to his account has this statement:

A letter from George Branscomb of Cosa Grande, N. Mex, [note 5] quotes a study of the Branscomb family [by] Mr. Lores McClosky and his sister Miss Hope McClosky as follows:

“James Greene B. and his wife immigrated to the U.S. from England with two children about 1750.”

Nothing further is kn[own] about these children but Zachariah B. is credited in one account with three children, Greene, John and Elizabeth, who are not mentioned in other lists.

Then, after a prefatory statement and a page entitled “The English Background,” Harvie continued with “Our American Branscomb Ancestors”:

      Our line of Branscombs begins with James Green Branscomb, who, according to family memory, migrated to Virginia in 1750 with his wife and two children, and settled in Culpepper County, VA. I have no documentary proof of this, but the statement is part of my family tradition, is repeated by E. C. Branscombe [should be C. E.] of Virginia and by George Branscomb for the New Mexico branch, and I accept it as an authentic family memory. That a number of Branscomb names with which I am not familiar appear in the Greensville County (=Culpepper Cty) records suggests that other Branscombs had preceded him and his family to the New World and were there to help them get started. James Green’s wife’s name is recorded as Lucinda Caroline Williams. A son named Zachariah was born in 1755.

      What happened to the “two children” who came with them from England? They are not mentioned again in any of the records I have. But three children––Green, John and Elizabeth ––in one list are attributed to Zachariah and his wife but do not appear in other lists of his children, several of which I have. And there is a companion uncertainty. The family memory cited above states that James Green Branscomb brought his wife with him from England, but other testimony is that James Green married Lucinda Williams after getting to this country.

      The George Branscomb of Cosa Grande, NM, and the McCloskys are not yet identified.  The McCloskys may have descended from one of the McCluskeys who were in the 1800 census for Abbeville District, SC (Samuel and William McCluskey were heads of households; p. 33B).

      Harvie’s account continues:

      With Zachariah we move into the realm of recorded history.  His marriage to Masie Towns in 1798 is recorded in the records of Green[s]ville County.  He was also witness to numerous documents which E. C. [C. E.] Branscome found in the Court House.  He paid taxes there up until 1803, and then his name disappears from the rolls.  It has been conjectured that he moved to another county or to South Carolina, as did his son, but, if so, we have no evidence.

      His children, eight in number, are named on the genealogical sheets and need not be named here.  Bennett Hill Branscomb, his second child and our ancestor, was born in 1803.  But here another puzzle emerges.  The dates of birth for all eight are clearly stated, as if taken from a family Bible.  They range from 1801 for the first born to 1815 for George, the youngest.  Thus six children were born after Zachariah and Masie disappeared from the Greenville county records.  Where were they living?  No one seems to know. . .  .

      The only other fact I have about Zachariah is the family statement that he served seven years in the Revolutionary Army. I wrote to the National Archives asking if there was any record of this [and] drew a blank. . .  .  Zachariah is said to have died about 1820; 1815 in another list.

C. Other Accounts.

      Several writers who sent information to Vivian Mullen circa 1956 gave accounts which were so similar to Emma Anderson’s that it is apparent that they represent the same source, and they add nothing new.  In his 1966 book Branscom, Branscomb, Branscombe, Branscome, Cletie Elroy Branscome (hereinafter CEB)  also echoed some of the elements of Emma’s account but added nothing of substance. His statements that Zachariah “grew up among the Branscoms in the Brunswick section of the Virginia Colony” and that he “was active with many of the Branscoms in the Greenville County area,” were apparently based upon the documentary evidence which is cited below.

       (Richard Branscomb emigrated from England to America circa 1735 and settled in Brunswick County, VA.  He died there in 1775.  When Greensville County was formed from Brunswick County in 1780, the dividing line ran initially through the land which had been patented to Richard.  My book gives the known history of Richard and of his son John.  Richard’s known children were Thomas, Richard, John and Sarah, but it is likely that he had additional children.)

      In a telephone conversation with John Ottinger, Margaret Mary Kimbrough told some of the stories she had heard from older family members when she was young. She stated that the parents of Lucinda Branscomb died in an epidemic and that Lucinda and George were adopted as orphans in South Carolina by Andrew and Rachel Defoor, who brought them to Alabama. This last statement provides independent corroboration for the similar item in Emma’s account.  (In her magazine article Margaret wrote that Andrew Defoor took in all of the orphaned children in this family, but her telephone conversation with John Ottinger corrects that statement.) 

II.  DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE CONCERNING ZACHARIAH, MAZY AND THEIR FOREBEARS

A. In Virginia.

      Despite diligent searches by several people, no records for a James Greene Branscomb, including variant spellings, have been found anywhere in Culpeper County (Note 6), in North America nor in England.  A Vincent Brancon was shown as the head of a household in Culpeper County, VA, in the  1820 census: one male and one female over 45 years of age and a female age 10-16. No other records have yet appeared for this Vincent Brancon. It is not yet possible to ascertain whether he was a Branscomb. No earlier Branscombs have been found in Culpeper County.

                                                                                                                                               

      The following official records have been found for Zachariah Branscomb in Greensville County: 

$     The 1798 tax rolls for the county show Richard Branscomb as head of a household (this is Richard II, son of the immigrant) and with him was Zachariah Branscomb.  Naming Zachariah as a resident in the household confirms that Zachariah was a male over the age of 21 and therefore subject to poll tax.  Zachariah’s name does not appear in earlier tax rolls for Richard Branscomb; however, the tax rolls for the years 1794, 1795 and 1797 show a male in Richard’s household who was between the ages of 16 and 21.

$     Zachariah was witness to the deed dated 4 June 1798 in which John & Olive Branscomb sold their land to Joseph Ingram.  (Deed Book 2, pp. 553-554)

$     A summary of the marriage records for Greensville County gives the date of the marriage bond for Zachariah Branscomb and Mazy Towns as 6 November 1798:  “Thomas Branscomb and Edward Branscomb make affidavit as to age of Macy Towns and statement that her father does not live in this State. Sur[ety] Robert Branscomb. p. 40.” (Knorr)  Robert and Edward/Edmond Branscomb were sons of Thomas and grandsons of Richard the immigrant. Their affidavit stated that Mazy was 21 years of age, which in other records meant that the prospective bride was a minimum of 21 years of age and therefore did not require her father’s consent to marry.

$     Zachariah’s name was listed on the Greensville County tax rolls as head of a household for the years 1800-1803.  In 1800-1802 his name was listed next to that of Richard, which may mean that he lived in close proximity to his father (although entries were grouped according to the initial letter of the taxpayer’s surname). Zachariah’s name is not found in the county records after 1803.

$     The marriage records for Greensville County showed that Zachariah was security on at least two occasions:

(1) 8 January 1801 for the marriage of Douglas Burnett to Patsy Branscomb, d/o Richard [II].

(2) 21 December 1802 for the marriage of William Ferguson Jr. to Judith Lanier.

B.  In North Carolina.

       The foregoing marriage records for Greensville County bear witness that Mazy’s father did not live in Virginia. The available records show Mazy’s father Richard Towns first in Bute Co., NC, and then in Warren Co., which was formed from Bute Co. in 1779; Warren Co. borders Brunswick Co., VA.  Zachariah’s name appears in one official record for Warren Co. in  January 1799.  The following records are found for Zachariah and Mazy in Warren County:

$     28 January 1799: Zachariah Branscomb was security for the marriage of Polley Towns and John Keen.  (Warren County marriage records)

$     11 January 1808: Zachariah was listed among the persons making purchases at the estate sale of John Carroll. (Will Book 14, p. 185, as cited by Kerr, III: 170)

$     Richard Towns’s will was proved in the August 1809 court for Warren County (Gammon, Wills I: 112) The estate sale was held on 8 and 19 September 1809, and the accounting was filed at the February court 1812.  Zack Branscomb bought “one lott of knives and forks” for 1s 6d. (Warren County estate records for Richard Towns)

$     At the May Court 1810 Zach Branscomb and wife Massey were among the petitioners who challenged Richard Towns’s will. (Gammon, Estates II: 14) The abstract stated, “The will was challenged in a petition by Peter Towns,    Towns [he was David Towns], Zach. Branscomb and wife Massey, Wm. McMasters and wife Rebecca, Solo[mon] Towns, Labon Towns, and Wm. Hicks as gdn. [guardian] for the minor children of Richard Towns.  The widow Joice Towns petitioned for her dower, Feb. ct. 1811.” (The boldface type is explained on the next page.)  Joice Towns was Richard’s second wife, not Mazy’s mother. Mazy’s father Richard Towns married on 25 September 1795 Joice King Rosser, a widow with children. (Warren County Marriages.)

$     On 14 June 1810 Zachariah Branchcomb was one of the witnesses for an agreement between Joice Towns and Robert R. Johnson giving Johnson power of attorney for Joice with respect to Richard’s estate. (Kerr, III: 189)

$     On 15 June 1810 Zachariah and Mazy executed a deed conveying their share of the land in Richard Towns’s estate to Robert Johnson (Book 18, p. 400). The deed read, in part,

That, whereas Richard Towns father of said Masey died some time past being seized and possessed at the time of his death of a tract or parcel of land situate lying and being in the County of Warren State of North Carolina on the waters of Haw Tree Creek. . . containing by estimation five hundred and seventy four acres it being all of the land which said Rich^d died possessed of and whereas the said Masey is well entitled to an undivided share or interest in the said land as one of the daughters of the said Richard Towns dec^d, now therefore this indenture witnesseth that the said Zachariah Branscom and Masey his wife, for and in consideration of the sum of fifty pounds to them in hand paid, [they conveyed title to their portion of the land to Robert R. Johnson.]

$     In a separate deed also dated 15 June 1810 Peter Towns and Zachariah Branscomb conveyed to Robert R. Johnson in exchange for 50 pounds “all the rights, title and interest which we have in any part of the personal estate of Rich^d Towns dec^d.” (Book 18, p. 401; note 7).

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$     The final accounting for Richard’s estate was submitted to the court in August 1812. One entry read, “By cash pd. Z Branscomb . . . £l5 V.C.” [=Virginia currency]. (estate papers)

C.  In South Carolina. 

      No official records have been found in any location for either Zachariah or Mazy after 1812.  Two tantalizing census reports show, however, a Jeremiah Branscom in the Abbeville district of South Carolina.  As strange as it seems, the evidence supports the belief that this Jeremiah was actually Zachariah.  The data from the 1810 census for Jeremiah Branscom and from the 1820 census for “Jaramiah Branksey” is shown below (p. 8).  The names of neighboring heads of households for the two censuses make clear that both of censuses cover the same location:

      In 1810 the name of William McMasters was separated from Jeremiah’s by one other name, and in 1820 William’s name was next to “Jaramiah’s.” In 1810 William’s family consisted of a male age over 45 years of age, a female age 26-45, and two females under ten years of age plus nine slaves.  In 1820 the family consisted of a male and a female over 45 years of age plus 14 slaves.  Peter Towns was head of a household in the Abbeville District for 1800, and in 1810 he was in Spartanburg, SC.

      Other than the two census records, no other records have been found for a Jeremiah Branscom or a Jaramiah Branksey in Abbeville District or elsewhere.

      III.       REASONS FOR BELIEVING THAT JEREMIAH BRANSCOM/JARAMIAH BRANKSEY WAS ZACHARIAH BRANSCOMB

      Some minor elements of the family record for Zachariah as made by Emma Anderson are supported by documentary evidence:  his marriage to Mazy Towns; the names of (most of) the children in one of the lists she presented, and, with one exception, their order of birth; some connection with the State of Virginia; the subsequent appearance of one of their children, Bennett Hill Branscomb, in Mount Carmel, Abbeville District, in South Carolina; and the adoption of two other children, George and Lucinda, by “a Mr. & Mrs. Defurr.”  Before considering in depth the discrepancies concerning his ancestry, it is useful to review the evidence, however scant, which suggests that Zachariah himself, with Mazy and at least some of his children, could have been in the Mount Carmel, Abbeville District, of South Carolina during the time that the census records show Jeremiah/Jaramiah there. 

      The previous section of this account sets forth evidence showing that the heirs to the estate of Mazy’s father Richard Towns included not only Zachariah and Mazy but also Peter Towns and “Wm. McMasters and Wife Rebecca.”  The 1800 census shows Peter Towns in the Abbeville District of South Carolina, and in 1810 he was in Spartanburg.  William McMasters’ name, as stated above, was adjacent to that of Jeremiah in both the 1810 and 1820 censuses for the Abbeville District.  Peter, William and Zachariah were all present in Warren County, NC, for some of the proceedings for settling Richard Towns’s estate, so there is no impediment to accepting their ability to come from Abbeville for that purpose.  It is also a well-established fact that when one member of a family moved to a new location other family members often moved there as well; if Peter moved to the Abbeville District prior to 1800, some of his siblings might follow later.  Since Zachariah was taxed in Greensville County until 1803, and since a record shows him in Warren Co., NC, in January 1808, it is logical that he moved the short distance from Greensville Co. to Warren County some time between  those dates; on the other hand, he could have moved from Virginia directly to South Carolina and, with Mazy, was  visiting Mazy’s ill father in January 1808.

      The “Defurrs” who Emma said adopted Zachariah’s children George and Lucinda, were also in the Abbeville District.  Ken Smith found a family tree giving a variety of spellings for the name Defoor among the residents of Abbeville District.  It contained information about an early James Defoor (b. 1778 VA) whose wife was born in the Abbeville District; mention also of Andrew Defoor and his wife Elisabeth Robinson, and data for one daughter, Elisabeth, whose children were born in the Abbeville District between 1797 and 1823.  Andrew Defeer appears in the Abbeville District as early as 1790 and was there in subsequent censuses, with varying but recognizable spellings of the surname, through 1820.  Two Andrew Defurrs appear in early censuses, the elder born between 1765 and 1774, and the younger born ca. 1786.  John Ottinger found a genealogical statement that the elder Andrew Defurr came to the Abbeville District from Albemarle County, VA, that three of his sons were David, Andrew, and John, and that the younger Andrew named one of his sons Zachariah (however, if the Andrew who adopted George and Lucinda Branscomb had any children, they must have died young). The 1790 census for Abbeville District shows only Andrew, the 1800 census shows Andrew and John, the 1810 census shows a younger Andrew, and in 1820 Andrew (Defurr) and David (Defere) were listed.  In 1820 David’s name was seven lines above Jaramiah Branksey’s in the census. 

      Records cited hereinafter show that not only Bennett Hill but four other children of Zachariah and Mazy were also in the Abbeville District: Rebecca, Mahala, George and Edwin; and by inference Lucinda was also there since she was adopted by the Defoors. No evidence for the other two children, Richard and James W., is found in any location, and the assumption is that they died young.

      Following is a comparison of the birthdates of Zachariah and Mazy and their children with the ranges for the children of Jeremiah as shown in the two censuses in Abbeville.  First, the census data for Jeremiah:

                                                          1810              1820

                                                            Male   Female        Male   Female

                  persons age 45 and older      0            0              1          0

                  persons age 26 to 45            1            1              0          1

                  persons age 16 to 26            0            0              1          1    (The male was 16-18.)

                  persons age 10 to 16            0            1              1          0

                  persons under 10 years        2            1              2          2

      If the census record has each member of the household in the proper age group for both censuses– and few census records are so accurate–the birth years of the residents are as follows:

      1 male b. 1765-1775

      1 female b. 1775-1784

      1 male b. 1802-1804

      1 male b. 1804-1810

      1 female b. 1800-1810  who appear in the household only at the time of the 1820 census

      2 males and 2 females b. 1810-1820.

      Following is a summary for the birth years of the children of Zachariah and Mazy:

                                    Birth year shown by Census       Emma’s                                               

            Child                 1850     1860     1870     1880           Account        Composite

            Rebecca           1801     1805     1802                        1801               1802

            Bennett Hill       1803     1803     1803     1804             1803               1803

                              grave marker: 28 July 1803

            Richard       (no data)                                           1805               ??

            Mahala             1812     1810                                     1807               1807-1812  

            George             1810     1812     1810                         1815               1810-1811

            Edwin               1810     1813     1812                         1809

                        grave marker: d. 19 August 1884, age 73                  = 1810-11

                              (George and Edwin were twins, and this datum also sets George’s birth year)

      James W.         (no data)                                           1811               ??  

      Lucinda            1817-8              1817-8  1820             1813               1818?

      The data for all of the members of Zachariah’s family are at least close to the ranges as shown for Jeremiah’s household in 1810 and 1820:

$     Emma’s account shows the birth year for Zachariah as 1756 which, if true, would place him in the age group of 45 or older in both of these censuses. The 1798 census for Greensville County which shows Zachariah as subject to poll tax within the household of Richard Branscomb suggests strongly, however, that he had become 21 years of age only recently.  For one thing, the will of Richard’s father in March of 1775 shows that Richard was not yet married (Brunswick Co. VA, Will Book 4, part 2, pp. 439-441), and the only way Zachariah could have been his legitimate son would be for Richard to marry soon after his father died and for Zachariah to be conceived soon thereafter.  The presence of a male age 16-21 in Richard’s household on the 1794-1797 tax rolls, when combined with the evidence of the 1798 tax roll where Zachariah was shown as having reached his 21^st birthday, is strong evidence that Richard’s son Zachariah was born circa 1776-1777.  Zachariah would still be under 45 in 1820, but only slightly so.  He probably attained the age of 21 by June 1798 if he served as a witness for a marriage in Greensville County, VA, at that time.  Even were he someone else’s son and living with Richard, the lack of any mention of Zachariah in the records for Brunswick or Greensville Counties or anywhere else prior to June 1798 suggests that he reached his majority only shortly before that time. Neither is his name found in Culpeper Co., despite diligent search.  In summary:  rather than accept Zachariah as 45 years or older in summer of 1820,  it is likely that he was 43 or possibly 44, and the census enumerator recorded him in the wrong age category.

      If Zachariah was the son of Richard II, why was he not named as an heir when this Richard  wrote his will in 1815?  It appears to have been a common but not universal practice to omit from wills any bequests to children who had moved far away from home.

$     Emma’s account has Mazy’s birthdate as 8 September 1772, and perhaps that is correct. The documentation for her marriage shows that she was at least 21 and probably older in November 1798.  A birth year between 1775 and 1779 is also reasonable, and that would fit the data in the censuses for Jeremiah.

$     Rebecca:  Since Zachariah and Mazy were married in November 1798, Rebecca could have been born in 1799.  A birth year of 1801 or 1802 is slightly outside the age limits (10-16) as shown in the 1810 census for the eldest daughter but falls within the 16-26 age range shown in 1820.

$     Bennett Hill:  His DOB of 28 July 1803 falls within the limits for the eldest male child.

$     Richard: The only known information for him is Emma’s report of his birth year as 1805.  The second male child was born between 1804 and 1810.

$     Mahala:  The census data are too sparse and too divergent to help adequately; Emma’s record of 1807 as the birth year is possible.  That birth year does fit for the 1810 census, but no female of her age is shown in 1820.  The logical assumption is that the female shown as under 10 years of age in the 1810 census died before 1820 and that two females were born between 1810 and 1820.  It is also possible that a female child born 1807-1809 would be mistaken for younger than ten years of age in 1820, and if that was the case here, the data fit.

$     George and Edwin:  It is quite likely that they were born in 1810 after the census was taken; they would fit the range for the two youngest males shown in 1820.

$     James: The only known information for him is Emma’s report of his birth year as 1811.  He could have perished in the epidemic which later caused the deaths of his parents and probably of Richard.

$     Lucinda: She could have been one of the two females younger than ten as shown in the 1820 census.

      The conformity, therefore, is close for Zachariah and Rebecca, and within the stated limits for Mazy, Richard, Bennett Hill, George, Edwin and Lucinda.  A marked discrepancy exists only for Mahala.  Given the likelihood of errors in census data, it is at least possible that the data quoted for Jeremiah and his family apply actually to Zachariah’s family.  If the data are truly for a Jeremiah Branscomb, no reasonable explanation exists for three events: (1) the appearance in 1810 of an otherwise unknown and undocumented Jeremiah Branscomb in Abbeville, SC, followed by his disappearance and the disappearance of all his family after the 1820 census, leaving no clues; (2)  simultaneously the disappearance of Zachariah and Mazy in southside Virginia or in neighboring Warren Co., NC, and (3) immediately following, the appearance of six of their children in Abbeville.  

      The censuses for 1850 and later show the reported place (State) of birth for each person listed.  For Rebecca the information is inconclusive for reasons shown below.  Bennett’s birthplace is shown as SC in 1850 and VA thereafter.  Mahala’s birthplace is shown as NC in the two censuses available for her.  For George and Edwin the birthplace is shown consistently as SC.  Of the two censuses which show Lucinda’s birthplace, 1870 shows SC and 1880 shows AL.  Again, census data are prone to error, but these data, except for Lucinda, suggest that Zachariah and Mazy went from Virginia  to NC (Warren Co.?) to SC (Abbeville) at least before 1810.  

      Perhaps for some unimaginable reason his parents named their son Zachariah Jeremiah Branscomb.  Perhaps Zachariah had some reason for disguising his given name when he moved to Abbeville. Nothing is proven, but it is at least a reasonable hypothesis that two censuses in the Abbeville District of South Carolina show Zachariah’s given name as Jeremiah.

IV.  AN HYPOTHESIS FOR THE STORIES CONCERNING ZACHARIAH’S ANCESTRY

      As shown above, a great divergence exists between the accounts which have been preserved by descendants and the evidence which is available from official sources.  Also, as stated (p. 5), no evidence has been found in Culpeper, Brunswick, or Greensville Counties VA, or anywhere else, to support the family stories about, or the existence of, James Green Branscomb.  The hypothesis for the origin of the family stories about James Green and Lucinda Carolyn centers upon Bennett Hill’s being in contact with his Towns relatives after the death of his parents and having little or no contact with older Branscombs.

      Summarizing the major points which have been made above and which are significant for the hypothesis: the family story that Zachariah died circa 1815 is unsupported, but the evidence can be interpreted as suggesting that both Zachariah and Mazy died in an epidemic soon after the 1820 census was taken.  Since no information later than 1820 is found for their son Richard, it can be assumed that he died as well.  James W. probably died earlier, since, if we assume that the two males under 10 in the 1820 census for “Jeremiah” were George and Edwin, that census does not account for him.   Zachariah and Mazy left six orphaned children for relatives and neighbors to rear.  It is known that Andrew and Rachel Defoor provided for George and Lucinda, and probably by 1824 the four of them were in Franklin County, AL, since Andrew acquired land there in that year.  The other four Branscomb children appear to have remained in the Abbeville District at least until circa 1840, and no firm evidence shows how they lived until they were old enough to be able to support themselves.  William McMasters and Rebecca Towns lived in the area, and they must have been involved in caring for the children or perhaps in seeing that they were placed with others who could care for them.  Further, both Rebecca and Bennett Hill were old enough that they could serve as caretakers for the younger children (although the evidence presented on p. 13 suggests some limitations on Rebecca’s part).

       The account by Emma Anderson, which was apparently the source for the information Harvie Branscomb and others had for the ancestry of Zachariah, focuses upon Bennett Hill as the son of Zachariah and Mazy, and the logical inference is that Bennett and Eliza, and perhaps Eliza’s mother Lydia Gilbeau, were Emma’s chief sources.  Perhaps a few items came from census data (e. g., Zachariah’s son James W. moving to Alabama–a statement which does not withstand scrutiny).  By 1880 Bennett Hill, age 77, and Eliza, age 75, were residing in the home of their daughter Caroline Hunter, and Caroline’s daughter Emma and her husband were also in the household.  Emma had opportunity to question her grandparents about their ancestry and their early years.  Since Bennet Hill’s parents died when he was no more than 17 or 18 years old, and since it does not appear that he had contact thereafter with other Branscombs outside of his immediate family, it is a reasonable to assume that whatever he learned about his ancestry came from his Towns relatives in Mount Carmel , SC.  He was sufficiently impressed with what he heard to name his first child Lucinda Caroline, presumably in memory of his supposed grandmother Lucinda Caroline Williams, and to name a son George Clayton, Clayton being a name of significance to the hypothesis.  I propose that when he related the stories years later, perhaps even after his mental acuity had declined significantly, Bennett Hill confused what he had heard about his Towns ancestry–or perhaps it was the ancestry of the Mazy’s mother, the first wife of Richard Towns,– as applying instead to his Branscomb background.  The following two points are noteworthy:

A.  Families named Williams, Green and Clayton abounded among the gentry of Culpeper County during the 1700s, and some of them served in the American Revolution. Among them were these three generations:

1.   William Williams (ca. 1722-1778) married Lucy Clayton, daughter of Major Philip Clayton and Ann Coleman. (Mackenzie, p. 557; Green, quoting Slaughter, pp.56 and 108)

2.  Their son James Williams (d. 1822) married Eleanor Green, d/o Moses Green & Eleanor Blackwell.  James enlisted at the beginning of the American Revolution and served throughout the war; eventually he rose to the rank of Major General during the War of 1812. (Mackenzie, p. 557)  The genealogies do not give James’s middle name, but in view of both his mother’s maiden name  it could have been Green. 

3.  Lucinda Clayton Williams (“Lucy”), d/o James & Eleanor Williams, married William Green, a captain in the U. S. Navy.  William’s father John Green was a colonel in the American Revolution and a member of the House of Burgesses.   John Green had a brother James Green. (Mackenzie, p. 567;  Green, quoting Slaughter, pp. 62, 64)

B.  During the days after the marriage of Zachariah and Mazy, some connections are found in Warren County, NC, between the Towns family and families named Williams and Green.  For example, Zachariah Branscomb was the bondsman on 28 January 1799 when Polley Towns md. John Keen and Sherwood Green was a witness.  Also, the estate records for Simon Williams, whose will was proved in Warren County in May 1809, named (probably a different) Polly Towns as an heir (Gammon, Estates, p. 15).  Despite the similarity of names, however, no evidence has yet surfaced to show a connection between the Towns family of Bute and Warren Counties, NC, with the Williams and Green families of Culpeper County, VA. 

      Other errors in transmission are also possible.   Perhaps different people gave conflicting accounts, because Emma’s record contains two sets of names for Zachariah’s children and two (approximate) dates for Zachariah’s death.  Whatever the case, the name of Lucinda Williams of Culpeper County, VA, does not appear to apply to Bennett’s Branscomb ancestry, nor are any of the Branscombs of Brunswick and Greensville Counties, VA, known to have served in the American Revolution.  Neither is any connection known between the Branscombs of Brunswick and Greensville Counties and any relatives in Culpeper County.

      It is unfortunate that the scarcity of early records for the Abbeville District prevents discovery of what happened to any property Jeremiah/Zachariah may have acquired in that area.

An Interesting Addendum.

      Reuben Hargrove of Buncombe County, NC, was twice married. He and his second wife Mildred Wise Page apparently moved to Montgomery County, AL, some time before 22 August 1800, as shown by the birth in Montgomery Co. on that date of their son Zachariah Branscomb Hargrove (W&MQ, Vol 5, pp. 55ff).  John and Dennis Hargrove were in Greensville County, VA, in 1790, a time when Zachariah Branscomb was also present there.   No connection has yet been found between Reuben and the Hargroves of Greensville County, but the name of Reuben’s son suggests a connection at some point.  The records have not been explored adequately to learn whether Reuben migrated to SC.

   V.     THE CHILDREN OF ZACHARIAH BRANSCOMB AND MAZY TOWNS

      Although the evidence does not support in every instance the birth years which Emma has recorded for the children of Zachariah and Mazy, the order of birth requires only one change:  George was Edwin’s twin, born the latter half of 1810, so. I list him as the fifth child.  The account which follows does not consider the other children which Emma’s account gives for Zachariah and Mazy and for whom no records are known: Greene, John and Elizabeth.  The children are considered in this order:

1. Rebecca;  2. Bennett Hill;  3. Richard;  4. Mahala;  5. George;  6. Edwin;  7. James W.;  8. Lucinda.

1.  Rebecca Branscomb  (b. between 1799 and 1802, d. after 1870).

      Rebecca was probably named in honor of Mazy’s sister Rebecca, or perhaps that was the name of Mazy’s mother or other ancestor. Following is the known information for Rebecca:

$     The 1850 census for Abbeville, SC, shows Rebecca Branscomb, age 49, b.  SC, in the home of her brother (#6) Edwin Branscomb in the Savannah River Regiment.

$     Among the BHB letters was one written 21 February 1856 by Amelia Holmes of Mount Carmel, Abbeville District, to her cousin #21 Caroline Hunter, daughter of Bennett Hill & Eliza Branscomb, in Union Springs, AL.  Amelia wrote the following about Rebecca:

Mr. Asbel had [has?] been sick but is better.  The family are all well.  The children pass here going to school.  Your Aunt Rebecca lives with them.  She stays some of the time with me. I like to have her in my house.  She is good company.  She often wishes she could see you and your family.

     Ezekiel Asbel was the husband of #4 Mahala.  Amelia Holmes’s letter makes clear that some time between 1850 and 1856 Rebecca went from her brother Edwin’s household to live with her sister Mahala and family; also that at times Rebecca resided with other friends or relatives.  The 1840 census for E. Asbel in the Abbeville district also shows a female age 40-50 who was  probably Rebecca.  (See further below under #4 Mahala.) 

$     The Asbels moved to Elbert County, GA, after Amelia Holmes wrote her letter but before 1860. The 1860 census for Elbert Co. shows R. Branscombe, female, age 55, b. NC, as a member of the family. Beside her name was the entry, “Supported by charity.”

$     The 1870 census for Abbeville (p. 25) has an entry for a female,  “Brownscom, R.,” age 68, b. SC, occupation “pauper,” in a home with mostly elderly women. It seems apparent that Rebecca was back in South Carolina and in a facility for indigents—the poorhouse. The enumerator gave SC as the birthplace for all of the residents, which means that he probably was unable to (or did not attempt to) elicit the information about a birthplace from each resident.

      Given that Rebecca did not marry, that she lived with relatives, that at age 55 she was supported by charity, and that near the end of her life she was in a home for paupers, it is possible that she had a physical or mental impediment which prevented her supporting herself.  Rebecca’s name has not been found in records later than 1870. No death/cemetery records are known for her.

2.   Bennett Hill Branscomb, b. 28 July 1803, d. 28 June 1881. Md. 28 December 1825 Eliza Belott (b. 8 February 1805, d. 23 October 1897). Both bur. Oak Hill Cem., Union Springs, AL.  Eight children:

      21. Lucinda Caroline (Carrie) Branscomb, b. 29 November 1826 SC

      22. Richard Edwin Branscomb, b. 18 December 1827 SC

      23. John Wesley Branscomb, b. 1 May 1829 SC

      24. William Henry Branscomb, b. 4 April 1831 SC

      25. George Clayton Branscomb, b. 20 August 1832 SC

      26. Elijah Legard Branscomb, b. 26 August 1836 SC

      27. James Zachariah Branscomb, b. 7 October 1838 SC

      28. Lewis Sylvester Branscomb, b. 6 June 1843 AL

      The birthplaces are from the censuses and from the known locations of their parents; all but Lewis no doubt were born in Abbeville District, SC, and Lewis was born in Union Springs/Three Notch, AL.  A later family tree lists a daughter, Eliza, who died in early infancy.  Eliza’s name and dates do not appear in the family Bible, however, and therefore I do not include her in the list of children.

      Both Emma Hunter Anderson and Harvie Branscomb were descendants of Bennett Hill and Eliza, and their information about these two and their children is more likely to be trustworthy than the information about earlier generations. Harvie wrote,

Bennett Hill Branscomb was born on July 28th, 1803. After the death of his father and mother he moved to Mt. Carmel in the Abbeville District of South Carolina. This area had been settled by French Huguenots, among whom was a James Belott and his wife who, it is said, had come from France about 1750. On December 28, 1825, Bennett Hill B. married the daughter of this couple, Eliza Belott. At the time he was 22 and she was 20.

      Emma’s notes had essentially the same information and were probably the source for Harvie’s account. The part about Bennett Hill’s moving to Abbeville (from Virginia) after the death of his parents may rest upon statements made by a parent or grandparent, or it may derive from the census data for 1860, 1870 and 1880.  It is more likely that Bennett Hill came with his parents to Abbeville prior to 1810 when he was younger than eight years of age.  If he truly was born in Virginia, as he seemed to be convinced during the latter part of his life, his parents probably lived initially in Greensville County after marrying, and they may have moved to Warren Co., NC, after Bennett Hill’s birth in 1803.

      The source of Bennett Hill’s given name is a subject of some curiosity.  Families surnamed Hill were in southside Virginia as early as the mid-1600s. The descendants of a Robert Hill, who was born in England in 1615 and who died in Surry County, VA, ca. 1679, intermarried with Greens and Greenes (that name again!).  One descendant, Green Hill (1714-1769), married Grace Bennett (1726-1772), and they had a son Bennett Hill, b. ca. 1747. From his grandfather William Bennett this Bennett Hill inherited land in Northampton County, NC. (Note 7)  Northampton County lies east of Warren County and touches the border of Greensville County, VA.  As yet no records have been found to tie these Hills to Bennett Hill Branscomb. 

      James Chappell prepared an account giving a summary for the ancestors of Bennett Hill’s wife Eliza Belott.  The Belotts were among the Huguenots who came from France to South Carolina circa 1750.  A group of them came to Mount Carmel in the Abbeville District.  James Belott was born 1 July 1780, and he married in Mount Carmel in January 1803 Lydia Ann Gilbeau (b. 27 June 1779, d.  13 October 1868). They had two children: Eliza, b. 8 February 1805, and Jacob Lafayette, b. 14 May 1808. James Belott died in 1810.  Apparently Lydia lived with Eliza and Bennett Hill Branscomb after they married in 1825, and she remained with them for the remainder of her life.  Her name is not listed in the household in the 1850 or 1860 censuses, but some evidence shows that she was there: letters to Bennett, Eliza, and their daughter Caroline in Union Springs, AL, from relatives and friends in Mount Carmel, SC, inquired about Aunt Lydia or Liddy.  Also, when Bennett Hill’s soldier sons wrote home from Virginia during the Civil War they often included the statement, “Give my love to Ma and Grannie.”  Lydia died in 1868 at age 89.

      Bennett Hill Branscomb and his family have not been located in the 1830 census. It is likely that the young couple were living with relatives at the time of that census. The first record we have for them is from the 1840 census for Abbeville (p. 5), where Bennett’s name was rendered as “B. Branksome”:

                                          Male  Female

            Persons age 50-60       0       1

            Persons age 30-40       2       1

            Persons age 20-30       1       1

            Persons age 10-15       2       1

            Persons age 5-10         2       0

            Persons under 5 years  2      0

      This census conforms closely with the known information for Bennett Hill and his family from other sources. The census shows that there were three adults beside those mentioned (Bennett, Eliza, and Eliza’s mother Lydia); the logical assumption is that some of Bennett’s siblings or other relatives were living in the household. Ben’s brother Edwin Branscomb and his wife Charlotte Shoemake of Shoemaker, who were recently married, were probably two of the residents, Edwin was not listed as head of a household in that census..

      Harvie wrote that Bennett Hill and his wife, his children and his mother-in-law moved in 1840 by covered wagon and by horseback to “newly opened lands in south Alabama,” and on 1 January 1841 they “settled on lands he had secured” near Union Springs. “The Branscomb Generations” says that the move took place in 1842. The Branscomb residence was south of modern-day Highway 82 on Aberfoil Road, seven miles east of Union Springs. The post office address was Union Springs, Three Notch was closer, and the area where they lived was known as Ridgely.  The 1870 tax rolls (note 1) gave the location as the W½ of S7 T13 R24 plus 88 acres on the W½ of the NE¼ of S7, a total of 408 acres.  Originally the home was in Macon County, but it became part of Bullock County when that county was formed in 1866.  The home endured until the 1960s, although abandoned before then. (Note 1)

      Among those making the move at the same time was John Heminger or Henager and family, who were next door neighbors to Bennett and Eliza in Abbeville in 1840, and Eliza’s brother Jacob Belott with his family.  The Henagers settled on the Branscomb property in the new location.  John Henager (b. 1 March 1803) died on 26 March 1851 and was buried at Ridgely Cem.  Subsequent letters from friends and relatives back in Abbeville included inquiries concerning Mrs. (Jane) Heminger as well as about Eliza’s mother. The 1870 census shows Jane Heminger (the spelling of the surname is indistinct) as a resident in Bennett’s household, and in 1880 she, Bennett and Eliza were living with Caroline Hunter, daughter of Bennett & Eliza.  Jane Henager, b. 1801, d. 1882, was buried at Ridgely Cem.

      Harvie wrote glowingly of his ancestor Bennett Hill’s success in Alabama:

The reason for his move, he said, was to have enough room for his sons to have farms adjacent to his, thus keeping the family together. He became a successful planter, practicing crop rotation and building his own cotton gin operated by mule power. He was proud of the fact that he never had to buy corn for the family grits or meal or to feed his animals. According to the account Louise [#2233, Harvie’s half-sister] got in the 1930s his plantation, though ample, was not extensive, since he worked it with some 10 or 12 slaves.

      Bennett Hill was destined to disappointment at surrounding himself with his sons’ farms:  three of them died while serving in the Civil War, and two others died as relatively young men without marrying. The two surviving sons followed careers other than farming. These two sons had families which include some distinguished people, of whom Bennett Harvie Branscomb was the most outstanding.  Bennett Hill’s daughter Caroline also had a sizable and notable progeny.

      Following is the information for Bennett Hill and his family from the 1850 census for Macon County, District 21 (p. 280, dwelling #1705). Caroline was married and had her own household.

                                                Age  Where born

            Bennett Branscomb        47      SC

            Eliza                             45      SC

            Richard                         23      SC

            John                              21      SC

            William                          17      SC

            Clayton                          16      SC

            Elijah                             13      SC

            James                           11      SC

            Lewis                             7       AL

               The 1860 census for Macon County, Southern District; dwelling #489: p. 769, has this information:                                                                                            Age      Where born

            B. H. Branscom            57         Virginia       (written out)

            Mrs. Eliza                     52         SC

            James                           21         SC

            Lewis                           17         AL

            Ed L.                            23         SC (This is Elijah)

      In the household also were Chas H. Green, 26, druggist, Abner Gilson, 16, clerk, and Allen B. Avery, 23, artist (?; the faded writing is difficult to decipher).

      Several passages in the letters which the sons sent home from the war included tender sentiments for their parents. Others expressed their concern about problems at home.  Bennett wrote often to his sons, and he sent food to them when he had the opportunity. Eliza and others made clothes for them.  Bennett worried about his sons, as any father would.  His farming suffered.  On 18 April 1862 James wrote to his brother Lewis, saying, “Tell Pa not to die of the blues, for I know he has them.” On 8 March 1863 he wrote to Caroline, “I am well aware that things are going on badly at Pa’s as you say, but if they make enough to eat they will be doing well.”  On 11 May 1863 he wrote to his father in response to his letter, “I am sorry to hear that you have lost confidence in yourself as regards your business. I wish I was there to attend to it for you.”

      In April 1864,  after returning to the front from a furlough at home, James wrote to his parents : 

Love and duty calls my thoughts homeward this morning. Since I have left you I often feel sad to see age so fast doing his work, and not a single child with you to take off your shoulders the cares and toils of worldly affairs. But I hope the day will soon come (God willing) when you may have the family circle almost as unbroken as in former days [William had died] and someone to bear your burdens, physical I mean.

      In a letter dated 14 July 1864 to her husband John Wesley Branscomb, Virginia wrote,

The excitement has commenced again.  Their are from 4 to 8 thousand near Tuskeegee  . . . burning everything they come across. The men are all gone up to Tuskeegee to meet them with the exception of some cowards. . .  .  Pa went with them before but can’t go this time.  He is not able. [“Pa” was her 61-year-old father-in-law, Bennett Hill.]

      In July 1864 Major General Lovell Rousseau and 2500 Union soldiers moved through Alabama with minimal opposition. One objective was to disrupt the rail line between Montgomery and Opelika, and the action at Tuskegee was evidently one of the steps.  Rousseau’s troops tore up nearly thirty miles of track of the Atlanta & West Point Railroad.  (Foote, p. 486)

      The Oath of Allegiance to the United States which Bennett Hill took at the end of the Civil War (31 August 1865) includes this physical description: “The above named has Light Hair and Blue i’s [eyes] 5 feet 9, Thin.”  (Note 1)

      At least during his latter years Bennett Hill was known as a stern man.  Louise’s account includes a story from circa 1870 which Emma passed on to her:

      On one occasion Lewis Capers his grandson was sent out to spend two or three days with them.  The little boy, who was about five years old, became homesick at dusk and began to cry to go home.  When his grandmother could not console him, his grandfather carried him out to the highway, sat him on it, and said, “There is the road and that is the way home.  If you must go, go right ahead.”

      Bennett Hill may have kept the farm going for some time after the end of the war despite the loss of his sons and his slaves.  With the passing years he was unable to obtain adequate help.  Before 1880 he and Eliza sold the farm and moved to Union Springs to live with their daughter Caroline.  When he died in 1881 his entire estate consisted of a horse, a saddle, harness, a gun, and a quantity of negotiable paper (cash, notes and a mortgage).  His grandson #213 James Bennett Hunter was administrator of his estate.  (Bullock Co., Inventory #261 dated 20 September 1881; note 1)

      Eliza was “a tiny woman with a soft voice and a gentle nature,” according to Emma as reported to Louise.  With one son dead in the war, a second badly wounded, two others in mortal danger, and even her seriously ill son conscripted (although soon discharged), Eliza suffered from spells of depression. On 25 September 1863 James wrote to his sister Caroline in response to her most recent letter:

Dear Sister, I thought for a long time that the fount of tears had gone dry within me, but your last letter has taught me better. Tears flowed as freely as in the days of childhood. I now fear to get another [letter] but am anxious. Sister, the thought of Ma dieing nearly distracts me. Oh, could I but now come home.  Sister, the subject is more that I can bear to write.  I trust in a merciful God and wait with anxiety.

      On 13 December 1863 James wrote to his parents:

Ma, I learn that you have been quite sick again and are quite low spirited.  Try and be of cheer.  I fear that you suffer for want of attention.  If I were there to wait on you I think you would get well.  I have got to be quite a good nurse.

      As stated above, James was home on furlough during February 1864.  When he returned to duty in northern Virginia he wrote to his brother John Wesley in Lynchburg to say that Ma was “very unwell” when he left her.  “I fear she is going to have another spell.”

      Eliza survived despite losing three sons in the war.  In fact, she outlived all of her children except Caroline. The 1880 census shows Bennett Hill and Eliza in Caroline’s household in Union Springs (p. 36A, dwelling #2) Bennett Hill died there in 1881. In February 1895, on the occasion of Eliza’s 90th birthday, her grandson #223 Lewis Capers Branscomb wrote a tribute to her in which he called her “a dear old Christian Grandmother.”  One of Caroline’s granddaughters said that Eliza was blind during her last years and that the grandchild who had behaved best during the day was chosen to be the one to read to her at night.  She died in 1897 at age 92.

      Following is information for the children of Bennett Hill and Eliza:

21. Lucinda Caroline Branscomb, b. 29 November 1826, d. 9 May 1913; md. 31 January 1843 James Hunter (b. 28 August 1819, d. 8 June 1855; bur. Ridgely Cem.). The 1850 census shows her as Lucinda, but the BHB letters confirm that she was called Caroline or Carrie/Carry. In their letters her brothers addressed her almost uniformly as “Sister” but occasionally as “L.C.” She was probably named in honor of her aunt Lucinda or possibly for the (unconfirmed) great-grandmother Lucinda Caroline Williams. Harvie tells of her marriage as a story “too charming not to be preserved.” He wrote that shortly after the family moved to Union Springs a young man whom the family “–particularly their daughter Caroline–” had known in Abbeville came to the Branscomb plantation. This James Hunter was given a job on the farm. Within a year (Emma’s account gives the date as 31 January 1843) James and Caroline eloped.  Harvie said that Caroline made some excuse to her mother for taking her best stockings–she dared not take her best dress–met James at the spring, mounted a horse, and rode away with him. Caroline was 16 years and 2 months old.  When Bennett Hill learned that the lovers had run away, he set out in pursuit. He was too late to prevent the wedding, “and Bennett Hill could only invite his new son-in-law and his bride back to his job on the farm.  Thus began the Hunter branch of the family.” Louise wrote that Bennett Hill’s only objection was that Caroline had not completed her education before she married.

      Emma’s notes give further details about James Hunter. He was born 28 August 1819, and he died 8 June 1855. His parents William Hunter and Elizabeth White were born and reared in Great Britain and were married there in 1817. They came to America with their four children in 1825. The parents died of typhoid fever soon after arriving in South Carolina, and it is not known who cared for the children thereafter. Also, according to this account, James and Caroline did not fall in love until after James joined the family in Alabama.  Jim Chappell’s later synopsis states that James Hunter was born in Dublin, Ireland, and that 1820 was the year during which the family came to America.

      James became a tailor in Union Springs.  Louise wrote that he built a house for his family “with his own hands and probably some other help.”  They moved into the house circa 1854 “when Emma was still an infant.” After her parents were both dead, Emma and her husband Frank Anderson continued to live there.  A newspaper article about the house appeared in the Union Springs Herald for 6 February 1980, p. 12 (note 1). The article stated that  it was the oldest extant house in Union Springs, also that it was listed on the Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage.  The house was occupied from 1854 to 1984 by James and Caroline or their descendants.

      The 1850 census for Macon Co. shows James Hunter and his family in District 21 (p. 199, dwelling #108). This census does not support the statement that James was born in Ireland.

                                                Age      Where born   Occupation

                  James Hunter          30               SC              Tailor

                        Lucinda C.        24               SC

                        William               5              AL

                        John                   3              AL

                        James                 1              AL

      #214 Elizabeth Hunter Moore preserved a newspaper clipping entitled “Reminiscences of Union Springs before the War” and signed only “J.  E.  G.” (note 1).  The text makes clear that the author grew up along with the Hunter children.  He wrote that Willie Hunter was one of his classmates circa 1863 at Miss Lovelace’s school at the corner of Prairie and Conecuh Streets and that they were not allowed to attend the school of Mr. Hall and Mr. Ellis (did he mean “Eley”?) until they had attained their seventh birthdays.  (Willie turned seven years old in February 1863.)  The account had the following statement about the Hunter parents:

      Just as far back as we can remember, Mr.  James Hunter, a tailor, lived in the old homestead, on what I think is known now as Hunter Street.  Everything around there was in the woods. . .  .  Four little children about our own size were the children in the family  . . .  .  The Hunter kids . . . and I [were among the group] that was sent by Mr. Hall over to Mr.  Ellis.

. . . More than 50 years ago, in the midst of a horrid typhoid epidemic, [Mrs.  Hunter’s] husband passed over the river, leaving her to battle for the little children.  How well she did it, the lives of her offspring testify.  Mrs. Hunter was the daughter of B. H. and E.  Branscomb, who, along in the thirties, forties and fifties lived out on Ridgely, east of Union Springs.  Her brothers were Dick, John and Elijah Branscomb, all good men, and it is scarcely presumable that the present generation will ever appreciate fully their true worth. [Mrs.  Hunter] is now an octogenarian, but to look at her one would hardly think she was more than 50 years old.  She told us she came to Union Springs in 1844 as a happy young bride.  Her son Willie [along with others the author named were the first  children born in Union Springs.   [Note 1.  Edited slightly.  The writer was wrong about the family’s being in Ridgely during the 1830s, and he did not name the four sons who died between 1851 and 1864.]

      By the time of James’s death in 1855 two daughters had been added to the family.  Caroline took up her husband’s work of tailoring to support her family. She had some hard days initially, as would be expected. Following are excerpts from a letter dated 21 February 1856 which she received from her former neighbor and friend in Mount Carmel, Amelia Holmes:

      My Dear Carry I read your letter over and over and could not refrain from shedding floods of tears on your part to think you have to work so hard with your feeble health to earn a support.  But I do hope god will give you strength to bear you up. . .  .  I think [it] so strange that our fathers are able [to help us] and that they never seem to think it their duty to do us a favor without getting value received.  How different with us. We would give the last cent to one of our children. . .  .  I do hope your Brother will help you. . .  .  I did not mention a word of your letter to anyone.

      It is easy to infer that Caroline had written to her friend to pour out not only her grief at her recent bereavement but also her tribulations in attempting to provide for her family, and she must have asked Amelia to keep her letter confidential.  Amelia’s letter suggests that Carrie’s father may have been unwilling to help her adequately after James died.  Almost six years later, 27 December 1861, Carrie’s brother James wrote a letter to her from Virginia in which he made oblique references to “persons dearest to him” who were in position to help Caroline but who were not doing so:

[Your letter] gives me pleasure as well as pain, to know that you are all well once more is very gratifying to me, but your trial is a hard one, and the future looks gloomy, but flowers may be strewn in the path overhead, Sister.  If there was no one able to help, I could look upon your needful situation, than only with sorrow, but as it is, I am verging on madness with those who should be dearest me. I am glad that you confide in me all your troubles.

      This supposed unhappiness between Bennett Hill and his daughter rests upon slim evidence and should be treated with caution pending further evidence.  In any event, by 1880 Bennett Hill and Eliza were quite willing to sell their farm and to live with Caroline in Union Springs.

      In addition to her other trials, Caroline contracted measles in March 1861. Three of her children also had the infection at the same time, but it was not serious for them.  Caroline’s brothers James and Lewis also had measles in March 1861. Two of her brother John’s children also had the disease, and one of them, Lula, died.

      The letters her brothers wrote to her while they served in the Civil War show a great warmth between them and Caroline.  James wrote most often and most expressively.  He composed a poem to his sister, and she sent him a lock of her hair.  James promised to bring or send her some snuff if he could find it.  James, William and Lewis sent Caroline money.  There was no word from James after 18 May 1864, and a month later Caroline wrote to her brother John to express her anxiety:

I could never express what we have suffered on account of Jimmie. One day we would hear he was dead and perhaps the next that he was badly wounded and a prisoner and then he was in a hospital one place and sometimes another. Such suspense is enough to produce insanity.

      Frank A. Chappell heard from his great-aunts that at one point Caroline drove a team of horses and a wagon to Montgomery in the hope of finding James there in the hospital.  The hope was in vain:  James died in battle on 19 May 1864 at Spotsylvania, VA.

      The 1870 census for Bullock County, AL, p. 229B, showed Caroline as head of household #11 in Union Springs.  Child #2, John, was living in the household of his uncle Richard. 

                              Age  Where born

      Hunter, L. C.    43         SC

                  Willie                24         AL             Editor

                  Jimmie              20         AL             Clerk in store

                  Lizzie                18         AL

                  Emma               16         AL

      Caroline was a charter member of the Metodist Church at Union Springs, which was organized circa 1850.  After her death the Union Springs Herald wrote a tribute to her which stated, “to the day of her death she supported all if its [the church’s] institutions with Christian  fervency and zeal.” (Quoted from an article written by #233C James Alston Branscomb.)

      Following is information about the children of James Hunter and Caroline Branscomb:

211. William Stanley Hunter (“Willie”), b. 8 February 1846, d. 8 February 1937, on his 91^st birthday, in Belton, TX.  Md. in Salado, TX, 5 November 1879 Mary Alice Law (b. 16 March 1857 in Coushatta, LA, d. 18 July 1921 in Belton).  Mary Alice was the d/o Jarrett DeLeslie Law and Mary Elizabeth Roper.

      Willie was only nine years old when his father died, and he soon did what he could to help support the family.  One of his childhood memories which he shared with his children was weaving horse blankets from a local grass, no doubt for his uncle Richard’s shop. He also recalled a trip to the coast with his grandfather Bennett Hill in order to bring back salt.

            The content of the letters from her brother James to Caroline suggests that Willie was eager to be a soldier despite his size and youth.  James’s letter of 18 April 1863 made a few pleasantries about a recent trip which Willie and his younger brother Jonnie had made to Columbus, GA.  It is not certain that their purpose in making the trip was to attempt to enlist, but if that was their purpose they did not succeed.  Then during February 1864 James Branscomb was home on furlough. When he returned to camp he brought Willie with him, and he wrote to his brother John to tell him the news.  A month later (10 April 1864) he wrote again to John, saying, “Sister was very much grieved at Willie leaving [home], well he has gone back.  He left yesterday with Major Powell.  Col Forsyth said he was too small.  I am very glad he was not received, that is, if he can get to stay at home now.”  James sent by Willie a letter to Carolyn which was written on the 9th but dated 10 April:

Let me rejoice with you and yours upon the return of Willie. For I can almost know how you felt at his leaving (and he so young) to participate in this great struggle, so unequal to the task.  I know you feel greatly relieved–now sister do all you can to keep him there.  Though if he is fired to go let him come back here. I & John will get him in a bomb proof position.  I am glad to inform you that Willie has left a favorable impression behind him.  The boys all think there is nobody like Willie H.

      Willie was not so easily persuaded to give up his dreams of getting into the war.  The following January he and two friends set out again for his uncle James’s company, although by that time James and two other uncles were dead and the fourth one was on limited duty in a hospital.  On the way Willie and his companions were commandeered by a captain in Georgia who had been ordered to assemble a force in the wake of Sherman’s advance through the South.  From then until late April Willie was in the vicinity of Allatoona Heights and was engaged in guarding prisoners, serving as orderly to deliver messages to the headquarters of five companies, and at one point gearing for an attack—which proved to be a false alarm.  On 9 April 1865 General Lee surrendered at Appomattox, and the war was effectively over. Shortly thereafter the commander of the five companies in Atlanta called the troops together and announced that he had made an agreement to surrender to the Federal force that was nearby.  At that point a lieutenant requested that the General prepare discharge papers for Willie and for Jim Bartley, and the General did so.  Thus ended Willie’s participation in the Civil War.  (This information from “The End of the Conflict” in the BHB papers.)

      On 5 January 1870 the Union Springs Times printed an article stating that W. Stanley Hunter and Thomas T. Crews purchased the interest of the owner of the newspaper.  Crews had earlier operated the Union Springs Herald, and with this purchase the resultant newspaper was the Times and Herald.  After a short time Hunter bought out Crews’s share of the newspaper, but soon thereafter (judging from the time William moved to Texas) Crews bought it back again.  The aforementioned Major Powell, by then a colonel, was associate editor under Crews. (This information from newspaper clippings preserved by #2417 Elizabeth Hunter Moore; note 1.)

      William moved to Texas in early 1872.  Soon he was in Gatesville, west of Waco, where he joined with John L. Bartow in publishing the Gatesville Sun.  Two years later he sold his interest in the newspaper and moved to Belton in Bell Co.  There he worked as head of the mechanical department for The Belton Journal.  In April 1883 he and a colleague bought the newspaper, and William continued to publish it until late 1889. Then he sold out and, with a partner, purchased a bookstore/stationery shop on the courthouse square, which he operated until 1931. The partners varied over the years, but for most of the time the firm was known as W. S. Hunter and Co.  Over the years he added a jewelry shop  and then a pharmacy to the site. An undated newspaper account, written at least after 1910, stated that W. S. Hunter was “now a prosperous merchant” in “Delton,” Texas.  Following is a quotation about the company from a Belton newspaper article dated 31 August 1931, which is the year Willie retired:

It has been building up and thriving with the years and has assisted so materially in the upbuilding of the town that the firm has made itself almost indispensable. W. S. HUNTER and Co., can boast of an excellent prescription counter with a full line of drugs and medicines. The firm carries a splendid stock of toilet articles, jewelry, books, stationary, and current magazines. Mr. HUNTER and Mr. BOWEN are progressive and popular citizens of this city and prominently and well known business men of the State. The patronage enjoyed by the firm is greatly appreciated and the service obtained is courteous and to the customer's interest.

      On 11 February 1937 The Belton Journal and Bell County Democrat published a lengthy and highly complimentary biography and obituary for William which was continued on pages 2, 3 and 4. The record of his accomplishments was considerable. According to the article, William suffered a stroke some months before his death; shortly before he died he contracted influenza, and then he died as a result of the ensuing pneumonia. The article also commended William’s youngest child, Mary Alice, for the care she gave her mother, a sister, a brother, and then her father, during  major illnesses.  

      William never grew taller than five feet two inches. His wife Alice, by contrast, was almost six feet tall. They had four children: William Stanley Jr., Elizabeth Clayton, Lucinda Law, and Mary Alice.  (Much of the information about #211 William was collected by Mary Alice; Zack McIlroy forwarded it to John R. Branscomb, who shared it with me.)

      212.  John Alphonse Hunter (“Jonnie”), b. 21 February 1848, d. 2 April 1887.  In 1870 he was living in the household of his uncle Richard (#22) and was working in Richard’s harness shop.  John md. 29 May 1873 Vonitia Annette Pearce (b. 19 August 1848 GA, d. 8 March 1921); both bur. Oak Hill Cem., Union Springs.  Some time prior to 1882 John and his family moved to Leesburg, FL; he was the mayor there from 1885 to 1886; according to his obituary he was elected twice as mayor.  Perhaps due to his illness he returned to Union Springs and lived in his mother’s house, dying there “after a long and painful illness.”  He and Vonitia had five children: Bennett Pearce, Eugenia, Gordon Alma, Susie, and Johnnie May.

213. James Bennett Hunter (“Jimmie”), b. 8 September 1849, d. 28 September 1928. Md. 17 December 1874 Melissa Johnson.  A letter dated 7 December 1879 from Jas. B Hunter and preserved by #233 John S. Branscomb suggests that James was the Clerk of the City Council for Union Springs and that he was associated with “Houghton & Lasseter, General Dealers at Wholesale and Retail.”  In 1885 J. B. Hunter was elected mayor of Union Springs as a “champion of the temperance people” in a contest between “wets” and “drys.”  (Newspaper article from a scrapbook kept by Elizabeth Hunter Moore; note 1). As noted above, in 1881 James was administrator for the estate of his grandfather Bennett H. Branscomb.  One of the assets of that estate was a note for $1500 owed by James; another was a note for $200 owed jointly by James and his brother John.  In April 1910 James was an enumerator for the federal census for the city of Union Springs. (Note 1)  The children of James & Melissa were William Johnson, Charles Bennett, Annie Laurie, James Branscomb, and Eleanor.

214. Elizabeth Caroline Hunter (“Lizzie”), b. 14 June 1852, d. 28 December 1940; md. 19 November 1870 Alma Alfred Moore (b. 3 September 1848, d. 26 October 1937). James Branscomb’s letters to Caroline expressed joy after several occasions when Lizzie wrote to him.  In his letter of 31 May 1863 he wrote, “Well, how is my little black eyed girl getting along now (she may not be so very little now). Tell Lizzie I expect she is large enough to be having beaux now.”  (Lizzie reached her eleventh birthday two weeks later.)  Alfed and Elizabeth Moore had seven children: Emma Lula, Walter Cummings, Bessie Maude, Eugenia, Alma Cummings, Henry Leroy, and Mabel Annette.  Elizabeth and Alfred celebrated their 61st wedding anniversary in 1931.

215. Emma Clayton Hunter, b. 10 November 1853, d. 6 May 1941.  Md. 4 May 1880 Marion Franklin Anderson (“Frank,” b. 12 January 1858, d. 8 January 1914) of Smithville, GA.  Frank was the s/o Moore J. and Louisa Anderson.  He came to Union Springs in 1877 and worked in a hardware store.  In 1878 he was in business with John Hunter.  At the time of his marriage apparently Frank was operating his own hardware store in Union Springs.  The 1880 census shows the newly married couple in the home of Emma’s mother Caroline Hunter.  The account of the Hunter family says of Emma, “she was physically a diminutive person who was a strong woman of great Christian faith and gentle warm love.”  Later generations are indebted to Emma for recording the history of the Branscombs and the Hunters.  Although the information about the earliest generations is not supported by documentation, Emma was probably not responsible for any misinformation therein.  The information about the generations which she knew from personal experience appears to be much more sound.

      Frank and Emma had four children:  Frank Hunter, Carrie Elizabeth, Emma Louise, and Willie Eliza.

22. Richard Edwin Branscomb, b. 18 December 1827, d. 29 December 1893.  Md. 26 December 1858 Elizabeth Murrell (b. 3 August 1828 GA, d. 28 January 1906); both bur. Oak Hill Cem.  The first record available for Richard is a letter he wrote to his father on 7 September 1857 while he and a brother were working at Greenville, AL, which is approximately 65 miles southwest of Three Notch/ Union Springs.  The nature of the work was not specified, but it appeared to be a farming project involving the supervision of slaves; it was not going well.  Richard wrote that his health was bad and that Brother had been acutely ill with “bilious fever.”  “Brother” was probably John; more about this episode appears below under the heading for John.

      The 1860 census shows Richard E. Branscome, age 32, b. SC, in the Southern Division of Macon County, AL, p. 74, dwelling #495; his occupation was given as Saddler.  With him was Mrs. Emma, age 30, b. GA.  Richard’s wife Elizabeth was perhaps Elizabeth Emma.  Jno Branscome, Richard’s brother, was in the next dwelling.

      Harvie wrote this commentary:

Richard Edwin, my grandfather, lived at home on the farm until he was grown. In his early 20s [should be 30s] he married Elizabeth Murrell, moved into Union Springs, and set up a saddle and harness business. During the War he made equipment for the Confederate armies. He did well with his business and had to buy larger quarters for its operation. In addition to making saddles and other items, we are told that he sold “cheaper brands made by commercial companies.”

      Harvie wrote also that Richard was too small in stature to be accepted as a soldier in the Civil War. (Louise’s account also descried him as “a slender, short man.”)  Richard’s brother James presented a different picture; after he returned to the front from furlough in February 1864, he wrote to John to tell him how he found things at home:

Richard was having chills of the body and mind both. He is in mental agony all the time in dread of being conscribed. I don’t blame him for wanting to keep out of the army (for he is not able) but tis folly to torture the mind in such a way.

The statement “he is not able” suggests some physical limitation other than stature.  Another part of Harvie’s account stated that Richard volunteered for military service but was rejected “due to physical infirmities.”

            Harvie recorded an anecdote from August 1865:

Elizabeth was just beginning to know that [her] baby was about to be born when word came that the negroes of the surrounding area, the ex-slaves, were marching on the town with the intention of “capturing Union Springs.”  The few men who were left in the town, older men and a few special cases, got out their shot guns and went out to intercept the advancing mob and to protect the town.  Richard Edwin felt that he had to go.  They met the would-be captors somewhere on the outskirts of the town, a few shots were fired, the unorganized blacks broke and ran, and Richard Edwin returned [home] to find that he had a son.  [The son was #223 Lewis Capers, who became the father of Harvie and Louise.]

      By 1870 Union Springs had become part of Bullock County. The census shows Richard and John in the same household, but all of their neighbors were different.  Following are the data for Richard’s family from Beat #10, dwelling 22 (page 229):

                                                Age   Where born

            Branscomb Richard       42         SC             Harness maker

                        Elizabeth           40         GA

                        Capers                4       AL

                        Hortense             3        AL

      By 1880 there were two intervening dwellings between the households of Richard and John. Richard and his family were in dwelling #78 (p. 39).  The family members were the same, and the ages were increased by ten years except for Elizabeth, who was shown as 51.  Richard’s parents were shown as born in VA (father) and SC (mother); Elizabeth’s parents were born in GA (father) and NC (mother).  Richard’s occupation was again recorded as Saddler.  (The occupation of the Hamlin P. Wade who lived in one of the houses between Richard and John was “Clerk in store,” the same occupation Johnny Hunter had ten years earlier.  Wade probably worked in Richard’s harness shop.)

      Harvie’s account for his grandfather continues with this statement:

He and his wife were both very religious and equally committed to giving their children a good education.  [Their son] Lewis was sent to Southern University, the college then operated by the Methodist church in the south Alabama region, his mother setting up a confectionery shop in her husband’s establishment to help provide the funds.  She had the reputation for making the best ice cream in Union Springs.

      Louise’s account makes some of the same points and adds others:

      Richard was a good business man in a small way.  The family set an excellent table; they had what they considered necessary in the way of clothes; they were generous in gifts to the church and in personal charities, but [they] were never careless in the spending of money.  They were considered “close” by some of their neighbors, but they had definite ideas as to what they wished their money to go for, and the opinion of the neighbors did not perturb them.

      [They] were particularly interested in the education of young preachers.   They took into their house several boys who were not able to attend preaching school and saw that they finished high school in order that they might go on with their studies.  Rev. John Robinson was one of these.  They also had a distant cousin, Jessie Bellot, live with them in order that she might complete high school.  .  .  .

      In their business enterprises [meaning Richard’s harness & saddle shop and Elizabeth’s confectionery] Elizabeth and Richard kept their affairs entirely separate.  If one or the other needed money there might be a loan, but it was always repaid.  [Edited slightly.]

      Richard’s son #223 Lewis Capers Branscomb wrote Richard’s obituary, and he stressed Richard’s uprightness and honesty:

By precept and example he taught us to abhor that which was evil and to cleave to that which is good.  I never knew him to do wrong or sinful. [sic] His mistakes were of the head, not of the heart.  He was the soul of honesty, preferring to wrong himself rather than run the risk of defrauding another. . .  . He had a tender heart, easily touched by the infirmities and misfortunes of others.  .  .   .

            Lewis wrote also that his father’s death was unexpected, coming after a short illness.

      Louise wrote that Richard’s nephew (#238) Richard C. Branscomb, “Dick,” was the major source of the information she recorded for both Richard and Elizabeth.  After his father John died, and while he was still a small boy, Dick worked in Richard’s harness shop and spent much time with the family.  Louise recorded Dick’s impression of his uncle:

      Richard Branscomb was energetic and active.  He suffered from the cold, and Dick said that he could remember his uncle with a big cap with fur earmuffs pulled down, running to the store, just because he preferred running to walking.  He stuttered rather badly.  Strangely enough, he never stuttered when he was praying.  [Edited slightly.]

      An account mentioning Richard appeared in the Eufala, AL, newspaper, The Mail, on 26 March 1885 (note 1).  The account was a description of Union Springs:

      The most interesting citizen we met and the first subscriber to The Mail was Mr. R. E. Branscombe, who has been a resident of Union Springs since whereof the memory of man runneth not to the contrary.  He has been in the saddle and harness business there for 30 years on his own account, having served four years at his trade, making a residence there for 34 years.  He relates that when he first went to the Springs there were but 250 inhabitants, two or three stores, a harness shop, a blacksmith shop, a candy store, and a doctor’s office.  The country around was settled with wealthy, very wealthy planters, and times were then much better than now.  A set of harness sold now for $15 brought $25 then, and saddles that brought $25 then could only be sold for $15 now.  Mr. Branscomb and Mr. H. H. Smith are the only ones left alive now of those who were men at the time we write [about]. . .  .

           In the store with Mr. Branscombe is his wife who keeps a restaurant and grocery store.

      According to Louise, Elizabeth was a “tall, rather large-boned woman” who was “somewhat domineering.”  Like her sister-in-law Caroline, Elizabeth was one of the organizers of the Methodist Church in Union Springs, and her grave marker bears an inscription stating so.   Her son Lewis wrote her obituary.  He wrote that Elizabeth was born in Georgia and that early in her life her father moved with his family to Cherokee Co., AL.  The father, a physician, died while Elizabeth was young. For a time the family returned to Georgia but later relocated to Vilalu in Russell Co.,  AL.  Elizabeth came to Union Springs “in her young womanhood.”  Lewis praised his mother’s devotion to her church and her religion.  After Richard died Elizabeth and her daughter Hortense lived with Lewis and his family.

      Richard and Elizabeth had four children, two of whom died at very young ages:

221. Nancy Caroline Branscomb (“Carrie”), b. 3 September 1860, d. 23 July 1864; bur. Oak Hill Cem. A letter John Wesley Branscomb wrote from Lynchburg on 15 August 1864 to his parents stated, “I had a letter from Virginia [his wife] a few days ago that Brother Richard’s little girl was dead and that their Babe was in a bad condition. It seems that afflictions are coming upon us thick and fast.”  The afflictions included the recent deaths in combat of brothers James and Lewis.

222. Edwin C. Branscomb (“Eddie”), b. 26 May 1863, d. 20 September 1864; bur. Oak Hill Cem.  He was “their Babe” in  the letter from John which is quoted immediately above.

223. Lewis Capers Branscomb, b. 27 August 1865, d. 30 October 1930; bur. Elmwood Cem., Birmingham, AL. Md. (1) I July 1891 Nancy McAdory (b. 5 June 1865, d. of tuberculosis 10 November 1897; bur. Cedar Hill Cem. [formerly associated with the Jonesboro Community Church], Bessemer, AL).  As stated above, Lewis went to Southern University, and he became a Methodist minister.  Harvie wrote of his mother Nancy that she was “the daughter of a prosperous land owner and merchant, whose stately Southern type home was in Jonesboro, a suburb of Bessemer.”  Two children:  Lewis McAdory and Bennett Harvie.

   Lewis md. (2) 5 June 1900 Minnie Vaughan McGehee (b. 11 February 1877, d. 29 May 1966; bur. Elmwood Cem.).  They had seven children: Louise Hortense, Richard Edwin, Minnie Elizabeth, Lamar, Alline, Lewis Jr. and Emily.  The 1920 census showed the family in Birmingham (Soundex, 48-83-25-51).

      Harvie wrote of his father,

His was a character which I still hold in great respect and affection, though in time I became aware of certain limitations.  To the complete integrity and honesty which he so admired in his father, he added an initiative and drive that his own father seems to have lacked. . .  .  He was both careful and shrewd in money matters, not only handling church funds well but his own also.  When he died at age 65, he left an estate that enabled Miss Minnie, as he called her, to live comfortably and to complete the college education of the children without dipping into the principal.

      Harvie wrote also that his mother Nannie died in Huntsville, AL, where his father was pastor of a Methodist church.  When the four-year appointment ended, Lewis had a new pastorate in Birmingham.  There Lewis’s widowed mother and his sister Hortense came to live with the family.  Both died within a few years.

224. Lee Hortense Branscomb, b. 22 September 1867, d. 15 February 1901.  She did not marry. She attended a seminary for young ladies at Union Springs.  Later she lived in the home of her brother Lewis Capers and attended a junior college in Decatur, AL.  While there she became ill with what her niece and namesake, #2233 Louise Hortense, M.D., said was “stomach trouble,” and could not continue her studies.  In time she died of the illness.

23. John Wesley Branscomb, b. 1 May 1829, d. of pneumonia in Union Springs 6 December 1886. Md. in Union Springs, Macon Co., 28 March 1856 Sarah Virginia Thornton (b. 12 July 1840 AL, d. 19 November 1903 in Union Springs), both bur. Oak Hill Cem. The marriage date is from Kartaltepe, p. 307.  Other than his name in the 1850 census for Macon County, the earliest record for John is a letter from him dated 17 September 1854, written to “Dear and Affectionate Sister” Caroline from Perote, AL, where apparently he was supervising a group of Negroes in a farming venture (see further under William). John wrote that he was lonely, that he saw few white people except in church on Sundays, and that he was learning to doctor the blacks when they became ill. He signed his letter “Wess.”  In all of the other letters he was John–or merely “Brother.”

      In September 1857 it appears that John and his brother Richard were at another location on a joint project.  Richard wrote to their father from Greenville, AL:

Brother is down with the bilious fever and it appears he is going to have a serious time of it. He has been down a week.  Last night he was taken worse about half past 11 o’clock and I had to run for the Dr. about a quarter of a mile.  He came and relieved him a little and went.  Again at half past 1 I was again aroused and had to run with all my might for the Dr. again.  He came then and staid with us all night and I hope he is better this morning.

This letter has a postscript:  “Virginia said she wished you would see Connell and get her church letter and send it down.”  Since Virginia was the name of John’s wife, that is a clue that in this case “Brother” was John.  Richard wrote that someone was begging them to sell out and move to Highlog in Montgomery County, about 16 miles from Union Springs; there they could “get as much work as we could do.”

      John–if that was he–survived his bilious fever. By 1860 he and Richard were back in Union Springs and living next door to each other. The census  showed John as head of dwelling #496:

                                    Age   Where born

            Jno W. Branscomb       31        SC

            Mrs. Sally V.                24        AL (The age could be 20; the copy is quite faded.)

            Jas H.                             3        AL

            Lula                         1-1/3(?)     AL

            Jno W. Lassiter             30        GA       Merchant

(The age for Lula is not the kind one encounters in census records and may not be correct.) Richard’s occupation was given as Saddler, and there appear to be ditto marks for John in the next household.  It is likely that John worked in Richard’s shop.

      In a letter dated 29 November 1861 James wrote to Carrie that he had received a letter from “Miss Jenny” (John’s wife); he wrote, “She seems to be very much distressed about their situation. I feel sorry for her.”  The “situation” is not further identified.

       John enlisted on 14 April 1862 in Captain J. W. D. Jelks’s infantry company, the “Dixie Eagles.”  William enlisted in the same company, and both arrived in the area of Norfolk, VA,  in May, although for some reason William was there somewhat earlier than John (James’s letter to Caroline dated 6 May 1862 stated that William had arrived, but “John has not got here yet”).  The Company departed Union Springs on 14 April, going first to Tuskegee, next to the Methodist Male College in Auburn, and thence to Columbus.  There the troops boarded a train to Norfolk, where they became Company L of the Third Infantry Regiment of Alabama Volunteers.  William’s letters show the itinerary rather well.  By summer the regiment was part of Daniel H. Hill’s Division.

       John’s letters during this portion of his military service have not been preserved; we learn about him primarily from James’s letters to Caroline and to his parents, usually a line to the effect, “Lewis and John are well.”  The last such statement was in James’s letter dated 1 August 1862: “John’s health is fairly good.”  By then the Division, as part of the Army of Northern Virginia, had been engaged in some heavy fighting around Richmond, among them battles at Drury’s Bluff, Fair Oaks, Seven Pines and Malvern Hill.

      The next information about John comes from his military records:  the Regimental Return for October 1862 includes the statement that he was wounded at Sharpsburg, [MD], on 17 September.  That was the site of the battle of Antietam, “the bloodiest single day’s fighting of the entire Civil War” (Catton, p. 96), in which the Union lost 12,410 men and the Confederates lost 10,700.  The entry on the Regimental Return continues, “Sent to Winchester, VA,” obviously to a hospital.  James wrote to Carrie from “Camp near Bunker Hill” on 22 October 1862:

I read a letter from Richard to John the other day, brought by Shad McGowan, so I know that none of you was not dead when he [McGowan] left [Union Springs].  I am in fine health now.  Lewis well.  I expect you know more about John than I do, and I am only ten miles from him (that is, if he writes home).

           [Bunker Hill is in West Virginia, but only ten miles northeast of Winchester, VA.]

       Soon John was sufficiently recovered to be furloughed for recuperation: a pay voucher dated 18 November 1862 in Richmond showed that he received four months’ pay, a total of $44.00, for the period 1 July to 1 November.  The voucher also contains the words, “Branscomb’s Furlough.” 

      The story continues in Louise’s account.  She wrote:

      John Wesley received a crippling wound of his right knee which caused the leg to be drawn up so that he could not use it for walking.  When his wife saw him returning from the front at the end of the war she was not only shocked by his injury but by the fact that he was covered with vermin.  A little later they called him to a hospital center in Georgia for treatment of his knee.  Without any type of anesthesia the leg was forcibly extended and the tendon torn by dropping a heavy padded weight on the knee.  This eventually resulted in considerable improvement in the position and in the use of the leg but was so painful at the time that John said that if he had a gun he would have shot the doctors.

      (During the Civil War anesthesia was unknown except for alcohol and laudanum [opium].  The seemingly brutal treatment was probably for adhesions which resulted from not exercising the injured leg.)

       Virginia’s shock at John’s appearance, his wound and the vermin, was probably at this point rather than when he returned home at the end of the war.  John’s furlough appears to have begun in November 1862 shortly after he received his pay for four months’ service.  He must have returned home within a month of the birth of his son John Sanford (b. 15 October 1862).  Lewis’s letter to Caroline on 2 December 1862 stated,  “Tell John I am glad that he has got home and tell him to stay there for we are seeing worse times than ever and get less rations.” 

       James wrote to Carrie on 12 December that he and Lewis had just received much-needed clothing from home, but also that he had clothing for John; had it been sent from home before John was wounded?  James wrote:

I am a little uneasy about John.  I can’t hear anything from him and it is the same at home.  By the by, I also received some clothes for him.  I having as much as I could manage, what must I do with his?  I thought it best to sell them.  I sold the shirt and pants.  I shall try to lug with the drawers and socks, though I have a load of my own. . . I am getting to be a good pack horse.

      If Lewis knew that John was at home, surely James also knew.  The answer may be that John had gone to the military hospital in Georgia about which Louise wrote–the place where he had received such painful treatment to separate the adhesions in his wounded leg.

      The available letters show that John was at home until September 1863, and then he traveled back to Virginia to rejoin his unit.  His military file does not show that he was ordered to return to the Third Regiment, but he must have received an order; he was by no means fit for combat and in his condition would hardly have chosen to return voluntarily.  It is even possible that he remained at home for a time after he had been ordered to return; see below.  John wrote from Petersburg, VA, to his wife on 25 September 1863, and he had not yet reached his division. He wrote that he had been traveling three days and nights (probably by train) without stopping and that his leg was so swollen that he could barely walk.  When John did return to Company L it was at Orange Court House in Orange Co., VA.  On the day John arrived, James and Lewis left on a long march in which they harassed the Federal troops, but by mid-October they were back at camp near Brandy Station. Lewis wrote to Carrie on 25 October.  Following is his comment concerning John:

I don’t know where John is.  We left him at Orange (C. H.), poor fellow.  I did not get to speak a dozen words to him.  We met him the morning we started around the yanks.  Sis, I could not help crying to see him.  We had to march along by him and leave him behind in the mud to do the best he could.  I have not heard from him since.

      The next news of John is in a letter dated 17 November 1863 from James to Carrie.  James wrote, “Sydney McBride is just in from Lynchburg.  He says John is well.”  Since the letter does not mention a recent change for John, he may have gone to the military hospital in Lynchburg any time after James and Lewis left him in the mud at Orange Courthouse.  John wrote to his father on 20 January 1864 and gave his location as Lynchburg.  It appears that he was there for the remainder of his military service.  According to his military records, on 16 March 1864 a paper of some sort was forwarded to him at Lynchburg from the Medical Director’s Office in Richmond.  The Company L muster rolls for 1 April, 30 June and September-October 1864 recorded him as “Absent.  In Hospital at Lynchburg VA.” 

      A bad leg did not confine John to bed in the hospital.  His letter to his father on 20 January 1864 stated that he was “enjoying good health”; in his letter to Virginia dated 9 July he wrote, “I am still well except rheumatism.”  On 5 August he wrote to Virginia that he had had smallpox but was then recovered and had regained his lost weight.  He must have had light duty.  That same letter told of “sometimes guarding Yankey prisoners and sometimes doing nothing.” The last letter which has been preserved for him was addressed to his parents and was dated 15 August 1864.  He wrote,

I am still on duty here at Lynchburg.  I don’t know how long I will stay here.  I am getting tired of the place, but I am still unfit for field duty, and I suppose I must do service somewhere.  I sent a letter not long ago to Major Dillard of Columbus, GA, requesting him to assist me in getting a detail at that place.

      A letter from John to Virginia dated 1 June 1864 raises some questions. John wrote, “I embrace the earliest opportunity. . . to inform you that I did not have to go to prison as I expected, the matter having been settled.  We are all relieved.”  Possibly John was guilty of overstaying his furlough after being wounded, but no available records suggest that he was AWOL; neither do they give other clues relating to the question.

      John must have been home from the war by spring of 1865, as his fourth child was born in December of that year.  Harvie wrote that “he went into merchandising in Union Springs.” That “merchandising” was surely to return to his work in the harness shop in cooperation with Richard. The 1870 census, p. 229, shows him and his family in the household headed by is brother Richard in Union Springs:

                                          Age    Where born

Branscomb John       41        SC              Harness maker

            Sarah                       30        AL

            James                      13        AL

            John  S.                     7        AL      (The initial looks much like a “J.”)

            Albert                        4        AL

            Lama                        2        AL      (this is [Elijah] Lamar)

      In 1880 two dwellings separated John and Richard.  Della Cunningham, the black servant whose name in the 1870 census appears just above John’s as a member of Richard’s household, also appears just above John’s name in the 1880 census.  She was the sole resident of one of the two intervening dwellings.  Della may have been living in what was formerly slave quarters and was continuing in service in Richard’s household as she had been ten years earlier.  Following is the data for John’s family; dwelling #81, Union Springs, Beat 3, p. 40A:                                                                                                                  Where  Pa      Ma

                                                Age      born    born     born

            Branscomb, John W.        51      SC        VA       SC      Saddler

                  Sarah V.                    40      AL       GA      SC

                  James H.                   23      AL       SC       GA      Farmer

                  William Albert           14      AL       SC        GA      Clerk in store

                  Elijah L.                     11      AL       SC       GA

                  Mattie E.                     7     AL       SC       GA

                  Sam H.                        5     AL       SC       GA

                  Richard C.                   3     AL       SC       GA

                  Carry Bell                1/12     AL       SC        GA      born in May

      John lived only six more years.  One obituary described him as “highly esteemed by his fellow citizens as a man of sterling integrity and character”; another stated that he had been elected several times to the city council, “a position which he always filled with credit to himself and profit to the city.” 

      Thorntons were in Abbeville, SC, at the same time Zachariah’s children were there; two of William McMaster’s daughters married Thorntons, as shown by his will in 1823; one of those daughters was Susannah (Thomas, p. 218).  Genealogies of the Thornton family by William Nelson Thornton and Walter W. Thornton state that Susannah T. McMasters married Sanford Thornton in 1819; that in 1841 they had a daughter Sarah Virginia, and that by 1850 this family was in Macon County, AL (however, careful review of the 1850 census for Macon County does not reveal Sanford Thornton and Susannah).  Although some doubt remains, these records suggest strongly that Virginia was the granddaughter of Mazy's sister Rebecca Town