Alice Branson
Alice Branson, fourth child and second daughter of Thomas Henry Ousley Branson and Frances Bauer, was born 7 August 1879 in Hornitos, Mariposa County, CA.
Alice spent her entire childhood in Hornitos. Her parents stayed put in the same house on Burns Creek, in the “Chinese” section of the town, from the early 1870s to the early 1910s. This home was a sanctuary that Alice and her siblings clung to in adulthood. Her eldest brother William never did live away from Thomas and Frances. Alice herself remained until age twenty-one, but in most respects is the best example among the whole brood at establishing her independent life in a normal fashion. She was in fact the very first of the bunch to live with anyone other than family. (Her sister Evelyna departed before her, but only to be a nanny for a widowed aunt, Elizabeth Powers Bauer.) The 1900 census shows Alice as a servant in the home of the Alfred Clough and his wife, the former Mary McDonald, in Merced, Merced County, CA. At that point in time Merced was home to Alice’s aunts Nancy, Mary Jane, and Theresa, to uncle William McDonald, widower of Phoebe Branson, and to over a dozen first cousins. The arrangement with the Cloughs had no doubt sprung from the latter’s acquaintance with so many members of the greater Branson clan.
Alice’s first husband was John Henry Williams, a son of William H. Williams and Mary Oliver, immigrants to the Far West from England. John was the eldest of that couple’s thirteen children. He had been born July 1876, his birthplace being one of two places. His parents had been residents of Hunter’s Valley, Mariposa County, CA until just before -- or just after -- his birth. They then spent about three years in Nevada before returning to Hunter’s Valley. The secondborn and thirdborn sons of the family were born during that Nevada sojourn. In later years, informants provided conflicting information about the location of John’s birth. The 1880, 1910, and 1920 censuses say Nevada. The 1900 census and his obituary state it was Hunter’s Valley. Either way, he spent most of his childhood in Hunter’s Valley, and thought of it as his place of origin. John and Alice were married 10 June 1902 in Mariposa County, probably at Mt. Bullion Mine, where John worked. After becoming Alice’s husband, John continued to pursue mining at Mt. Bullion for about ten more years. The family lived at the mining outpost. The mine or the surrounding complex employed many relatives of both Alice and John during this era. (For example, Alice’s cousin Mary Branson Peard, a widow, was a housekeeper of one of the miners’ barracks.) The couple’s first three children were born while the household was based there. Vernon Aubrey Williams arrived in 1904, Ray Burton Williams in 1907, and Ruth Evelyn Williams in 1911. By the time of Ruth’s birth, however, the economic prospects were grim. California’s gold industry had already largely collapsed. Mt. Bullion had been one of the most enduring hard-rock mines of the whole Mother Lode, but even its productivity could not be sustained. John was forced to abandon his profession. By the time fourth and last child Frances Bernice Williams was born in 1914, the family had relocated to the vicinity of Manteca in San Joaquin County, CA. This was a booming agricultural area where Alice’s aunt Nancy Anne Branson Harrington Napier and most of her six children had recently set up households, having vacated Merced, where Nancy had run a boarding house while raising her offspring. Alice and John were not alone in their decision. Her parents Thomas and Frances also moved to Manteca, bringing along their invalid elder son William Proctor Branson. (William was suffering from tuberculosis, a common scourge in the lives of men who worked in deeprock mines.)
John became a farmer. In the early years, at least for a little while, he was helped by Alice’s brother Hugh McErlane Branson (though it would probably be more correct to say, John and Alice extended room and board and a job to Hugh). Hugh’s World War I draft registration card places him with the Williamses in 1918. The next census shows that in 1920 the household members consisted of John, Alice, and all four children. Hugh had by then moved on, finding work as a farm laborer in Merced County, though he would stay with his sister at subsequent points in his life. Her father Thomas had moved away from Manteca as well, returning to Hornitos. In 1920 he was four years a widower. Frances Bauer Branson had perished of chronic kidney disease in 1916, earlier on the very day that William Proctor Branson finally succumbed to his case of TB.
John Williams passed away 16 April 1923 when a bout with the flu led to a fatal case of pneumonia. Alice probably kept the farm going as a widow, no doubt helped by the fact that her sons were reaching adulthood. Over the next few years a suitable marital prospect would develop in the form of a close neighbor, Milton James Henry.
Milton James Henry was born in Missouri born 6 February 1873. He came to California early in his life. As a young adult he and his siblings and widowed mother Martha lived with Martha’s sister Louisa Pope (also a widow) in Nightingale Precinct, San Joaquin County, CA. This locale, sometimes known as O’Neil Township, can no longer be found on most maps. It was just east of Stockton. Louisa’s next door neighbors were the Early family, headed by Michael and Louisa L. Early. Milton married a daughter of that family, Lena Viola Early (born September 1879 and raised in Nightingale) in about 1902. Shortly thereafter Milton and Lena acquired the farm near Manteca. They became parents of Lola Henry in 1903 and Lloyd L. Henry on 7 December 1908. In about 1921 Lena developed a terminal illness. She was more than a year into that illness when John Williams died. She suffered nearly three more years (a total of four), finally passing away 12 November 1925.
Alice and Milton kept their respective status as widow and widower for a few years, then found in each other the solution to their loneliness. The precise date of their wedding is not known, but Alice is referred to by the name Alice Williams in the 12 July 1927 issue of the Oakland Tribune in an article about the officers of the Manteca Rebekah and Oddfellows lodges. (That same article mentions Milton as a member of the Oddfellows lodge. Several of Alice’s female Branson-clan Manteca-area relatives are known to have belonged to the Rebekah lodge with her. Lena Henry had also been a member of that lodge.) So she was still not a Henry then, but by the census, dated 1 April 1930, she appears as Milton’s wife, residing on his farm.
That 1930 census shows Frances, age fifteen, living with Milton and Alice. By that time, Lola and Lloyd Henry were adults, and Frances’s siblings were likewise old enough to be out on their own. There is no indication in the document that Frances’s surname was Williams. It is not known if this was the enumerator’s oversight or if Milton Henry adopted Frances upon marrying Alice.
Only a little is known of Alice’s later life. Milton died 25 September 1953 in Lodi, CA and is buried in Parkview Cemetery of Manteca. The couple had probably kept their farm until that point, or until near then, but in her twilight years Alice ultimately went to stay with Frances, who was living in Delano, Kern County, CA. Alice passed away in Delano 9 September 1963. Her body was brought back to San Joaquin County and was interred in Stockton Rural Cemetery. That graveyard was where John Henry Williams had been laid to rest. It was also the site which cradled the remains of Alice’s parents and many other Branson relatives.
Alice’s children all survived her. For more about their lives, click on the links below. Her stepdaughter Lola had already become Lola Ballou by the time of her biological mother’s death, but nothing more is known of her. Stepson Lloyd L. Henry was for decades a doctor based in Manteca. He died in Manteca October, 1980. He married a Miss Black and they became parents of Carola Henry (born 21 July 1935) and Lloyd Milton Henry (3 April 1939 - 13 September 1993).
Children of Alice Branson
with John Henry Williams
For genealogical details, click on
each of the names.
To go back one generation, click here. To return to the Branson/Ousley Family main page, click here.