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 only did so temporarily. Another who had moved on was Thomas Branson, giving up on Manteca in favor of a return to Hornitos. In 1920 Thomas 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 had been born in Missouri born 6 February 1873. He had come to California early in his life. As a young adult he and his siblings and widowed mother Martha had 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 had been the Early family, headed by Michael and Louisa L. Early. Milton had married a daughter of that family, Lena Viola Early (born September 1879 and raised in Nightingale) in about 1902. Shortly thereafter Milton and Lena had acquired the farm near Manteca. They had become parents of Lola Henry in 1903 and Lloyd L. Henry on 7 December 1908. In about 1921 Lena had developed a terminal illness. She had been more than a year into that illness when John Williams died. She had 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. That same census shows that Hugh Branson was lodging on the farm. This was a permanent arrangement. Voter registers of the 1930s and 1940s show Hugh and Alice continually at the same rural route post box throughout that span. Hugh may have eventually purchased some of the farm, or bought an adjacent parcel that did not require him to change his voting address.
Only a little is known of Alice’s later life. Hugh passed away in 1949. By then Milton was getting into his late seventies and it does not appear he wanted to continue as a solo farmer. He and Alice probably moved, because Milton’s place of death is recorded as being Lodi, San Joaquin County. He passed away 25 September 1953. His remains were interred in Parkview Cemetery of Manteca. In her twilight years, Alice ultimately went to stay with Frances, who with her husband Edward Young had established a home 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. In other words, she was not buried with Milton. No doubt her children preferred that she be laid to rest with their father, John Henry Williams. Stockton Rural Cemetery also contains the graves 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 dentist based in Manteca. He died in Manteca October, 1980. He married Winifred 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.