Florence Winnifred Branson

Florence Winnifred Branson, the fourth of the five children of Alvin Thorpe Branson and Mary Eliza Simmons, was born 8 November 1891 in or near Quartzburg, Mariposa County, CA, where her father was working as a miner. (Some references cite her birthplace as Hornitos. This is also correct in a sense. Hornitos was the nearest incorporated town. Quartzburg was only a mining outpost.) Her middle name was often rendered as Winnie, even by her mother in a 1931 list she compiled, in which all the names are otherwise the formal variations.

In Florence’s infancy, the family moved to El Portal at the entrance of Yosemite Valley. For two years (the 1892 and 1893 growing seasons), Alvin and his second cousin Hiram Branson maintained a garden and orchard, growing food for the hotel at Wawona. They transported their produce and other supplies to the hotel by mule. This means of subsistence was too marginal to continue longterm, so Alvin and Mary and their children returned to the lower hills of Mariposa County. Over the next two decades the household migrated back and forth between various sites in Mariposa County as Alvin worked at different jobs. Some of the time they were at Quartzburg itself. Sometimes they boarded nearby with Alvin’s parents, John and Martha Branson, at “Grasshopper Ranch.” Sometimes they rented a house (the so-called Gan House) in the town of Mariposa. Florence attended Quartzburg District School and the school in Mariposa.

Beginning in 1897, Alvin Branson obtained a gold-mining claim (which he called his “Last Chance” claim) on the Merced River at Exchequer. This site, in Mariposa County just east and upstream from the Merced County line, was not far from Alvin’s birthplace of Phillips Flat. Alvin believed he would find prehistoric deposits of placer gold where the river had changed course ages before, and the gravel layers had been left uninvestigated and undisturbed by Gold Rush miners, including his own father. He never found his great bonanza, but whenever he could he would spend weeks or months at a time there, extending his trench. During those intervals the family lived in the large cabin Alvin had built beside the river. The building stood very near the spot where the Exchequer Dam would one day be raised, creating Lake McClure.

Florence’s first job was as a teacher in her late teens at a private school formed at Exchequer. There was no school close enough to serve the tiny local population, so four families pooled resources, quickly erected a one-room classroom building, and hired Florence, even though she had no credential and had not even completed “normal school,” the two-year version of high school that served as “upper education” in California pioneer days. Florence’s younger brother Ivan was one of those she taught. The photograph immediately below shows her with her pupils. As is plain to see from that image and the one at the upper left, Florence was a beauty in her youth. She drew the attention of local bachelors.

One bachelor who courted Florence that year was Ernest Lee Corkins, whom she married 28 June 1911 in Sacramento, CA. Ernest, son of Franklin Corkins and Anna Leonard, had been born 19 March 1882 in Wayne County, MI, probably in or near the village of Van Buren, where he had gone on to be raised. As a couple, Florence and Ernest settled immediately in Stockton, San Joaquin County, CA, where Florence’s parents and siblings would also relocate over the next few years. From 1912 to 1919 four children were born, Mildred, Alvin, Daniel, and Alice. Three were born in Stockton. Alvin Franklin Corkins, named for his grandfathers, was born in Calaveras County during a year or so that the family lived on a cattle ranch in the Altaville/Angel’s Camp area.

Jobs were not always easy for Ernest to find. His draft registration card shows that he was an unemployed teamster in September of 1918. Later he landed gainful employment as a mill engineer, but with the arrival of baby Alice, there were four children to feed, and the family remained conscious of finances. In the mid-1920s, the family tried to earn extra income by taking on a boarder, Charles Clayborne Dumont. Charles had been born 19 March 1896 in Ohio. Having a young single man on the property led to “complications.” Florence came to appreciate Charles’s companionship more than that of Ernest. She filed for divorce. Ernest was pushed out of his own home, while Charles stayed. The results are well summed up in a 1929 news article from the Stockton Record, which reads:

Quick action on the part of Charles Dumont, 1214 North El Dorado Street, resulted in a torn hand instead of bullet-ridden head, when Ernie Corkins, 720 Silvan Court, thrust a gun in Dumont’s face with an alleged intent to shoot, this morning in the rear of the Terminal Paint Company, Center and Hazelton Street.

According to the story told police officers by Dumont, his alleged assailant started off to get another gun when the one he had thrust in Dumont’s face was snatched by the latter. The hammer of the gun tore Dumont’s hand as he tussled with Corkins for its possession. Corkins, Dumont told officers, accuses him of breaking up his home and causing a divorce between Corkins and his wife, which Dumont is said to have told police was granted early in the year.

When Dumont came to Stockton about three years ago he went to live in the Corkins home, according to the story he is said to have told police, and it was during his stay there that Corkins alleges the break-up of his home. Corkins, who disappeared after stating he was going for another gun, has not yet been found by the police.

The paint factory where the incident occurred was Charles’s workplace. The divorce was granted 9 May 1929. If Ernest was ever arrested for his episode of rage, charges must have been dropped. Daughter Alice, who was ten years old at the time of the incident, did not even learn the violence had taken place until she was an adult. (Alice had been sent to live with her uncle Ivan Branson and his wife Marion in the San Francisco Bay Area while the particulars of the divorce were evolving, which made it possible to keep things from her.) Ernest never did follow through on his threat to kill his rival. He went on with his life. The 1930 census confirms him living separately from Florence, in a house in Stockton shared with a worker from his mill. In the mid-1930s he regained possession of the family home when Florence and Charles moved to Pollock Pines, El Dorado County, CA. While the bad feelings associated with the divorce would linger, slowly a kind of peace was restored. The fact that Ernest settled into a steady employment situation no doubt helped him regain his sense of worth. He worked for many years as a plant manager for the Milk Producers Association of Central California.

The romance between Florence and Charles proved to be far more more than a tempestuous fling. Her surviving writings show Florence was outspoken and not afraid to be honest even when the truth was uncomfortable. Her choice was not the result of a weak will nor was her interest in Charles casual. The (early June) 1930 census shows the couple in their home, residing with her three younger children. His occupation is described as paint maker at the paint factory, and Florence is listed as having attended school within the previous twelve months. The couple wed 30 June 1930 and were still together the day they died decades later.

Despite this constancy and “great love affair” aspect, the local gossips must have looked at Florence’s boldness in choosing her lover over her spouse as scandalous. Not surprisingly, her decision was also unpopular with her offspring. And unfortunately, eldest daughter Mildred could be said to have adopted a “do Mom one better” model and went through a series of five husbands. The first instance occurred when Mildred married Charles Allen Burkett at only sixteen-and-a-half years of age. Nine months later, barely over seventeen, she gave birth to a son, Donald Leroy Burkett. Thus Florence became a grandmother at less than forty years of age, only a few weeks after her divorce from Ernest. Or rather, she became a mother a fifth time, as Mildred was not ready to be a parent and Donald’s father soon ceased to be an involved presence of his son’s life. Florence gained primary custody of the child.

Florence and Charles moved to Pollock Pines in about 1934. By then Mildred and Alvin were old enough to remain behind in Stockton. Daniel came with them for three to four years before returning to Stockton. Youngest child Alice finished her high school years up in the hills. Donald went into his mother’s care during her second marriage, but Florence often had charge of him and his two little sisters during the 1930s.

The El Dorado County years ended after Alice, who had grown up, married, and started a family, moved to Redding, Shasta County, CA. This move occurred in 1946. Within a year or two, Florence and Charles followed. Aside from a brief sojourn to Washington, Florence and Charles resided in Redding for the rest of their lives. Alice remained nearby, and for a certain number of years Mildred was not far away.

Alvin and Daniel did not come north. This geographic separation -- and the complication that Alvin and Daniel did not tend to speak to one another after childhood -- meant that Florence saw some of her grandchildren more than others. She took pride in them all, however. She became the matriarch of an ever-expanding, healthy clan of descendants. This was in great contrast to her siblings. Her brother Walter had no children. Her sister Maude and brother James had only one child each (and Maude’s daughter Doris had no offspring of her own). Her brother Ivan appeared destined to have none as well, until a late second marriage in his early sixties made him a stepfather of two (whom he adopted) and then the natural father of two more. Florence therefore accounts for most of the biological legacy of Alvin Thorpe and Mary Eliza Branson. In all, Mildred had seven (sadly, her first, Donald Burkett, drowned in Lake Tahoe in 1941 at the age of only twelve), and Alvin, Daniel, and Alice had three biological children each plus step-children. By the 1960s, as Florence was only in her seventies, she was already a great-grandmother several times over. Unable to see all of the little ones regularly, she sewed baby clothes and shipped them where needed.

Though Florence and Charles’s home remained in Redding, their actual death locale is in Butte County. They were killed 12 January 1966 in a car wreck while driving home from visiting Ivan Branson. (Ivan and his family lived at that time in the Grass Valley/Penn Valley area of Nevada County.) At least some of Florence’s ashes were placed at Lake Tahoe, in memory of Donald Burkett. Ernest Corkins passed 7 December 1971 in Stockton.

Children of Florence Winnifred Branson with Ernest Lee Corkins

Mildred Elaine Corkins

Alvin Franklin Corkins

Daniel Francis Mackey Corkins

Alice Marjorie Corkins

For genealogical details, click on each of the names.

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