William Henry Branson

William Henry Branson, eldest son of Reuben Branson and Eliza Louisa Armstrong, was born during the month of July, 1873 in Mariposa County, probably at or near his grandparents’ ranch at Quartzburg, north of Hornitos. He is not to be confused with his first cousin William Proctor Branson, the son of his father’s brother Thomas Henry Ousley Branson. William Proctor was born only a month later and only a few miles away in Hornitos itself, and shares several other biographical details with William Henry, such as an abbreviated life and lack of children. William Henry is also not to be confused with William Branson, his father’s second cousin. The latter William, son of John Sevier Branson’s first cousin Isaac Branson, was born in 1871, was also childless, and would most likely have come into the world at Quartzburg in a house that was literally next door to the one where William Henry was born two years later.

In the early 1870s, apparently the Bransons of Mariposa County had a hard time figuring out unique first names for their baby boys.

William Henry Branson was raised in various places in the Mother Lode where his father was mining for gold, including Hite’s Cove and Potter Ridge in Mariposa County, and Grub Gulch in what is now Madera County (during much of William’s life, this area of California was part of Fresno County). As an adult, he labored beside his father at the latter two locations. However, he did assert a degree of independence. The Great Register of Madera County of 1894 -- the voter registration record -- places him in Raymond in that year, while his father registered at Enterprise in Grub Gulch.

Staying in the Raymond area kept him near his mother and younger siblings, who benefitted from his presence. Blue-eyed and taller than his father at nearly five foot ten inches in height, William was no doubt the pride of his mother’s eye and the male figure his brothers and sisters looked up to, all the more so because their real father was often wandering in one sense or another. This paternal role fell to William not only because he was the eldest, but because his brother David, the closest to him in age, was somewhat mentally retarded.

Mining was a tentative source of income in the 1890s in the Mother Lode. William undoubtedly found work through a variety of occupations. He probably spent some time working in the lumber industry or in hauling supplies. In this, he would have been mimicking -- and perhaps working with -- his father and/or with his uncle John Sevier Branson, Jr. (John Jr. was only five years older than his nephew and frequented the same corners of Madera County; the two undoubtedly had some association.) William is known to have raised cattle, too; he registered a cattle brand in Madera County in the mid-1890s.

According to family notes, William died when he took ill and developed pneumonia while bedridden. It is quite possible this was the end result of lungs compromised by hardrock mining. Many miners of the era developed chronic lung disease, including “miners’ consumption,” i.e. pulmonary tuberculosis. This disease is known to be what killed his cousin William Proctor Branson. However, the relevant cemetery registry lists the cause of death as heart disease. William died 19 May 1897 at less than twenty-four years of age. He had not yet married, and left no progeny.

Though his life had been spent in the hills, William was buried down in the Central Valley at Arbor Vitae Cemetery, Madera, Madera County, CA. Sister Mattie would be placed in an adjacent grave upon her death in 1902. Their gravemarkers were apparently not durable and were replaced in the mid-1930s when sister Mamie was buried next to them, with all the markers done in the same style. (Two more matching markers, those of mom Louisa and her second husband, Joseph Eagle, would soon be added to the group.) William’s original marker, whose details are possible to see in a photograph taken when the marker was new (shown in low resolution at upper left), stated that he had perished on the nineteenth of May at the age of twenty-three years and ten months. This works out to a death year of 1897. However, when the new marker was commissioned, the “and 10 months” part of the old inscription must have been illegible. Someone took his birth year of 1873, added 23 years to that, and came up with a death year of 1896, a date which, though incorrect, is still present on his surviving marker (shown at right).

To go back one generation, click here. To return to the Branson/Ousley Family main page, click here.