Branson Family Groups

These groups are my sure BRANSON ancestry, starting 6 generations before me.

Notes

Husband: JARRED BRANSON

source: Lewis P. Summers, "Annals of SW VA 1769-1800, Botetourt, Fincastle, Montgomery, Washington & Wythe Co's", p 878 & 918.

Land surveyed for him in Montgomery & Washington counties, VA 1782 (300 acres). 28 Nov 1782 Grantee 270 ac Burk's Fork Waters, New River.

source: Montgomery Co VA tax lists.

Taxpayer 1782-1787 (as was Thomas: father or brother?). 1782 tax list: 1 tithable, no slaves, 2 horses, 2 cattle, and land. Thos did not have land; so they were settling/working together?

source: Montgomery Co VA Grants 35 p 175

25 Apr 1796 Jarret Branson 150 ac on Big Reed Island, a branch of New River.
1 Dec 1786 Grantor; Thos Dillard, Grantee, --- ac Burk's Fork branch New River.

sources: Patrick Co VA Deeds Book 1 p 574; Grants 45 p 267, 59 p 235, 63 p 289

15 Oct 1798. This would be when Jarrett E. (=Jr.) was only abt 15, so it must be Jarrett Sr.

29 Mar 1800 Jaret Branson 53 ac on south fork of Johnson Creek adj McMillin.

1 Sep 1809 Patrick Co Garrett Branson 112 ac on the headwaters of Lovings Creek adj Summers & Branson land. Father or son?

7 Oct 1812 Patrick Co Jaret Branson 95 ac on waters of Johnson Creek adj his own land.

All together, "Gerrard" or "Jarrott" Branson is grantee in 8 deeds in Patrick Co from 1798 to 1812.

source: 1810 Patrick Co census

"Gerrard" Branson is found, as are all his sons, then grown: Thomas, John, "Gerrard Jr.", Valentine, Andrew. None own slaves. The father has 6 horses; the sons, 3 each except Andrew who has 1. In the area, slaveowners are relatively few (10%?) with 6 or 7 slaves being a lot; many people do not own horses, a very few own 6 or 7 as Jared does.

source: Marion Co TN deeds

1824 Jarrett Branson Sr. has a land deed. (Thomas has deeds 1824, 1826; John has deeds 1822, 1826.)

Child #3: ANDREW BRANSON

source: 1810 Patrick Co VA census: 1 tithable, no slaves, 1 horse.

source: 1815 Bledsoe Co TN tax list. (Thomas and Valentine are also listed.)

source: 1830 census Gasconade Co MO: 3 slaves.

source: Will dd 31 May 1839, rec 4 Sep 1843, pr 17 Aug 1847.

Security was posted by Solomon & Leroy McGowen, among others. The History of Gasconade Co reports he died in 1839, but that is not correct: the will was written that year.

source: Gasconade Co will book 1821-1860

17 Aug 1847 Guardian appointments were made for his underage children: Valentine for Rolla M; Joseph M. Burgess for Louisa L; Andrew for Hanry C (sic) & Sina P.

Notes

Husband: THOMAS BRANSON

source: 1810 Patrick Co VA census: 1 tithable, no slaves, 3 horses

source: 1815 Bledsoe Co TN tax list

source: History of Gasconade Co

Says he was a TN rifleman in the Battle of New Orleans, with his brother John (and perhaps Jarred). (I don't have his record.) Also says he came to MO in 1821.

source: 1850 MO census Gasconade Co, Third Creek township

with wife Susan; gives his age as 72, b VA, and reports RE of $330.

Thomas died intestate (15 Nov 1851?). ANDREW BRANSON administered the estate. Security was offered by BENJAMIN F & WILLIAM BUMPASS.

source: Gasconade Co probate record. First entry found 27 Dec 1851, settled 1855.

No mention of a widow. The settlement entry found shows seven equal distributions of $232. One part each to: 1-DAVID BRANSON; 2-REUBEN BRANSON; 3-"Reuben WASHINGTON" BRANSON - surely George Washington Branson; 4-JAMES POYNTER (dau NANCY's husband); 5-Benjamin Simpson (dau Ann's husband); 6-SARAH BAKER (already a widow); and the seventh part was divided among 5 others, if I've read correctly: STEPHEN, THOMAS, M.S. (=MADISON), ANDREW - all Bransons, plus WM JETT (MARY ANN's husband). What about Jared, Margaret, John Sevier and Rhoda in this distribution?

Andrew Branson, 17 Nov 1857, in Gasconade Co court, "says that to the best of his knowledge and belief the names of the heirs of Thomas Branson deceased are:

Wife: SUSAN MCGOWAN

While we have no marriage record, many of us have grown up with the oral tradition that our ancestor Thomas's wife was "a McGown" or "a McGowan" so that her surname is accepted.

We can estimate that she married Thomas abt 1800. I call to other researchers' attention the fact that it was in 1800 that Thomas Branson's father moved the family to Johnson's Creek. A John McGown settled on land on Johnson's Creek in 1771, which would be abt the time we could expect Susan's father to be marrying. So did Thomas marry his new neighbor after the family came to Johnson's Creek? Finding more on this John McGown is necessary!

source: 1850 MO census

Susan's age reported as 63. Couldn't have been younger!

Notes

Husband: DAVID BRANSON

source: 1850 MO census, Osage Co, Crawford township

Farmer, RE $$2850. Age 40, (second) wife Elizabeth 39, with all 6 of David's children and all 3 of Elizabeth's: William age 14, Joseph age 11, Jacob age 7.

Additional person in the household: Amos Waddel, age 23, laborer b OH.

source: 1860 MO census, Osage Co, 283 Jefferson township, Cooper Hill PO

Farmer, RE $7500, PE $3600. Only child still at home is Andrew, but there are also his second wife's two youngest boys and Thomas Baker, farm laborer, age 26 b TN, who reports RE $100, PE $155.

I have copies of both his marriage records.

Buried in Sec. 6, block 81 of the Rolla cemetery.

His granddaughter, my grandmother Maude Helbert Patterson, wrote that David came to MO "with all his worldly goods tied up in a bandanna; he was a trader and a farmer and died a rich man." She thought that he and Sally had married "in the Cumberland Mountains of TN"; we now know that although the family came from there, these two married in MO. David should have only been 11 when they came to MO.

Wife: SARAH ANN "SALLY" DAVID

Sally died at Hannah's birth, shortly after, or within a year of Hannah's birth - we've never been sure.

Fellow Branson searcher Shirley Hern has Sally's birth date as 1812.

Child #1: RUTH ANN BRANSON

She and her husband were farmers and lived in Vienna, Maries Co, MO.

source: History of Maries Co, MO

Laura Franklin Van Ostran here wrote that Ruth inherited the big ridge farm and the river farm that extends from the Vienna or Indian Ford Bridge to the Charley Brown farm, north on the Gasconade River, later owned by Ellis Bray and Delmar Snodgrass.

Child #2: ELIZABETH JANE "BETTY" BRANSON

source: 1900 Phelps Co MO census, in Rolla.

Betty reported as mother of 10 kids, of which 7 were still alive. All the family were literate.

Husband was a merchant, owned his house free of any mortgage. His parents were born in TN.