They say that the family tree is a pole in laytonville. It's not that bad, but you do have to be careful who you marry, because if you are from an old family chances are awfully good that you are related.
So Spyrock wants to talk about how a school near Spyrock, California, on the railroad got named "The Branscomb School".
He Posted:
spyrock said...
after reading your blog last night we watched a show about the drug war up your way and they said that Garberville was the center of activity. and that dog is obviously biting his own tail. so to change the subject. back to family threads.
found my katie mayo book today and reading about your family history i've made some connections. joe branscomb got married in jackson county, ohio when my dad's ancestor big george was living there. joe's son ben was the one who moved to northern california and homesteaded the town of branscomb. his oldest son charles moved to covelo to raise cattle and then became a famous blacksmith. his daughter etta who later married bert carner went to school with my grandma at the branscomb school in spyrock and in 1918, my mom and uncle delbert went to the yoew or yow school which was the home of etta's sister florence who married thomas yoew. they called the yoew school the spyrock school. after 2 years the school was moved to the cafeteria building built by north western pacific railroad when the railroad was built. the school was moved from there to the north and they changed the name from spyrock school to simmerly school.
i've got a picture of this school and of some of the kids in 1921. the leggets, shorts, dunlaps and simmerlys all went to these schools. as your great uncle had 3 girls is the reason your name doesn't pop up more often. but obviously they were responsible for getting kids educated up there from the beginning.
March 1, 2009 5:56 PM
My answer:
Spy I'm going to add some dates and other information so maybe others can follow your story, but you are right about the information in Katie's book. First consider this as “Bullshistory” because I’m writing what I’ve heard and cannot verify.
Yes, us Branscombs are prolific girl makers. My Dads brothers, uncle Edwin had five girls, and no boys. My uncle Ben had three girls and one boy, my father Everett had one girl and me, a boy. I had one daughter. My cousin Roy, Bens son, had two boys and a daughter. Good for Roy, or the Branscomb family would have ended in the South Fork of the Eel.
Katie Mayo got most of it right. As you know the Old-Timers were as careful with history as they could be, but spelling and dates didn't mean much to them, so they got a lot of things mixed up. As far back as we have been able to trace the family is Edmond Branscom (as spelled) born in the late 1700’s with no other details. He was the father of Joseph Branscomb, born in 1813. No other details. Joseph moved to Jackson County Ohio, where he married Diane Pierce in about 1835. The couple then moved, and bought a farm on the Spoon River, in Knox County, Illinois. From there they moved to Dubuque, Iowa in 1854, and from there to De Kalb County, Missouri, in 1856.
This is where the history gets confusing. He was the Sheriff of De Kalb, Mo. Where the records show that he was shot to death several days before Lincoln was assassinated. (April 15 1865) I’ve heard that Joseph Branscomb was also the Sheriff of Grass Valley, California, where he was shot to death there. So, the records show that he was killed in two places.
Joseph and Diane had nine children, six lived. Medical care back then was, if you lived, you were okay, if you didn’t, they put you in a box and buried you. The surviving children were, Benjamin Franklin Branscomb, (My dear old 3G grandfather that came to California in 1857) Emma (Branscomb) Pritchard, who I believe was Humboldt County Supervisor Harry Pritchard’s 2G Grandmother. Small world back then wasn’t it? Virginia (Branscomb) Littleton of Santa Rosa. Eliza (Branscomb) Cook, Burlington. Joseph Edmond Branscomb, Wyoming. Charles A. Branscomb, Grangerville. Idaho.
The records show that “the Branscomb family moved to California in March of 1857, with the Benjamin Taylor Ox-team wagon train”. Benjamin Taylor was my 4G Grandfather. Benjamin Taylor had a pretty young daughter named “Jane”. Jane was born in De Kalb County Mo. Daughter of Benjamin and Rachael (Ernest) Taylor. My 3G Grandfather Benjamin Branscomb and Jane Taylor were married August 1859 on the Taylor Ranch near Sebastopol, California.
On first arriving in California Benjamin Branscomb worked a ferry at Bidwell’s Landing near Chico. In 1858 he moved to Sonoma County, a year later he married Jane. Benjamin engaged in the dairy business, and farmed in the Guerneville and Laguna area. He and Jane had Ten children. That was back when birth control was practically not practiced. Lucky for me!
Of the ten children, one was Charles William Branscomb, the world famous blacksmith. Of course the world was much smaller then. Charles married Melvena Uarka Middleton daughter of John and Suzanna Middleton, who were my 2G Grandparents. They moved to California in 1853, and they stayed in Timbuctoo in the gold country until the mid 1860‘s, then they moved to Mud Springs on Mud Creek, near Branscomb Calif. They were Quakers and found their way to California with the help of Indian guides. They had a daughter at Salt Lake on their way to California her name was Mary. She is said to be the first White non-Mormon baby to be born at Salt Lake.
Melvene went by her middle name Uarka, we called her “Aunt Arky”. She and Charles Lived in Covelo and had two daughters, Etta Rachel Branscomb and Florence Estelle Branscomb. Spyrock, these two girls are the ones that I believe taught at the “Branscomb School” near Spy Rock.
You need to read pages 53, John and Elizabeth Kauble and The Simmerleys. Luther Sherburn is on page 55. Needless to say “Pioneering in the Shadow of the Cahto Mountain” is about our families.
Kym Kemp didn’t say who her Eel River Ranger ancestor was or I could probably tell her how we are related.
Monday, March 2, 2009
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10 comments:
Hmmph, If you read me more carefully, you would know I mentioned him at least four times. His name was William Marion Cole. His son Cyrus cole was the 'notorious' moonshiner out at Honeydew. I scrutinized this piece looking for a family connection but couldn't find one. We're also related to Mahurins and Gillaspies from the Hopland/Ukiah area just in case you know of any great stories.
I remember that NOW Kym. I liked the moonshiner story. I remember that I looked for connections at the time and didn't find them.
I only took the route in my family that pertained to Spyrock's question. I have a few more ancestors of note that I will add later. Soom pretty interesting (to me) stories.
i hope that SHERBURN fellow isn't related to any of you folks!!!
i went to the funeral of my mom's secretary saturday. i never knew who she was related to until i saw them at church. i guess they all assumed i would know how everyone was connected. there's a couple of old ladys i need to talk to. one's name is crabtree and i'm related to her through the kaubles. the other is annabelle marsh piercy and that is pappy nye's side. they would be both in their 80s plus. hope to do that this year. i found a letter from pappy nye to grace about overhearing her father talk to someone about them getting married. sort of like she's going for the first one that came along kind of thing. very cute stuff. but my mother starting out in branscomb school in the middle of nowhere and becoming a school principal and having a school named after her is a really big deal. i know a man who wrote a book called 3 cups of tea where he has built hundreds of schools in afganistan and girls are allowed to go to these schools for the first time and the taliban has their own male only schools there and they have destroyed many of these coed schools and killed many of the teachers. its a big deal for women to be educated and for a small girl from a school in the middle of nowhere, my mom's story means hope and eventually no more alcaida. it doesn't seem like there's a connection between afganistan and spyrock, but there is.
It's interesting to note how many early white settlers in this neck of the woods came from Mo. I think that the fact that the Joplin and St. Jo were major jumping off places for wagons west may have had something to do with that. They call Missouri the "Show Me" state. It's more like the "I'll go and see for myself "state.
i'm just trying to illustrate how a little bit of consideration by ernies family or anyone for that matter can effect future generations and the world. a lot of people who came to california in 1849 from europe went to new orleans and then up river to missouri. the chandons who came with the simmerlys to marysville had come from prussia. sam simmerly came with the chandons and his wife charlotte was the daughter of mary chandon who with her oldest daughter mary ran the queen city market. my dad said that they were some of the marys that they named marysville after. i found a picture of john when he was living in marysville. in grandma nyes old address book is a cole living in oakland, most of the names in it are cousins, i thought i had seen that cole connection somewhere before, maybe in the covelo book. because i used to have a girlfriend named cole so it stuck in my mind. grandma laura kaubles oldest sister married milo patton and i've got an old picture of a jim patton. the guy is good lookin but fierce sort of like the picture of great uncle frederick with his gun and hunting dogs. uncle delbert never was very big even though he spent most of his time on a horse, but his cold steel blue eyes that looked right through you demanded your respect. that's just the way it was back in those days. tough love.
Well, the name of the general escapes me, but when the Mexican War began he was sent to California with troops mostly recruited in Missouri. Many of the earliest hunters and settlers in Southern Humboldt County came by way of Hayfork rather than Eureka and were Mexican War veterans. The Asbills were Missourians who came with their parents before statehood and were not war veterans but many familiar names were.
I did't disappear, I'm in Medford at a U.S.Cellular meeting. I'm posting from my cell phone, so it's a little tedious for an old guy.
The good news is that cell technology has taken a quantum leap forward. you might SEE me here talking to you by this time next year. (B.S. but I wouldn't doubt it!)
I have more to say about the Branscomb/school connection. (when I get home)
'Spyrock'.
You said above that you're looking to get in touch with an 80 year old woman named Crabtree.
I know her.
Why might you want to talk to her?
i am spyrock. i am the grandson of grace simmerly and great grandson of john and laura kauble simmerly. i believe that mrs. crabtree wrote a book called the little red school house and ruth simmerly my aunt was one of the contributors. laura's youngest brother was robert kauble adopted by the applegates and who i think is related to the crabtrees. i want to know if she remembers how john kauble died. he was a justice of the peace back in laytonville and died in 1872. and just anything she may know about the simmerlys. my mother sybil nye also contributed to her book..
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