This story is about the Joseph Branch family and their relationship with uncle, Gov. John Branch. The story encompasses locations in North Carolina; Washington, DC; Tallahassee, Florida; and Nashville, Tennessee.
In North Carolina history there are several men named Joseph Branch associated with Halifax County. There was a NC Supreme Court Justice named Joseph Branch and several men in Halifax or Northampton County named Joseph. We don’t know who the ancient namesake was that inspired the given name, Joseph. However, our Joseph Branch, the first, was the brother of Gov. John Branch and the father of Confederate General LOB Branch. in 1827, LOB was only 7 years old when his father died and he went to live with Gov. John Branch, his uncle.
Joseph Branch of Enfield was the eldest son and heir of Col. John Branch’s estate who died in 1804 and the gracious home, The Cellars. Col. Branch’s sons were named Joseph, James, John, Washington Lenoir, and William J. in 1811, James, the second brother, died shortly after his second marriage with no surviving children. John was the youngest of the three with the Colonel’s marriage to Rebecca Bradford. Washington and William were the two sons with the Colonel’s younger second wife, Elizabeth Norwood.
Anyway, John Branch, went on to become a prominent politician and heir to the Col. John Branch estate. However in the beginning, suffice it to say that for that time, all wealth and hope was put first on Joseph’s shoulders.
Not much is known about his younger years other than he attends the early University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill to graduate in 1808. Around 1812, Susan Simpson O’Bryan is his bride; she descends from the Simpsons and Hardys of the Pitt/Beaufort/Craven area as well as the O’Bryan family of Tarboro. Susan’s inherited land capital apparently is useful to them when they move to Tennessee. Joseph Branch inherits his own dynasty: a 10,000 acre tract on the Duck River in Tennessee that was ultimately Joseph’s undoing. The enormous tract was the Revolutionary War bounty land given to Col. John Branch and his late brother William Branch, both of Enfield and Halifax.
First, Joseph’s father dies in 1806 leaving the heir Joseph and his two brothers. Also Col. Branch leaves a young widow Elizabeth in Franklin County with a second younger family. Joseph then likely in his late 20’s embarks on selling family assets to prepare to be landed gentry in Tennessee south of Nashville. He has various appointments in NC; the last in 1819. Sometime in 1820 he is in Tennessee and traveling back and forth to Halifax – via horseback or wagon, no trains were available at that time. His six children very young and are born in NC: John, 1814. Henry 1815, Joseph Gerald 1817, Susan 1819, Lawrence O’Bryan 1820, James Hill 1825. They likely lived the entire time at The Cellars, a house in Enfield that stands today and which I toured in November 2021.
1825 is a triumphant year as the Marquis LaFayette tours the south and celebrates with Revolutionary War veterans. In February 1825, the Branch family hosts LaFayette at the Cellars in Enfield. Then Joseph prepares another trip to move west with his family of 5, soon to be 6, children. But in December 1825 joy and tragedy mix when, after James’s birth, Susan dies at Christmas at The Cellars leaving six young children 10 and under; the sixth is less than a month old. Susan Branch is not buried nearby in Enfield’s Elmwood Cemetery but 25 miles away on her family land across the Tar River from Tarboro. Shiloh Cemetary. My understanding is that years after her death, her children erected a tall monument in the obscure family cemetery in her honor.
In the next year and a half in 1826 or 1827, Joseph leaves for Tennessee with those six children in tow and likely with a large number of enslaved persons that can care for his young family. No doubt this is a controversial move that he pays dearly for. In July 1827 Joseph Branch of Enfield NC and, now of Franklin TN south of Nashville, dies as does his eldest son, John, age 13. It may have been an infectious disease that took them as Joseph can write his will and wishes. Poignant as he writes, his instruction is to take a wagon and escort his remaining five children to Enfield NC over 600 miles away to live in the care of his brother, Gov. John Branch.
The children of Joseph Branch and Susan Simpson O’Bryan are raised lovingly with the children of Gov John Branch and Eliza Fort at their various homes in Enfield NC, Georgetown in Washington DC and near Tallahassee Florida. John Branch and his wife, Elizabeth Foort ‘s household has nine children and his nieces and nephews add five to that mix for a total of fourteen children.
The timeline.
1778 Approximate birth year of Joseph Branch, eldest son of Col. John Branch of Enfield, NC and Halifax NC.
1806 Father dies in nearby Franklin County NC, Joseph graduates at UNC Chapel Hill.
1812 Joseph marries Susan Simpson O’Bryan of Tarboro.
1814 Son John Branch born; dies 1827 at age 13 in Tennessee.
1815 Son Lewis Henry Branch born (1815-1849). Marries Sarah Whitaker. Settles Leon County, Florida.
1817 Son Joseph Gerald Branch (1817-67) born. Civil War colonel assassinated at plantation in Arkansas after war.
1818 Uncle John Branch is North Carolina Governor.
1819 Daughter Susan Branch (Williams) born. (1819-1892) Leon County, Florida, becomes her home.
1820 Son Lawrence O’Bryan Branch born. (1820 -1862 ). Princeton 1838 grad. Famous Civil War General. Resident of Florida and North Carolina. Marries Nancy Blount. Killed at Battle of Antietam.
1822 Uncle John Branch has second home in Tallahassee as a federal judge. This begins a period of traveling between Enfield NC and Tallahassee FL.
1823-29 Uncle John Branch is US Senator from North Carolina but commutes back and forth.
1825 Son James Hill Branch born. (1825-1867). Note that he in an infant when his mother dies. Later marries Mary Watkins. Also assassinated in Desha County, Arkansas less than month after brother Joseph Gerald Branch was assassinated as he lives on his own plantation nearby.
1825 Wife of Joseph Branch, Susan Simpson O’Bryan Branch (1791-1825) dies at Christmas age 34.
1826 Joseph sells the family estate, The Cellars, to Brother-in-law Daniel Southall in preparation for his move to Tennessee.
1827 Joseph is in Williamson County south of Nashville when he dies and his 13 year old son, John Branch, dies.
1823-31 Period: John Branch, new Secretary of the Navy under Andrew Jackson, in 1829, moves his household from Enfield NC to Washington, DC but resigns during the Eaton affair. He then becomes a Senator. Some of the children of Joseph Branch move to Washington DC in 1829 to live with uncle John Branch and his wife Eliza Foort.
1831 Uncle John Branch builds his Live Oak Plantation near Tallahassee Florida. No doubt some of Joseph’s children live there. He delays a move to Florida as there is a lack of educational facilities for his large family in the frontier of West Florida.
1833 Uncle John Branch still has a Washington DC residence. He is a US Senator until 1833.
1836-38 Uncle John Branch explores moving permanently to Florida. Some of Joseph’s children buy land there and settle. In 1844 John Branch is appointed Governor of the Florida Territory just prior to Statehood. Involved in national politics in the period after 1845. Moves back to NC in 1853 when he remarries. Joseph’s children are in Florida and Arkansas.
1838 Lawrence Branch graduates from Princeton in New Jersey. Other boys from the Gov. Branch family attend there as well.
1840 Lawrence O’Bryan Branch practices law in Tallahassee.
1847 Shiloh Mills east of Tarboro, NC: The largest stone in the wooded cemetery is for Susie Simpson Branch. The monument was erected by her children in 1847. Susie was the granddaughter Elizabeth Toole and Geraldus O’Brien.
1855 – 1861. Lawrence OB Branch is the US Congressman in Washington DC. Lawrence and Nancy Blount have a mansion on Hillsborough Street, Raleigh, NC, two blocks west of the NC Capitol. The couple also has a large plantation from the Blount family near Chocowinity NC and across the Pamlico River from Washington NC.
1861. The Civil War starts. Gen. LOB Branch is killed early in the War in September 1862. His uncle Gov John dies a few months later January 1863. Gov. Branch is thought to be very proud of his nephew, Lawrence O’Bryan Branch, and his hopes of a national political career for LOB is dashed.
1867. All three of Joseph Branch’s surviving sons are killed in or shortly after the Civil War. Only Joseph’s daughter, Susan Branch Williams, lives to her old age in Tallahassee Florida.
By Dawn Branch King, March 11, 2025