A century and a half ago, Elliott and Alice Branch of Martinsville, Indiana, welcomed four babies, two girls and two boys:
- Olive L. Branch (b. 1869)
- Leafy Dell Branch (b. 1871)
- Emmett Forest Branch (b. 1874)
- Frank Oak Branch (b. 1878)
According to a newspaper article from 1903, the Branch family was “one of the oldest and best” in Indiana’s Morgan County, but “the names of the children of this branch of Branches the oddest.”
Their mother, who was of a poetic turn, was responsible for the names, Forest, Oak, Leafy Dell and Olive.
Emmett Forest Branch went on to spend three terms in the Indiana House of Representatives (during the first decade of the 1900s) and serve briefly as the governor of Indiana (from April of 1924 to January of 1925).
P.S. Speaking of “olive branch,” did you know that the maternal grandfather of Supreme Court justice Thurgood Marshall was named Isaiah Olive Branch Williams?
Sources:
- “Representative Branch’s Real Family Tree.” Indianapolis News 29 Jan. 1903: 2.
- Emmett Forest Branch – Indiana Historical Markers
- FamilySearch.org
- Find a Grave
Image: Adapted from Emmett F. Branch (public domain)