Yet Another View of the Branson Boarding House

[BettyO]

Seems all we get are "slivers" of what the Branson boarding house looked like (not that it matters much, anyway!) but it is interesting.....and this sketch of the Western National Bank built in 1881 beside the then still standing boarding house, corner of Eutaw and Fayette Streets (which would be torn down in 1887-1888 so that the new Eutaw Savings Bank could be relocated and built) shows the left half of the three story, brick Federal style boarding house; home to the Branson family and Powell.....

Now I'm curious as to the long window or door shown on the far left side of the sketch and wonder if it existed in the time of the Branson's tenure

   

[John Fazio]

(08-26-2015 10:19 AM)BettyO Wrote:  Seems all we get are "slivers" of what the Branson boarding house looked like (not that it matters much, anyway!) but it is interesting.....and this sketch of the Western National Bank built in 1881 beside the then still standing boarding house, corner of Eutaw and Fayette Streets (which would be torn down in 1887-1888 so that the new Eutaw Savings Bank could be relocated and built) shows the left half of the three story, brick Federal style boarding house; home to the Branson family and Powell.....

Now I'm curious as to the long window or door shown on the far left side of the sketch and wonder if it existed in the time of the Branson's tenure

Betty:

I don't think there is enough there to go on. Something is usually better than nothing though. It looks like a door to me.

John

[BettyO]

Quote:I don't think there is enough there to go on.

John - I have researched (property records, maps, plats, etc.) the exact location of the Branson boarding house for the last 5 years. According to an 1869-70s Sachse Bird's Eye map of Baltimore in which it plainly stands out; it was a stair-stepped Federal/Greek Revival structure and it stood where the red sandstone Eutaw Savings Bank (1889) at the corner of Eutaw and Fayette Streets now stands - next door to the Western National Bank shown in the graphic. There is also a stereo-view showing a corner of the house taken in the 1870s. Both the "relocated" Eutaw Street Bank and the Western National Bank structures now compose the historic "Baltimore Grand" facility. In 1889, the 1835 Eutaw Savings Bank, which stood across the street from the Branson house, was enlarging and needed more space. The owners purchased the Branson property and tore down the old structure to build the new Savings Bank. The Branson family had vacated the property in 1870 and moved into the home of Maggie and her husband at 3 Union Place, Brooklyn NY. It was there that Mary Branson died in 1871 of uterine cancer and Mr. Branson followed in death the following year of 1872. He died of a stroke and is buried in an unmarked grave in Green Wood Cemetery not far from the grave of Dr. Gillette. The Branson family had been previously well-to-do during the war, but Mr. Branson was apparently more than inadequate in handling money matters (having the bank foreclose on his father's inherited hatter business in the early days of his marriage); he apparently also lost the house and holdings during the beginnings of the financial crisis of the 1870s. Or due to his family involvement in the assassination, the US government confiscated the house which was not unheard of - I'm still trying to sort that out with various court records. The family upon the patriarch's death, was much less than middling middle class. Mrs. Branson, upon her death in 1883, died in a Baltimore poor house.

[John Fazio]

(08-26-2015 11:58 AM)BettyO Wrote:  

Quote:I don't think there is enough there to go on.

John - I have researched (property records, maps, plats, etc.) the exact location of the Branson boarding house for the last 5 years. According to an 1869-70s Sachse Bird's Eye map of Baltimore in which it plainly stands out; it was a stair-stepped Federal/Greek Revival structure and it stood where the red sandstone Eutaw Savings Bank (1889) at the corner of Eutaw and Fayette Streets now stands - next door to the Western National Bank shown in the graphic. There is also a stereo-view showing a corner of the house taken in the 1870s. Both the "relocated" Eutaw Street Bank and the Western National Bank structures now compose the historic "Baltimore Grand" facility. In 1889, the 1835 Eutaw Savings Bank, which stood across the street from the Branson house, was enlarging and needed more space. The owners purchased the Branson property and tore down the old structure to build the new Savings Bank. The Branson family had vacated the property in 1870 and moved into the home of Maggie and her husband at 3 Union Place, Brooklyn NY. It was there that Mary Branson died in 1871 of uterine cancer and Mr. Branson followed in death the following year of 1872. He died of a stroke and is buried in an unmarked grave in Green Wood Cemetery not far from the grave of Dr. Gillette. The Branson family had been previously well-to-do during the war, but Mr. Branson was apparently more than inadequate in handling money matters (having the bank foreclose on his father's inherited hatter business in the early days of his marriage); he apparently also lost the house and holdings during the beginnings of the financial crisis of the 1870s. Or due to his family involvement in the assassination, the US government confiscated the house which was not unheard of - I'm still trying to sort that out with various court records. The family upon the patriarch's death, was much less than middling middle class. Mrs. Branson, upon her death in 1883, died in a Baltimore poor house.

Betty:

Excellent. Valuable information.

Gillette was an interesting figure. Information obtained from him, and later, as I recall, from his son Daniel, is valuable. What I would really like to get my hands are are Eckert's notes, the ones he made after his talks with Powell. He mentions them, but gives no clue as to where they may be found, if, in fact, they have survived.

John

[BettyO]

Quote:What I would really like to get my hands are are Eckert's notes, the ones he made after his talks with Powell. He mentions them, but gives no clue as to where they may be found, if, in fact, they have survived.

John -

You and I both!! It's supposedly known that Eckert died with Alzheimers and before he died, was "walling things up" inside his house....at least that is the story. I do know that his family, in later life was one of the most dysfunctional I've ever read of! If these documents are not in the archives or elsewhere - his still-standing house may or may not hold the clue!

[John Fazio]

(08-26-2015 01:40 PM)BettyO Wrote:  

Quote:What I would really like to get my hands are are Eckert's notes, the ones he made after his talks with Powell. He mentions them, but gives no clue as to where they may be found, if, in fact, they have survived.

John -

You and I both!! It's supposedly known that Eckert died with Alzheimers and before he died, was "walling things up" inside his house....at least that is the story. I do know that his family, in later life was one of the most dysfunctional I've ever read of! If these documents are not in the archives or elsewhere - his still-standing house may or may not hold the clue!

Betty:

Your knowledge of the subject never ceases to amaze me. I rather doubt that Eckert would wall the notes up in his home or anywhere else, even if he was losing his faculties. The greater likelihood, it seems to me (assuming they existed and haven't been discarded by someone who did not realize their value, like millions of other records over the centuries) is that they are in a filing cabinet somewhere, in a file or folder, sandwiched between other papers, waiting for someone to discover them, in the same way that Joan discovered Atzerodt's May 1 confession. I vaguely recall Eckert testifying, either at the Surratt trial or at the Johnson impeachment hearing, that his notes were sketchy and that he had intended to go back, when he had the time, and flesh them out, but that he hadn't found the time to do so (surprise!). That may have been the fact of it or it may have been a convenient way for Eckert to conceal the fact that he either hadn't really taken notes at all or that he had since lost them. He said he did not take notes during the interviews (for obvious reasons), but committed the results of the interviews to paper later. The first part of the satement makes sense, but the second has an odor about it. Why didn't he flesh them out, produce them, write about them later? I believe there is a good possiibility that they will never be found, because, like orders in writing to assassinate, they never existed. I hope I am wrong.

John

[RJNorton]

Possibly this has been answered before; if so, please excuse. How did David Homer Bates obtain his information on the Eckert/Powell interviews while Powell was imprisoned? There are specific quotes from Powell (said to Eckert) in Bates' book titled Lincoln in the Telegraph Office.

[John Fazio]

(08-28-2015 04:31 AM)RJNorton Wrote:  Possibly this has been answered before; if so, please excuse. How did David Homer Bates obtain his information on the Eckert/Powell interviews while Powell was imprisoned? There are specific quotes from Powell (said to Eckert) in Bates' book titled Lincoln in the Telegraph Office.

Roger:

I have read Bates's book and therefore recall the quotes to which you refer. My surmise is that inasmuch as the Telegraph Office was part of the War Department (was it not?), and inasmuch as Eckert was the Assistant Secretary of War under Stanton, Eckert and Bates must have communicated on a regular basis, probably daily. In those circumstances, I should think that just about everything Eckert obtained from Powell would sooner or later be made known to Bates.

John

[RJNorton]

Thank you very much, John. Your reply sure makes sense to me.

From what I can tell Bates' reminiscences were not published until 1907. The man either had an unbelievable memory or kept a diary! There are a lot of conversations/quotes in the book.

[BettyO]

Quote:I rather doubt that Eckert would wall the notes up in his home or anywhere else, even if he was losing his faculties. The greater likelihood, it seems to me (assuming they existed and haven't been discarded by someone who did not realize their value, like millions of other records over the centuries) is that they are in a filing cabinet somewhere, in a file or folder, sandwiched between other papers, waiting for someone to discover them, in the same way that Joan discovered Atzerodt's May 1 confession. I vaguely recall Eckert testifying, either at the Surratt trial or at the Johnson impeachment hearing, that his notes were sketchy and that he had intended to go back, when he had the time, and flesh them out, but that he hadn't found the time to do so (surprise!). That may have been the fact of it or it may have been a convenient way for Eckert to conceal the fact that he either hadn't really taken notes at all or that he had since lost them. He said he did not take notes during the interviews (for obvious reasons), but committed the results of the interviews to paper later. The first part of the satement makes sense, but the second has an odor about it. Why didn't he flesh them out, produce them, write about them later? I believe there is a good possiibility that they will never be found, because, like orders in writing to assassinate, they never existed. I hope I am wrong.

John - first let me apologize for my delayed response. I've been inundated at work....

The "business" of Eckert walling up things in his home came from John Elliott's research regarding Mary Surratt's Bonnet on display in the Andersonville Civil War Museum. Supposedly, Eckert, suffering under Alzheimer's disease, walled up the bonnet amongst other things in his home. That is the bonnet's provenance. Don't know how true this is; John didn't know either. Eckert did indeed state at the impeachment trial that his notes were sketchy and he needed to revise them for Stanton but never did. That much is true. Eckert did die with Alzheimer's and in addition suffered greatly at the hands of his feuding sons.

[BettyO]

Based on existing views of the Branson House (which are sketchy at best) -

I made an AutoCAD rendering of what it MAY HAVE looked like - still researching this.... I do know that from the existing 1869 Sache Birds Eye Map and from the other "clip" of the corner of the house that it was a Federal Style structure -

   

[TRose]

(08-31-2015 08:58 AM)BettyO Wrote:  Based on existing views of the Branson House (which are sketchy at best) -

I made an AutoCAD rendering of what it MAY HAVE looked like - still researching this.... I do know that from the existing 1869 Sache Birds Eye Map and from the other "clip" of the corner of the house that it was a Federal Style structure -

Hi Betty...Any chance you can email me this schematic of the branson home? when i click on the embedded image it doesn't enlarge. thanks...

also, i have a few other questions for you regarding Powell and the Bransons.

What were the names of Maggie's parents? i believe i read it somewhere but for the life of me i can't find that info now!

I just finished the chapter on the Lincoln Assassination in Vowell's "Assassination Vacation" and in it she mentions that at the time of discovery of Powell's skull amongst Native American bones, an unnamed individual came forward claiming to be the great-granddaughter of Powell. Do you know the back story of this? could it be possible that Mary Branson was impregnated by Powell before he was captured? Curious. Juicy. but improbable, i assume.

Finally, what is the best way to fill in the gaps of Powell's life between joining Mosby and meeting surratt in january of 1865 and taking the oath in Faquier County. i know you noted various accounts of his exploits with Mosby. do you believe he rode exclusively with his rangers and is there any record of the battles he fought in?

thanks so very much and Happy Thanksgiving!

[BettyO]

Hello -

I'll look on my hard drive for the Branson file. Mr. and Mrs. Branson were Joseph and Mary.

I have been friends with the Powell family for years. When Powell's skull was found, a lady from Canada popped up; claimed to be young Lewis' great-great grand daughter;(no word on who great-great grand mom was) and was against "granddad's" noggin being properly buried. She rather desired it to remain in the Smithsonian - rather an odd request for a "descendant." Powell's legit family in Florida were stunned and requested that the lady have a DNA test done at their expense. When this request was made, the lady literally vanished off the face of the earth! The family wrote her; I wrote her as did other historians; James O. Hall, etc. We never received a response from this person and so the skull was granted to the legit family and buried next to Lew Powell's mom. We feel that the claim was spurious. Did Powell and Mary Branson have an affair? Probably so - why a May-December romance? Who knows. It was stated that Mary and Powell "carried on" in "remarkable fashion" by a Branson servant. Mary's parents apparently did not know - if they did; they were keeping it quiet. Keep in mind that Powell was the tender age of 20 and Mary was 37 years old. Mary was a well-propertied lady, having inherited her grandmother's real estate property. In the 19th Century, when a gentleman married a lady, all properties/monies legally reverted over to her husband. Hence, men liked to marry widows/wealthy propertied women. Had Powell married Mary, he would have had an older wife, but he would also have owned quite a bit of property and been more than somewhat well-off financially. Heady stuff for a kid to anticipate....

Powell rode with Mosby according to the Payne family from September/October 1863 until he signed the Oath on January 1, 1865. There are various records of his exploits,raids, etc. that he participated in with Mosby - and yes, I have researched them and they are somewhat rather true - right down to his capturing the Yankee soldier and befriending him.

Thanks for your interest - have a happy holiday!

[TRose]

(11-25-2016 09:50 AM)BettyO Wrote:  Hello -

I'll look on my hard drive for the Branson file. Mr. and Mrs. Branson were Joseph and Mary.

I have been friends with the Powell family for years. When Powell's skull was found, a lady from Canada popped up; claimed to be young Lewis' great-great grand daughter;(no word on who great-great grand mom was) and was against "granddad's" noggin being properly buried. She rather desired it to remain in the Smithsonian - rather an odd request for a "descendant." Powell's legit family in Florida were stunned and requested that the lady have a DNA test done at their expense. When this request was made, the lady literally vanished off the face of the earth! The family wrote her; I wrote her as did other historians; James O. Hall, etc. We never received a response from this person and so the skull was granted to the legit family and buried next to Lew Powell's mom. We feel that the claim was spurious. Did Powell and Mary Branson have an affair? Probably so - why a May-December romance? Who knows. It was stated that Mary and Powell "carried on" in "remarkable fashion" by a Branson servant. Mary's parents apparently did not know - if they did; they were keeping it quiet. Keep in mind that Powell was the tender age of 20 and Mary was 37 years old. Mary was a well-propertied lady, having inherited her grandmother's real estate property. In the 19th Century, when a gentleman married a lady, all properties/monies legally reverted over to her husband. Hence, men liked to marry widows/wealthy propertied women. Had Powell married Mary, he would have had an older wife, but he would also have owned quite a bit of property and been more than somewhat well-off financially. Heady stuff for a kid to anticipate....

Powell rode with Mosby according to the Payne family from September/October 1863 until he signed the Oath on January 1, 1865. There are various records of his exploits,raids, etc. that he participated in with Mosby - and yes, I have researched them and they are somewhat rather true - right down to his capturing the Yankee soldier and befriending him.

Thanks for your interest - have a happy holiday!

Thank you so much! This is great info and much appreciated. I find it funny and a bit unnerving that both sisters seemed to be "interested" in LP. I wonder how that dynamic affected the household when all three were present.

If you find that schematic, please let me know, and thank you for the Branson parent names!

kindest regards...Tony