James Andrew Brannon
BRANNON CROSS
Posted By: Duane E. Lawton (email)
Date: 11/23/2007 at 09:07:21
My Great Grandfather, James Andrew Brannon, wrote in 1957 that his father (fairly certain his first name was John), eloped with a Quaker woman named Anne (surname unknown), who lived nearby, to Muscatine, Iowa in 1866 (no marriage records have been located). James was born there on December 19, 1868.
John (?) had served in the Union Army in the Civil War. When James was 6 months old, his mother returned to her father in Fairfield, Jefferson County, Iowa. Her father would not take her back, so she worked for a family named Cross (Lemuel and Martha). Later they no longer needed her services, but she could not care for James so she moved on and they took James. The Crosses promised to adopt James, but apparently never did, as he kept the name Brannon. The Crosses subsequently lived in Ottumwa, Iowa and later in Nebraska. Martha Cross was widowed twice and later had the names Herish and Schaffer. Anne and James show in the 1870 census in Jefferson Co. and James is in the 1880 census in Ottumwa (as a Cross).
What was Anne's maiden surname? Who are John's (?) family in Fairfield?
I originally posted this query (with fewer details) in November, 1998, but it is now gone, and I have a different email address anyway...
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