Charles Slaughter Brannin
February 1, 1879 - September 12, 1957
Charles Slaughter (Choc) Brannin, 78, a long time resident and pioneer cattleman of Catron County, died of a heart attack September 12 at Amarillo, Texas. He was born February 1, 1879, at Archer City, Texas. June 11, 1913 at Verta, Texas, he married Bessie E. Earnest who survives him together with three daughters and two sons. They are: Mrs. Granville Koger, Glendale, Arizona; Mrs. Harry M. Organ, Goodyear, Arizona; Mrs. William T. Julian, Amarillo, Texas; Tom Adams Brannin, Cardiff, California; and Robert P. Brannin, Gallup, New Mexico. Another son, Archie, died about ten years ago. Also surviving are: one brother, Ed Brannin, Wetherford, Texas; two half brothers, John and Jim Brannin, of California; and one half sister, Mrs. Balsie Heslip of Phoenix, Arizona; fifteen grandchildren and four great grandchildren.
Graveside services were conducted by Rev. L. Ray McKinney, at Taylor Cemetery in north Catron County, September 14. Pallbearers were G. K. Allison, Guy Magee, Bryan Fathree, Archie Wadson, Buck Wilcoxson and Jim Hogg.
He was a member of the Slope Baptist Church. He was baptized at the Horse Camp tank in 1936. He and his family moved to Catron County in 1919, and were engaged in the cattle business in North Catron and West Valencia Counties until, due to health reasons, they moved to Avondale, Arizona, in 1951. Son Pat continued to operate the family ranch until it sold in 1956.
The period of thirty-two years Mr. Brannin was here, represented an era in Western New Mexico. When he came here this whole country was a free range area. Whoever could control the water controlled the grass. The great cattle kings and sheep barons fought among themselves, but both fought the homesteaders and nesters, who at best were regarded as a nuisance, and at worst as enemies to be exterminated. Although he might have cast his lot with the big shots he chose to fight for the rights of the little man and he lived to see law and order established where every man knows what land is his in an area of fenced ranches, dotted with windmills. During the great influx of settlers in the 1930s bewildered homesteaders in many instances found that no schools were available. Harassed County Boards of Education often pleaded lack of funds or other budgetary reasons for not establishing schools, with the result that hundreds of children in this vast area were being denied an education. Choc Brannin battled to have these children given an opportunity equal to others of our land. The result was that schools were established in almost every valley. These schools for years, were educational, social, and religious centers of their respective communities. Now they are supplanted by consolidated schools with transportation furnished for the children.
Adversity was no stranger to him, the panic of the 1920s about broke him. Many of his contemporaries thought for sure he was a 'goner when, after falling from a horse in 1928 he was a semi-invalid for several years. By the time the hard winter of 1931 came along, he had built up another good herd of cattle, most of which he lost in the three foot snow. In the spring of 1932 his children gathered a handful of cows which had somehow survived on the south slopes of Brushey Mountain and Cerro Alto. After that he slowly rebuilt his fortune and never suffered another great setback until he had a heart attack in 1951, after which he moved to Avondale, Arizona.
One old timer spoke what might be a fitting epitaph, "Old Choc was one cowboy who done something for this country. He didn't only professe Christianity, he lived it."
picture: Balsie Brannin
an aunt of "Choc" Brannin