Guadelupe Villanueva Brannin
December 12, 1856 - March 15, 1930
Big Timber Pioneer
Thursday, March 20, 1930
Mrs. S. S. Brannin Dies
at Crazy Mountain Home
- - - - - - - -
Stroke of Apoplexy Three Days Previous Brings
End on Saturday - Funeral Held in
This City on Tuesday
Sweet Grass county lost another of its highly esteemed pioneers when Mrs. S. S. Brannin passed away at her home in Big Timber canyon on Saturday, March 15. Death resulted from apoplexy, her illness being of but three days' duration. The body was brought to this city and prepared for burial at the Patterson undertaking parlors.
Funeral services were held from the Evangelical church on Tuesday at 2:30. Rev. N. A. Eller of Livingston being in charge. He was assisted by the Rev. Andrew Roukema, local pastor, and Rev. H. R. Knosp of Murdock, Neb., visiting evangelist. Mrs. Frank Chase was at the organ while Mrs. Floyd Bailey sang "Beautiful Isle of Somewhere," and Mrs. Bailey and Mrs. Ted C. Busha sang "Abide With Me." Pallbearers were T. J. Deegan, Frank S. Whitsel and S. G. Webster. The church was filled with sorrowing friends, and the floral offerings were beautiful. Interment was made in the family plot in Mountain View, with the husband and a son and daughter.
"Granny Brannin," as she was lovingly called by all, was privileged to experience the fullness of life - knowing its joys and sorrows in full measure. She was born December 12, 1856, at Golden, N. M., to which place her parents had come from Spain. Her maiden name was Guadelupe Vianeva. In April 1869, she was united in marriage to Stanton S. Brannin at Pena Blanca, N. M. Mr. and Mrs. Brannin resided in Lincoln county for a short time after their marriage, later removing to Grant county where they lived for 22 years.
Of this union thirteen children were born, all of them growing to manhood and womanhood in the family home. One son, Joseph, was shot and killed by Mel Jowell 18 years ago at Melville, when as deputy to Sheriff O. A. Fallang, he was bringing Jowell to town under arrest. A daughter, Bessie Briner, died 10 years ago. The other sons are Dolph and Ed of Big Timber, Dick, Gus, Barney and Crawford of Melville, and Sidney, in Alaska; Mrs. Luella Schroeder and Mrs. Anita Ward of Melville, Mrs. Julia Cannon of Helena, Montana and Mrs. Alice Tucker of Juneau, Alaska, are the daughters. All the children except two in Alaska were present at the funeral. Besides the eleven children, Mrs. Brannin leaves twenty-one grandchildren and four great grandchildren.
Much of the romance and hardship of early day history was experienced by the Brannin family. The years in New Mexico were spent in a section replete with the evidences of prehistoric dwellers, and the present home contains many souvenirs of the days when the cavemen held sway. Indian fighting was in the day's business, not just a diversion. Ed and Dolph Brannin, elder sons reminiscing on the side, told the writer how as little lads they feared the Indians and thought to protect themselves one night by sneaking their mother's butcher knives under their pillows, where she found them next day in making up the beds. Neighbors sometimes assembled at the Brannin home for days at a time for mutual protection. The first land patent granted by the United States to a settler in New Mexico was issued to the father.
Mr. Brannin served three terms as commissioner of Grant county, his duties covering much of the work required of the judges of today. During his fourth term he resigned to come north with his family. In 1894 they left by wagon train for Utah, starting out with 300 head of horses, 100 burros and 940 angora goats. On the Little Colorado river they struck a drouth-stricken country - feed and water were scarce and stock unsalable. They were informed that conditions were little better further north, so decided it would be advisable to turn the greater part of their horses and burros loose to shift for themselves, and perhaps they might return sometime later to round up their stock if times improved. Only a few of the horses and burros were brought up into Utah, along with the goats. The latter were just about cleaned out in a blizzard in that state. However, enough of the original herds were saved that the ranch in the Crazy mountains today boasts stock from the same beginning herds. The goats were the first of the kind ever brought into Montana.
The family left Annabelle, Utah, in 1896, the date of that territory's admission to the union as a state, and arrived in Montana June 6, too late to be legal voters in the McKinley-Bryan race for president. A strange coincidence is that they arrived in Helena on the day of a hanging, and the same sort of celebration had marked the arrival of the father in this state on a day in 1864 when he had come as a young man by ox team from Sedalia, Mo.
Settling at Silver, they remained in this early day mining camp until 1902, when they came to the present home in Sweet Grass county. Mr. Brannin died here 23 years ago. Since that time the mother had made her home with the sons, living a busy, useful life, loved by all who knew her, mentally and physically alert until the day when the stroke of apoplexy gave warning of the approaching end. Her children and friends will carry always a happy memory of the life which was spent in the service of those she loved.
picture: Guadelupe Villanueva Brannin