Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 4.djvu/553

 VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY

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was for seventy years one of its strong pillars, a devoted member of Centenary Church, Richmond, also a steward and trus- tee. He was repeatedly a lay delegate to annual and general conferences of the Methodist Episcopal church, South ; was a member of the Randolph-Macon system of colleges and academies ; member of the board of trustees of the Methodist Orphanage of Virginia conference ; member of the board of managers of the Methodist Institute for Christian Work, and to all he gave not only large contributions of money, but much of his valuable time and counsel. A recent gift to Randolph-Macon College was the "Branch" Dormitory, built and equipped in memory of his wife, who died in the year 1896. The cause of foreign missions was one that always appealed to him, his having been one of the willing purses to open at every special call. He believed in the doc- trines of Methodism, and was loyal in sup- port of her essential doctrines. To the pas- tors of Centenary, he was a "rock of refuge," he giving them loyal support in the upbuild- ing and strengthening of the church.

Withal a man of business and usefulness, Mr. Branch did not neglect the social side of life. He traveled extensively in Europe and America ; was most hospitable in the entertainment of his friends ; spent two months of the heated term at White Sulphur Springs ; loved a good horse and always had one for driving purposes ; belonged to the Westmoreland, Commonwealth and Coun- try clubs of Richmond, also to the Deep Run Hunt Club. Robert E. Lee Camp, Con- federate X'eterans, the Sons of the Revolu- tion, and was twice a member of the execu- tive committee of the American Bankers Association, finding in all the keenest enjoy- ment, following his motto, "What is worth doing at all is worth doing well." jNIr. Branch never sought nor accepted public ofifice ; while not a partisan in politics, since the war he supported the Democratic party, but prior to that time had been a Whig. Ran- dolph-Macon College conferred on him, in 1913, the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws.

Mr. Branch married, ^lay 12, 1863, Mary Louise Merrill Kerr, daughter of Dr. John Kerr, of Petersburg. Children: i. Blythe Walker, born in Petersburg, V^irginia, March 16, 1864; was a member of the firm of Thomas Branch & Company ; later was located in Paris, France, as manager of the

Galena Oil Company, of Franklin, Pennsyl- vania; he married, October 12, 1899. at Paris, Marie Therese Ternat, of Correze, I* ranee. 2. John Kerr, born in Danville, Virginia, now president of the Merchants' National Bank, and a partner of Thomas Branch & Company, bankers and brokers ; he married, at Quaker Hill, Dutchess county, New York, October 26, 1886, Beulah Fran- ces, daughter of David Gould ; children : John Akin Kerr, born at Elmwood. Quaker Hill. August 19, 1887; Zayde Bancroft, born at Elmwood, May 16. 1891 ; Louise, born in New York City, February 23, 1901. 3. Effie Kerr, born at Petersburg, Virginia, August 15, 1866. 4. Margaret Elizabeth, born at Richmond, Virginia, October 4, 1876; mar- ried, October i, 1901, Arthur Graham Glas- gow, of Richmond, Virginia, and London, England ; child, Margaret Gholson, born in London, England, November 8, 1902.

The name Branch is thought to be the oldest name of Anglo-Saxon origin on the American continent. This is not so easily proven as the facts that it is borne, as it has been for many years, by men prominent in active business life in the city of Rich- mond, and that it is one of the most promi- nent and highly honored names in that city.

Rev. William Meade Clark, D. D. The

church, from its very inception, has wielded a power superior to that of the state, for the reason that the spiritual pervades and moulds, and, sooner or later, dominates the temporal. In the history of our race this truth has been repeatedly exemplified. It is into the mouth of the first Protestant arch- bishop of Canterbury that Shakespeare puts the magnificent prophecy descriptive of the glories of "the spacious times of great Eliz- abeth" and those of her Scottish successor, causing him to say of the latter :

Wherever the bright sun of heaven shall shine, His honor and the greatness of His name Shall be, and make new nations.

Thus grandly foretelling the flourishing of our race on these western shores, where already the earliest settlements have been planted. Of the incalculable influence, in- spiring and beneficent, exercised by the church during the period of the upbuilding of the colonies, and of its noble part in the revolutionary struggle, it is needless to speak. That the influence of the church has