Page 11 - Sorghum
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Dr. E. W. Branyon’s Bio
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and German. Bill, the youngest of her brothers, made a fortune off of Bill’s Dollar Stores, a large franchise chain in Mississippi. He could have been a forerunner of Wal-Mart, but died prematurely while hunting in the swampy, fertile lands around the Pearl River, accidentally shooting himself in the femoral artery and bleeding to death.
I used to visit an uncle on the Pearl River who owned a graceful antebellum house, and a farm worked by blacks, Choctaw Indians, and whites. It was close to Philadelphia where the famous murders of three college civil rights workers occurred.
Delving further back in the Branyon family history is a dubious affair. Dad’s joke about such endeavors:
Will Rogers went to an aristocratic meet- ing where everyone was talking about their ancestors. One of the ladies asked Mr. Rogers if he had any relatives that came over on the Mayflower. “No,” he replied. “My ancestors met the boat.”
My ancestors may have originated in France and immigrated to England with the Norman chieftains accompanying William the
