My Genealogy Hound

D. C. BRANNAN, now a resident of Jasper, Jasper county, Mo., was born Aug. 30, 1830, in Stewart county, Tenn. His parents moved with him when he was small to the State of Illinois. When a small boy he said to a friend, “I shall never be a drunkard,” and now at the age of fifty-two he can truthfully say that he never has bought or drank a glass of any spirituous or fermented liquors, neither treated, nor allowed himself to be treated, to any kind of intoxicating drinks, and never was at a horse race. At the age of twenty-one he was married to Miss Felicia Bagley, of White county, Ill., and in a few months moved to western Iowa. When Nebraska Territory was purchased from the Indians, he moved there before they had left the Missouri River, and made a claim on which there was a fine grove of timber and a good spring of water. Near the spring in the grove he erected a small cabin, over which at night the owls would hoot and scream. For several months their nearest neighbors were a village of 500 Pawnee Indians. Sometimes as many as forty of them would visit the little cabin wanting something to eat. But the bitter cold and dreary winter passed, and with the warm spring weather came a number of white families, who settled close by, many of whom were Methodists, In a short time a class was organized, and Mr. Brannan elected leader. Soon after he was licensed to exhort in the M. E. Church. In the year 1859 he moved back to Illinois, and in 1860 was licensed to preach. In 1863 he was, by presiding elder J. H. Hill, put in charge of the Pulaski circuit, where he received into the church 125 members and witnessed 175 conversions. In 1866 he was admitted into the Southern Illinois Conference and ordained deacon; was appointed to the McLamsboro circuit, having fourteen appointments, where he remained two years, in which he built a parsonage, received 200 members into the church, and witnessed 201 conversions. In 1868 he was appointed to the Lynchburg circuit, where he received 80 members and witnessed about 90 conversions. In 1869 his health had failed to that extent that he believed it his duty to go to Nebraska and locate until his health was sufficiently improved; so, late in the fall of that year, he settled in Seward county, Neb., where he lived for six years, all of which time, except one year he had charge of circuits, laboring on the farm through the week and preaching on Sundays. In 1873 he was re-admitted into the Nebraska Conference and ordained elder; was appointed to the West Mills circuit, where he remained two years. In 1875 he was appointed to the Creswell circuit. In 1876 he was appointed to the Ulysses and Creswell circuits. On the circuits above named he received 102 members into the church and witnessed 107 conversions. In 1875, after the grasshoppers had eaten almost everything up, his house with all of his household goods was consumed by fire. Since 1877 he has held a supernumerary relation in the Nebraska Conference, the greater portion of which time he has been engaged in the drug and grocery business. In May, 1882, he moved to Jasper City, Mo., where he purchased a lot and built a house.