Charles Branscomb

Charles Henry Branscomb (June 16, 1822 – January 3, 1891) was a member of the New England Emigrant Aid Society who, along with Charles L. Robinson, helped found the city of Lawrence, Kansas in 1854.

Charles Branscomb
Kansas Territorial representative
Member of the Missouri House of Representatives
In office
1867–1869
United States consul to England
In office
1869–1874
Personal details
Born(1822-06-16)June 16, 1822
Newmarket, New Hampshire
DiedJanuary 3, 1891(1891-01-03) (aged 68)
Denver, Colorado
Political partyRepublican
Prohibition[1]
Spouse(s)Georgia Hubbard Branscomb (first)
Emily Taylor Branscomb (second)[2]
EducationDartmouth College (B.A.)
Cambridge Law School (J.D.)

Biography

Charles Branscomb was born on June 16, 1822 in Newmarket, New Hampshire.[3][4] He attended Phillips Exeter Academy for his secondary education, graduating in 1839.[5][6] Afterwards, he graduated from Dartmouth College (1845) and the Cambridge Law School (1848).[5] After passing the bar, he served for a time as a lawyer in Holyoke, Massachusetts.[5][7] In the 1850s, he became a member of the New England Emigrant Aid Society, at one point serving as its secretary pro tempore.[8]

In 1854, he and Charles L. Robinson surveyed Kansas Territory, looking for suitable land upon which the Emigrant Aid Society could found a town dedicated to the free state cause.[7] Later that year, he led the first group of colonists supported by the Emigrant Aid Society to the territory and helped establish the city of Lawrence.[9][10] Until 1858, Branscomb worked for New England Emigrant Aid Society, after which he founded a private law firm in Lawrence. Branscomb later served in the territorial legislature and voted on the Leavenworth Constitution.[5]

In the 1860s, he moved to St. Louis, where in 1866 he ran for a seat on the Missouri General Assembly against Francis Preston Blair Jr.[11] The election was contested, but in the end, Branscomb won out after the Missouri Attorney General Robert Franklin Wingate ruled that votes cast after sundown were valid.[12] When Ulysses S. Grant ascended to the US presidency, Branscomb was appointed consul to England and served in Manchester.[2] In 1874, Branscomb returned to Lawrence, and in 1886 he ran for Kansas governor as the Prohibition Party nominee, coming in third (with 2.96% of the vote).[2][1] In 1890, Branscomb and his family moved to Denver, Colorado, where he died on January 3, 1891 of pneumonia.[6][2][13] He was buried at Holyoke.[2]

Election history
Governor's election in Kansas, 1886[1]
Party Candidate Votes %
Republican John Martin 149,715 54.74
Democratic Thomas Moonlight 115,667 42.29
Prohibition Charles Branscomb 8,094 2.96
Total votes 273,476 99.99
Republican hold
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References
  1. "KS Governor [1886]". Our Campaigns. Retrieved August 7, 2018. Note: the website misspells Branscomb's last name as "Brancombe".
  2. "Charles H. Branscomb". Lawrence Daily Journal. February 21, 1891. Retrieved August 7, 2018.
  3. "Newmarket Town Records" (PDF). The New Hampshire Genealogical Record. 6 (1): 158. 1909. Retrieved August 7, 2018.
  4. Chapman, George (1867). Sketches of the Alumni of Dartmouth College. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Riverside Press. p. 354.
  5. Blackmar, Frank, ed. (1912). "Branscomb, Charles H.". Kansas: A Cyclopedia of State History, Embracing Events, Institutions, Industries, Counties, Cities, Towns, Prominent Persons, etc. Chicago, IL: Standard Publishing Company. p. 230. Retrieved August 7, 2018.
  6. General Catalogue of the Phillips Exeter Academy: 1783-1903. Exeter, New Hampshire: News-Letter Press. 1903. p. 47. Retrieved August 7, 2018.
  7. Cordley, Richard (1895). A History of Lawrence, Kansas: From the Earliest Settlement to the Close of the Rebellion. Lawrence, KS: Lawrence Journal Press. p. 3-4.
  8. Kansas Historical Society. "Charles Robinson to Eli Thayer". Kansas Memory. Retrieved August 7, 2018.
  9. Cordley, Richard (1895). A History of Lawrence, Kansas: From the Earliest Settlement to the Close of the Rebellion. Lawrence, KS: Lawrence Journal Press. p. 4-5.
  10. Connelley, William (1918). A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans. Chicago, IL: Lewis Publishing Company. p. 360.
  11. "A Good Candidate". Daily Kansas Tribune. October 23, 1866. Retrieved August 7, 2018.
  12. "St. Louis: Frank Blair Defeated—Radical Delegetes [sic] Receive their Certificates". Evansville Journal. November 20, 1866. Retrieved August 7, 2018.
  13. "Chas. H. Branscomb Dead: One of the Earliest Settlers of Lawrence Dies at Denver". Lawrence Daily Gazette. February 4, 1891. Retrieved August 7, 2018.
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