DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Anthony Martin Branch. Born in Buckingham County, Virginia, and he made his way to Texas in 1847 — which, if you know anything about Texas in 1847, tells you something right there about the kind of man he was.
He settled in Huntsville and went into the law business alongside Henderson Yoakum. Two years after that, 1849, he married Amanda Smith. A man building something, piece by piece.
In 1859 he took a seat in the 8th State Legislature, served through 1861. Then 1862, the war came calling and Branch answered — Confederate army. By 1863 he was sitting in the Congress of the Confederacy, and he stayed there through 1865.
Now here's where the story takes a turn that Branch himself could not have seen coming. The war ends, and Branch looks toward Washington. He's been elected to the U.S.
Congress. He makes his way there, ready to serve — and they refuse to seat him. 1866. The reason given, plain and simple: his Confederate service.
The door, shut. But you want to know what kind of standing Anthony Martin Branch had in Texas? Sam Houston — Sam Houston — counted him as a friend.
And when Houston drew up his will, he named Branch as co-executor. That's not a small thing. That is a man trusted at the highest reckoning.
And then 1867 arrives, and with it the yellow fever epidemic. Anthony Martin Branch did not survive it. The marker doesn't editorialize.
It doesn't have to. The facts line up and speak for themselves — a life built in law, in service, in the confidence of Sam Houston himself, and then gone, not in battle, not in chambers, but to a fever that didn't care about any of it.
What the marker says
Born in Buckingham County, Va.; came to Texas, 1847. Settled in Huntsville; entered law practice with Henderson Yoakum. Married Amanda Smith, 1849. Served in the 8th State Legislature, 1859-61; the Confederate army, 1862; and the Congress of Confederacy, 1863-65. U.S. Congress refused to seat him, 1866, because of his Confederate service. A friend of Sam Houston, he was named as co-executor of Houston's will. Branch died in yellow fever epidemic of 1867.