From History of Oregon pp 807-808

Benjamin Burden Branson, a widely known and highley respected Yamhill county farmer, and an Oregon pioneer of 1848, was born in the State of Illinois, September 4, 1830. His is of English ancestry who emigrated to the colonies of America in 1735, and settled in the South and East, and to the South branch of the family Mr. Branson belongs. His ancestors participated in the war of the Revolution, some on one side and some on the other, and in the late civil war they were also arrayed against each other.
Mr. Branson's father, William Branson, was born in North Carolina, January 9, 1791. From the State the family move to South Carolina, where he resided until his seventeenth year. They then moved to Ohio, and he worked in a machine shop in Chillicothe for several years. At the age of twenty-one he went to Indiana, an thence to Illinois. In the latter State he purchased 200 acres of land from the Government, and resided on it several years. He was married in Indiana to Miss Sarah Graves, a native of that State. They had ten children. She died in 1840. He married a second time, and in 1848, with his wife and seven children, (three by his first wife and four by the second) he made the long trip across the plains with ox teams to Oregon.
At the time the Branson family came West, Benjamin B. was a bright, active, fearless youth of eighteen years. At Bear river their journey was marked by two events, namely, a death and birth. Thomas Bateman, a young man without relatives in the company, died of mountain fever and was buried. The same day Mrs. Jeremiah Dickens gave birth to a child, which child is now a resident of Albany, Oregon. When they reached the Burnt river, Mrs. Rebecca Dawson, a member of their company, a lady seventy-four years of age who was coming to Oregon with her children, died.
Arrived in Oregon the Bransons took up land at Grande Ronde, and resided on it the first winter. They then settled at Willa mina, where they purchased 640 acres of land of Harden Johnson, who sold out to go to California. Her the father died in 1860, at the age of seventy years. He had long been a member of the Methodist Church, and had lead a most exemplary life. Mrs. Branson subsequently married Michael Shelly. Her death occurred in 1869.
The subject of this sketch rendered his father valued assistance on the overland journey to this State, and helped him establish the new home and develop the farm. He hunted and fished and ran with the Indians, becoming familiar with the Indian language. There is perhaps not another man in the State, who can speak their language better than he. In 1851, filled with a desire to visit the gold regions of California, he persuaded his father to give him an outfit for the journey upon the conditions that his father should have half of all he made. After an experience of thirty-one days in the mines at Yreka, the water gave out and he returned to Oregon, having obtained $700 and taking it with him. It may here be stated that the contract with his father was kept. The next summer he and two brothers went to souther Oregon and engaged in mining. Each returned with $700. Five of them struck it rich, in one day taking out $2,050. Mr. Branson's share was $410. The same company found on the north fork of Jackson creek, one piece of gold worth $1,272. His brother, Isaac N., picked this piece up about a mile and a quarter above the present town of Jacksonville.
March 15, 1850, Mr. Branson's father purchased for him 640 acres of land, paying for it $500. October 18th of the following year, he went to live on it, and on this property he has since lived and prospered. Two years before settling here he had camped on this very place, near the present town of Sheridan.
September 5, 1854, Mr. Branson married Miss Eliza E. Dickey, a native of Roane county, Tennessee, and a daughter of John Dickey, who came to this State in 1853. They had thirteen children, ten of whom are now living. Mrs. Branson departed this life April 29, 1888, after a happy married life of thirty-four years. She was a member of the Baptist Church, and a woman whose amiability and genial hospitality won for her hosts of friends. The poor and the need and the stranger, as well as the friend, always found welcome at her door. It was not unusual for her to set a table for fifteen or twenty. In 1867 Mr. Branson built a commodious residence. Following are the names of their children: Sarah Ann, wife of C. O. Burgess; Josephine, wife of W. W. Smith; Elnora, wife of W. A. Blair; Eliza Jane, wife of J. H. Foster, died March 3, 1891, leaving five little daughters Ephraim N., who is married and is engaged in farming; Laura V. , wife of S. M. Penland; Ida M., wife of R. L. Harris; and Orba R., Susie G., Lena T. and Gertrude, at home. On the last of December, 1890, Mr. Branson married Mrs. Elizabeth T. Phillips, a widow with five children, her husband having been killed in a Kansas cyclone.
Mr. Branson joined the Baptist Church in 1854, four months after the organization of the church here, and has since been one of its leading members, having served as Clerk, Treasurer and Deacon. Public-spirited and generous, he has given more away than he is now worth. He was one of the incorporators and builders of the Narrow Gauge Railroad in 1878, and for two years served as vice-president of the company. In 1852, during the trouble with the Rogue river Indians, he took an active part in helping to subdue red men. Politically, Mr. Branson in a Republican. He has frequently served as a Justice of the Peace.
At this writing Mr. Branson is engaged in building a residence in Sheridan, where he expects to spend the evening of his life. Long may he live to enjoy his new home and the companionship of his family and many friends.25