Ezra Richmond Brannen was a leading attorney of Troy, Alabama. He was born near Bullock, Coffee County, Alabama, June 21, 1869. His father, Calvin L. Brannen, son of Harris and Anne (Driskell) Brannen, was born near Bullock, Coffee County, Alabama, and for over twenty years was a prosperous merchant of Troy, Pike County.
He was a private in the Confederate army, and since the war took a keen interest in public affairs in Troy, having been alderman there, and a member of the board of dispensary commissioners. His wife, the mother of Ezra R., was, before her marriage, Samantha Elizabeth Beard, and she was the daughter of Adolphus C. and Nancy F. (Donaldson) Beard, of Coffee County, Alabama.
Ezra R. Brannen received only a fair common school education in his youth, studying first in the common schools near Bullock, Alabama, until he reached the age of thirteen, and then in a private school at Troy. Business and professional training and extensive reading made him unusually well informed. His business training was obtained in Atlanta, Ga., where he graduated in 1888 at Goldsmith & Sullivan’s Business college with highest honors, making the three months’ course in six weeks, and having an average grade of ninety-nine and a half out of a possible one hundred.
At the law department of the University of Alabama, where he was graduated in 1894, he had an average standing of ninety-four percent and ranked as one of the best students in his class. He was admitted to practice law by the supreme court of Alabama on June 21, 1894, and at once entered upon the practice in Troy as a senior member of the firm of Brannen & Samford. He practiced in Troy continuously since that time, and his practice steadily increased.
The first partnership in which he was a member was dissolved in 1897, and then he practiced alone for two years. In 1899 he formed with Judge J. M. Carmichael a partnership which lasted a year. He then practiced alone until 1903, when he became senior member of the firm of Brannen & Gardner.
Mr. Brannen was an ardent Democrat. He was for several years secretary of the Pike County Democratic executive committee; chairman of that committee since 1900 and acted on numerous occasions as chairman of county conventions and county campaign committees. He was for two terms city attorney of Troy, and at this writing (1904) had been for more than two years solicitor of the law court of Pike County. He was nominated by the Democrats in 1904 for re-election to the same office for a full term of six years.
He was a member of the board of education of Troy for the over four years, and in this capacity was instrumental in bringing about the movement for the $30,000 school building erected in Troy. He was a member of no church. His father’s and mother’s people adhered to the Primitive Baptist faith, and his wife and her people were Methodists.
He was a prominent member of Pike lodge, No. 86, Knights of Pythias, in which order he served three times as chancellor commander, once as a representative to the grand lodge, and once as lodge deputy grand chancellor.
He was married at Cuthbert, Ga., June 20, 1901, to Ida Miller, daughter of Nathaniel Hampton and Addie (Manley) Miller, of Eufaula, Alabama, who were temporarily located at Cuthbert, Ga., at the time. Mrs. Brannen’s mother was the daughter of Benjamin and Amanda (Champion) Manley, and her father was the son of John David and Malinda (Foster) Miller, both of whom died before 1904.
Ezra Richmond Brannen passed away Dec. 19, 1916 and is buried in Oakwood Cemetery, Troy, Pike County, Alabama along with his wife who died Jan 12, 1942.
SOURCES
Notable Men of Alabama: Personal and Genealogical, Volume 1 edited by Joel Campbell DuBose
EZRA RICHMOND BRANNEN
![This was an ingenious way to get water in Bullock County in the early days - [old photographs]](https://www.alabamapioneers.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Railroad-To-Spring-Showing-Water-Pouring-Into-Bucket-Octavia-Adkinson-House-Wilson-Road-2-e1401580505955.jpg "This was an ingenious way to get water in Bullock County in the early days - [old photographs]")
