This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Branch, Knapp, Russell, Doran, Fowler Classification: Biography Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/JGB.2ACI/635 Message Board Post: Portrait and Biographical Record of Northern Michigan. Chicago: Record Publishing Co., 1895. WILLIAM K. BRANCH, M.D., who is recognized as one of the most skillful and capable physicians of Manistee, is still a young man, his birth having occurred April 22, 1861. He is a native of Illinois, born in El Paso, and is a son of Rev. William and Lucy C. (Knapp) Branch. His father, who was born in Vermont in 1806, was a graduate of a theological school at Williamsburg, N.Y., and afterward, entering the ministry of the Baptist Church, made the preaching of the Gospel his life work. At the time of his death, which occurred in 1871, he was filling the position of State Missionary of the Baptist Church in Illinois. The ancestors of the family came to America in one of the first five ships which landed the Pilgrim Fathers in Massachusetts. From this parent stock of English ancestry a numerous family has sprung, whose members are scattered throughout the entire United States. The mother of our subject, who was the second wife of Rev. Mr. Branch, was born in Ohio in 1826, and died in 1872. She was a daughter of Elihu Knapp, who in early manhood settled in Ashtabula, Ohio, and there remained until his death. In the parental family there were two sons and two daughters, of whom William K. is the youngest. His brother, Herbert H., is a minister of the regular Baptist Church, and is now pastor of a church in Carbondale, Ill. He is a man of broad and liberal education, having been a student in Shurtleff College, at Alton, Ill., where he spent two years in the academic department, four in the collegiate, and two in the theological. He married Miss Blanche Russell, a native of St. Louis, Mo., and daughter of a wealthy capitalist an business man of that place. By their union six children have been born. Elizabeth, the elder sister, resides in St. Joseph, Mo., where her husband, George Doran, is proprietor of a large greenhouse. Adelaide, the elder sister, is unmarried, and makes her home with Mrs. Doran. When our subject was quite small, his parents removed from El Paso to Springfield, Ill., and his education was obtained in the city schools. He took a special course of one year in Shurtleff College, at Alton, Ill. and in 1889 entered the medical department of the University of Michigan, from which he was graduated in 1892, having taken a three-years course. Opening an office in Duluth, Minn., he engaged in practice for two years, and from that city removed to his present location during the autumn of 1894. Here he entered into partnership with Dr. D.E. Robinson, an old-established and successful physician of Manistee, through who influence he at once gained a good clientage. As soon as his ability and skill were proved by practical tests, he gained the confidence of the people, which, through skill and accurate diagnosis of difficult cases, he has retained. Without any doubt the coming years will bring him a constantly enlarging practice and an increasing reputation as! a successful and reliable physician. The success he has thus far attained is the result of merit, and proves the possession on his part of more than ordinary ability an determination. The marriage of Dr. Branch, which occurred in April, 1894, united him with Miss Angeline Fowler, of Manistee, a graduate of the high school at this place. She is a daughter of Col. Smith W. Fowler, formerly a prominent and wealthy citizen of Manistee, whose death occurred October 3, 1894. [I have no other info on this family]