Texanna Ora Alice (Branch) Collins-Alford (1865 - 1938)

Born 14 Jul 1865 in Holly Springs, Wake, North Carolina, United States

Ancestors

Wife of Joseph Walter Collins — married 18 Sep 1881 in Holly Springs, Wake, NC

Wife of George Benton Alford — married 22 Feb 1899 in Holly Springs, Wake, North Carolina, United States

Descendants

Died 25 Jan 1938 at age 72 in Holly Springs, Wake, North Carolina, United States

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Betsy Collins [send private message]

Biography

Texanna had no full siblings (no "Luanna" exists - that is just a badly transcribed version of "Texanna" [shows up in some databases], only half siblings, the children of her mother's second husband, who was a nephew of her deceased father (hence the surname "Branch" for both Texanna and her half-siblings . . . ).

Texanna Ora Alice Branch Collins Alford "Tecky" was born 14 Jul 1865, Holly Springs, Wake, North Carolina to Melinda Helen Jones and Martin VanBuren Branch. Her father died soon after her birth (d. 4 Mar 1866, of poisoning, according to some). Her mother seems to have gone back to her parents' home (Elizabeth/Betsy Daniel Clements and Wesley Thomas Jones) for a time and then married the nephew (William Archibald "Archie" Branch--son of Martha Pearson and [William] Haywood Branch ) of the deceased husband (he was not too much younger than she was). There were three half-siblings for Texanna in time (Kate, Andrew, and Sarah).

Texanna married Joseph Walter "Walter" Collins 18 September 1881 in Holly Springs. She claimed the property of her father, leaving her mother and stepfather and their children to live, apparently, from the 'widow's third' that would have been her mother's for the duration of her life.

To this marriage Martin, Roger, Delcie, and Hubert were born. Walter, Texanna's husband, a planter and tobacco farmer, died of flu/pneumonia 18 Feb 1897 (when Hubert was age 4), leaving the widow to try to farm and handle timber land.

Texanna remarried 22 Feb 1899 to George Benton "Bent" Alford, a prominent man in the community and a widower with two children. She then lived in the largest and most imposing mansion in the area of Holly Springs, but had a lot of work to perform and household management to handle. Her second husband died 5 Apr 1924 and Texanna died 25 Jan 1938. They are buried with their respective first spouses, Charlotte Olive and Joseph Walter Collins. Bent and Charlotte rest behind the mansion house in Holly Springs and Texanna and Walter rest in the Holly Springs town cemetery.

Residence

Residence:

Date: 1900

Place: Holly Springs town, Wake, North Carolina^[1]

she was said (by my father, Hubert Collins) to have taken the property of her father, when she was 17 (maybe 16), from her mother - she saw her future husband across the room, at choir practice, and he saw her - and they both knew that was 'the one' - so they married and took over the property! - bcs 11/05/08][Father said NC law allowed blood line relatives to do this - would seem to contradict what we know about the former colonies and dower rights - actually, it may be that it was her paternal grandmother's property and that she, not her mother, inherited it, her father being dead from about the time she was born - i read the court records for the county and found her father had enough to pay his debts, that they gave the widow enough to keep her and the baby for one year (a pig, a bunch of bacon, a bunch of corn . . . ) - after which the lawyer wanted money for his services and wanted the mother of the deceased to give up her property, because she was old and going to die anyway and he needed to be paid! - bcs 5/11]

from another granddaughter, email, 11/05/08:

When she came of age she "kicked her mother out of the house" (based on the inheritance laws of North Carolina) and she (the mother) was more or less at the mercy of her family who took her in (sorry, I forget the names, but have heard them). She married a nephew who "took care of her." Daddy always made it sound like the nephew married her as a favor. Who knows??

MF

bcs writes 11/06/08 my impression was that Texana, a widow, traveled a lot, running plantations - i think she owned timberland (pine forests) as well as tobacco land . . . . when home, she was like a businesswoman, i think . . . not so much like a housewife - certainly, however, i heard about 'three kinds of bread on the table at every meal - light bread, corn pone and biscuits' (corn pone [a big flat pancake, not leavened] with no salt) from our mother . . . - i am sure she could cook - i am sure she usually had 'help' (my mother put salt in her corn pone - it was a cornmeal mush mixture, fried - it was as big as the bottom of the skillet, however big that was, and about 1/2 in. thick - very solid - cooked in bacon grease, at least at our house) (my mother cut it in wedge-shaped pieces, but at the Collins house in NC they reached out and broke off pieces, as i recall - i liked the edges better than i liked the middle - i was not terribly fond of this food item)

bcs

Re her house, the house of my dad's stepfather, Holly Springs, NC:

Leslie-Alford-Mims House is a historic home located near Holly Springs, Wake County, North Carolina. The original section of the house was built about 1840, and is a two-story, Greek Revival-style frame dwelling.

She was Widowed at the time of her death.^[2]

Sources

1. ↑ Source: #S-1429264989 Page: Year: 1900; Census Place: Holly Springs, Wake, North Carolina; Roll: T623_1221; Page: 1A; Enumeration District: 127. Note: http://trees.ancestry.com/rd?f=sse&db=1900usfedcen&h=50488143&ti=0&indiv=try&gss=pt Note: Data: Text: Birth date: May 1865 Birth place: North Carolina Marriage date: 1899 Marriage place: Residence date: 1900 Residence place: Holly Springs town, Wake, North Carolina APID: 1,7602::50488143
2. ↑ "North Carolina Deaths, 1931-1994," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FPN7-CJH : 18 July 2017), Luanna O. Collins Alford, 25 Jan 1938; citing Holly Springs, Wake, North Carolina, fn 2003 cn 164, State Department of Archives and History, Raleigh; FHL microfilm 1,943,146.

• WikiTree profile Branch-242 created through the import of 2012 Family.ged on Sep 6, 2012 by Allison Collins. See the Changes page for the details of edits by Allison and others.

see

http://www.interment.net/data/us/nc/wake/hollyspcity/city.htm

acc 10?/08 - bcs

see tombstone on findagrave.com

acc 11/3/09 bcs

(Collins, Texanna Ora Branch, b. 14 Jul 1865, d. 25 Jan 1938, w.o. Joseph Walter Collins, m. G.B. Alford, 22 Feb 1899)

GEORGE Benton ALFORD obituary see <http://www.alfordassociation.org/OBITS/NCOBIT.htm> accessed 11/06/08 bcs

NEWS AND OBSERVER Raleigh, NC-9 April 1

see

https://hollysprings.suburbanlivingmag.com/texanna-branch-alford-quite-a-woman-from-these-old-houses-by-barbara-koblich-holly-springs-historian/

as seen 3/19/23