The man behind Carthage's Branaugh Memorial Boys Club

Branaugh — who's he?

For nearly eight decades, boys living in the Carthage area, and eventually girls, too, had a clubhouse where they could partake in sports, play games and learn skills. The name of their home away from home was the Branaugh Memorial Boys Club.

More than likely, most of the youthful members, this writer included, had not a clue about who this person Branaugh was.

Edmund Wallace Branaugh — he went by his middle name — was a local businessman who filed a will in December 1917 that provided for establishment of the club. Seventeen months later, on May 12, 1919, he was dead at 48, the victim of an apparent drunken-driving accident.

But who was driving his car?

Wallace Branaugh was the third and last generation of a Scots-Irish family to live in Jefferson County. His grandparents, Archibald and Jane Anderson Branaugh, left Belfast, Ireland, in 1830 to seek the promises of America, according to Rensselaer A. Oakes in his Genealogical and Family History of the County of Jefferson.

They initially settled in Green County, where they remained 12 years. Then they moved to Theresa, and finally to Redwood, where Archibald Branaugh died.

Their son Samuel, born in 1823 in Belfast, became a skilled tanner. When he was about 47, he made his home in Carthage, where he bought and rebuilt Long Falls Tannery. He expanded his business with factories in Belfort and Croghan.

Samuel Branaugh also helped start the Carthage Tribune, served as a director of the First National Bank, was chairman of the village board of water commissioners and served a term as village president.

He retired at 70, selling his tanneries to U.S. Leather Co.

Samuel and Diana Bellinger Branaugh had two sons and three daughters, two of whom died in childhood. Their surviving son, Wallace, was the youngest, born March 12, 1871, in Carthage.

Wallace Branaugh was 19 when he began his business career, being appointed assistant to the superintendent at his father's Croghan tannery. Behind him were his studies at Eastman's Business College, Poughkeepsie, and at Fairview Seminary, Syracuse, which was conducted by his mother's brother.

He eventually was given charge of the tannery, remaining until it was sold. U.S. Leather reassigned him to supervise a tannery at Jerden Falls in the town of Croghan.

Soon after that, Wallace got married. Six days after his 23rd birthday, Mae Ida Warne of Ovid became his bride.

He remained with U.S. Leather for five years. When the Jerden Falls factory's business declined, he went to Lowville and purchased the interest of P.J. Corcoran, husband of his sister Martha, in a flour and feed business. The company, Yousey & Branaugh, lasted a year before being sold.

Returning to Carthage, Wallace Branaugh made his newest venture a lime factory at Natural Bridge, forming the partnership of Branaugh & Jones. In January 1903, he acquired an ice, coal and building materials business, which he conducted for several years.

He also became involved in the Carthage Electric Light and Power Co. and the Wilna Furniture Co., and was a director of the Raymondville Paper Co.

Wallace and Mae, who had no children, made their home at 250 State St. in Carthage. Mrs. Branaugh was 46 when she died on Dec. 22, 1917, in Carthage.

At about 10 p.m. on Sunday, May 11, 1919, a Buick roadster proceeded west "at full speed" on the New Hartford highway near Utica, according to press reports, and crashed into an Overland car operated by a woman from Whitesboro.

Following impact, the Buick continued to travel 70 feet, and one of the occupants was ejected. After being found unconscious in the road, the victim was driven by another motorist to Faxton Hospital, Utica, where he died the next day. He had suffered a fractured skull.

The fatally injured man was identified by his membership card from the Watertown Elks Club — he was member No. 173, with the club since 1904 — E. Wallace Branaugh.

Mr. Branaugh had spent the winter in Florida and presumably was on his way back to Carthage.

His trip to New York had been by boat. After arriving in New York City, Mr. Branaugh got his Buick out of storage, then hit the road. He made stops at Poughkeepsie, Hudson and Mohawk, and eventually found his way to the Montclair Hotel in Utica, according to a newspaper report originating in Utica.

At the Montclair, Mr. Branaugh met with Stewart Alden, 20. Whether they were new or old acquaintances was not reported, but the two men — both intoxicated, according to witnesses — went for a ride in the Buick.

A few hours after the accident, Mr. Alden was taken into custody under suspicion of drunken driving. Three days later at an inquest, nobody could say for sure who had been driving: Mr. Alden, Mr. Branaugh, or even someone else. Witnesses reported seeing two other people run from the Buick. Charges against Mr. Alden were dropped.

The nearest relatives of Mr. Branaugh were two nephews, William and Samuel Winn, living in the West.

After making provisions in his will for certain people, churches and other interests, Mr. Branaugh specified in the sixth decree of his will that the balance of his estate be entrusted to a corporation of three directors or trustees for the purposes of acquiring "suitable grounds and erect thereon a suitable building or buildings for the purpose of operating a club house for the boys and young men in the village of Carthage."

He further directed that in the clubhouse "shall be installed a suitable gymnasium, baths, reading room and library and bed rooms for temporary lodging of boys and young men."

Any remaining funds should go toward operation and maintenance of the facility, Mr. Branaugh wrote.

His motivation was expressed by the executor of the estate, attorney Antonio F. Mills.

"I knew Mr. Branaugh very well, and he thought that if he could counteract the bad influences, he would save the boys from the wolves of the night who lurk in the byways and hedges," Mr. Mills said at a public hearing.

Carrying out Mr. Branaugh's wish would prove to be no easy task.

Mr. Mills gathered some of the village's prominent men for a meeting on March 29, 1921, at the National Exchange Bank to form the board of directors. That was the easy part. At a subsequent meeting, on May 27, officers were appointed.

James A. Outterson, president of Carthage Sulphite Pulp & Paper Co., forgot to attend the second session, but in his absence, he was elected president. He died a year later in New York City.

John L. Strickland, who operated a hardware store, was named vice president, and the treasurer was Andrew Bion Carter, president of the National Exchange Bank. The responsibilities of secretary were handed to George McAlister Gilbert, vice president of Ryther and Pringle Machine Co. and a future Carthage village president.

Early on, the directors learned that following various disbursals in the Branaugh estate, $70,000 remained for their appointed mission. It was hardly enough. A solution was suggested for a partnership with Carthage High School, which, in exchange for some public funding, could make use of the new club's facilities.

"We are not accustomed to have things given to us," Mr. Mills said while seeking support for the proposal. "It is quite unusual, but here is $70,000 for the boys and girls of Carthage and community."

A public hearing in February 1922 brought out several concerns from taxpayers. Would the club be only for boys in Carthage and not those from West Carthage, and what about girls? Would the youths attending Augustinian Academy also be given access?

"It was Mr. Branaugh's desire that the club should be used by the boys of the Carthage vicinity," Mr. Mills was quoted in the Carthage Republican Tribune, "and for those young people in which it would not be inconsistent to grant them privileges of the club."

A proposed building site, Monument Park, where some graves would have to be moved, was particularly unpopular.

About 1,000 people voted that day. By a margin of 160, the public funding proposition was rejected.

Mr. Strickland, stunned by the public response, told reporters that "the finger of criticism had been pointed at an honest endeavor, and the suspicion seemed to lurk in the minds of some that something was being concealed. Such an opinion was entirely unfair and the school and club boards had earnestly and diligently worked for the greatest good to come from the club house."

Seven months later, with the fate of a boys club in limbo, Mr. Mills reported that he was still holding some securities from the Branaugh estate. He said he did not want to sell the securities at a sacrifice in order to hasten the liquidation of the estate. He would make a sale when market conditions improved.

The estate grew to $90,000, and in September 1925, the directors hired Howard H. Splete of Syracuse, who was in charge of a youth club there, to be the first executive director of the Branaugh Memorial Boys Club. He started at a $3,000 salary and would stay with the job 37 years.

Until more permanent quarters could be established on the upper floors of a block building on State Street, the club rented space in the opera house on Mechanic Street.

By 1930, the club was showing a membership of 365 and was additionally conducting summer camps.

The club in 1971 purchased the former Strand Theater on State Street and had it refurbished to provide modern facilities for community youths. Membership, meanwhile, remained stable through the decades, but by the time the club merged with the Watertown YMCA in October 2004, the numbers were down to about 150.

With the merger, the Branaugh name disappeared.

Other beneficiaries of the Branaugh estate included his wife's sister, Martha Warne Hunt; $10,000 went to Carthage Free Library, and smaller disbursals to Fairview Cemetery Association in Carthage, and three churches in Carthage — St. James Catholic, First Methodist Episcopal and Grace Episcopal.

Contributors in research and materials for this story included Carthage historian Laura Prievo, Jefferson County historian James W. Ranger, Times librarian Lisa Carr, Stephen W. Gebo, Watertown Elks member John Gaffney, the Carthage village clerk's office, and Jefferson County Surrogate Court.