Elvira "Ella" Coombs Branch

Elvira "Ella" Coombs was born 27 March 1855 in San Bernardino, California, the fifth of six children of Abraham Marion Coombs (1805 - 1860) and Olive Olivia Curtis Coombs Higby (1819 - 1862). She married William Henry Branch (1820 - 1889) in 1874 and they were sealed in the LDS Temple on 9 May 1877, in St. George, Utah.

Their children were:

1. Richard Coombs Branch (1874 - 1904)
2. Olive Branch Millburn (1878 - 1963)
3. Jane "Jennie" Branch Sebring (1881 - 1943)
4. Frank Branch (1884 - 1907)
5. Arabella Branch Pace (1887 - 1944)
6. Ella Irene Branch Keller (1890 - 1973)

Ella married a second time to James W. Mitchell on 7 August 1902 in Price, Utah. This marriage was probably of short duration, as she resumed using her previous name of Branch within a few years. She died in Price City Hospital, Price, Utah of peritonitis from a ruptured appendix. She was 21 days past her 71st birthday.

Notes

• Her obituary says she married William H. Branch in 1874. The 9 May 1877 is the date they were sealed. It was not unusual for the date of sealing to be put in the records as the date of marriage.
• Although her obituary notes that the family may have arrived in Utah in 1850, this is incorrect. The family sailed to California in 1849, where Ella was born six years later. Church records show that Ella traveled to Utah with her mother and four sisters in 1860, with the Ephraim K. Hanks Company.

Obituary

MRS. ELLA BRANCH, PIONEER OF 1860 DIES AT PRICE HOME

Member of Ephraim Hanks Company of Sixties, Dies of Old Age: Prominent L.D.S. Worker

Mrs. Ella Coombs Branch, 71, a Utah pioneer of 1850 died at her home in Price Wednesday morning of old age. Mrs. Branch was born at San Bernardino, Calif., March 27, 1857, the daughter of Abraham and Olive Olivia Curtis Coombs. The parents of Mrs. Branch journeyed from Connecticut to California in the schooner Brooklyn, around Cape Horn in 1849 [?].

With other members of the Ephraim Hanks company of converts they came to Beaver, Utah, in 1850[?]. Mr. Coombs died a few days after the arrival, and Mrs. Coombs died three years later in Cedar City, leaving four orphan children.

The children were adopted into separate homes, Mrs. Branch being adopted by the family of Richard R. Birkbeck in Cedar City. She married William H. Branch of Salt Lake City, in 1874 and they moved to St. George, where they remained until 1880. They moved to Mesquite Flat, Nev., in that year and remained until their removal to Price in 1884.

Mr. Branch died in 1880, and Mrs. Branch and six minor children survived. By her own labor the widowed mother reared and educated her family and mothered several orpans of this section as well. She maintained her own home until her life closed, and until she became ill a few days ago, followed by an active schedule.

Mrs. Branch was an energetic worker for the LDS church and was interested in many civic movements in the community.

Surviving are the following daughters, Mrs. Olive Milburn and Mrs. G.C. Sebring of Salt Lake City, Mrs. H.A. Pace and Mrs. D. Carlos Woodward Jr., of Price, and one grand child whom she had adopted, Mrs. J.A. Brown of Oakland, Calif. Twelve grandchildren and eight great grandchildren also survive. Funeral services will be conducted in the Price ward tabernacle of the L.D.S. church, Sunday at one o'clock p.m. under the direction of Bishop W.E. Stoker of the Latter Day Saints church. Interment will be in the Price City cemetery.

Published News Advocate, April 21, 1928

Sources

• Residence: 1900 - ED 86 Minnie Maud, Price, Sunnyside, Precincts Price town, Carbon, Utah, United States
• Residence: ED 86 Minnie Maud, Price, Sunnyside, Precincts Price town, Carbon, Utah, United States - 1900
• Find A Grave Memorial# 40692178