Casper Branner was born 1729 in Germany, and died 1792 in Forestville, Shenandoah County, Virginia. He married Catherine Zirkle on December 17, 1751 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, daughter of Ludwig Lewis Zirkle and Maria Eva Rosena Bear.
Includes NotesNotes for Casper Branner:
CASPER BRANNER OF VIRGINIA AND HIS DESCENDANTS
Very little is known of the original Casper Branner and his wife Catherine, beyond the fact they they were of German origin, that they settled in the Shenandoah Valley before 1760, probably about 1750, that they were farmers owning the lands they worked and that they led the quiet frugal lives characteristic of the Germans in that part of Virginia. It has been supposed that Catherine Branner's maiden name was Zirkle.
They were members of the Lutheran church and their bibles, prayer books, hymn books, etc. were all in the German language. All of the authentic signatures of Casper Branner are in German script and the name is, in every case, spelled Brenner, not Branner, as is pointed out below.
Some of the manuscripts still preserved lead to the conclusion that the Branners' came from southern Germany or possible from eastern Switzerland.
No record of the date or place of Casper Branner's birth has been found. If he married at twenty-two or thereabout, as was the custom in those times, and if John, their oldest child was born a year after their marriage, it is inferred that Casper was born about 1729 or possibly a year or two earlier.
Legends in the family lead to the belief that Casper Branner and his wife were married before they went to Virginia. and as their first child was born in Virginia in 1752, it is inferred that they went to Virginia not later than 1750 or 1751.
August 4, 1760, Casper Branner received a grant of four hundred acres of land from Lord Fairfax, at that time the owner of the northern neck of Virginia. This land was located on Holmans creek, near the present village of Forestville, in what was then known as Frederick County - the present Shenandoah County. That deed is the earliest authentic document known in this country relating to the history of the family. In the original Fairfax deed his name is spelled Casper Bryner, but this was immediately and officially recognized as a clerical error and was corrected in subsequent documents. In the Fairfax deed to Andrew Circle (Zirkle) dated November 7, 1774, reference is made to the Branner deed, and the name is there spelled Casper Branner.
This error in the spelling of the name is specifically recognized also in an "indenture made the fourth day of September 1799" in Shenandoah county, Virginia, recorded in Liber M, folio 60, in which Michael Branner and his wife Christina sell to his brother, John Branner, "half part of a tract of four hundred acres of land more or less which land was conveyed by the late Lord Fairfax on the fourth day of August 1760 unto Casper Bryner and the said Casper Bryner, otherwise called Casper Branner having died without making his will or testament, the said Michael Branner as one of the sons and heirs of the said Casper Branner deceased" etc.
Further a deed by Lord Fairfax to "John Branner of Dunmore county," the elder son of Casper Branner, dated July 10, 1777, and "registered in the Lord Proprietor's Office in Book Q, Folio 173," refers to "a Line of Casper Branner."
The name is German and in spite of the correction just mentioned was originally Brenner. All the old signatures in German script are distinctly written Brenner and not Branner.
The later spelling, Branner, appears to have come largely from the inconsistent ignorance of the German language on the part of clerks and copyists in the county offices. The variety of spellings of any name in the copies of wills and deeds ion some of the old county records is almost beyond belief; the German names were especially liable to these mutilations.
Mrs. Nancy Henderson Lawrence, who was brought up in the family of Casper Branner's youngest son, Michael Branner says she understood that both Casper Branner and his wife came from Germany. It might be supposed that, in as much as Casper Branner and his wife spoke German in their family, they must necessarily have been born in Germany. But while such reasoning might hold for most parts of our country now days, it is not applicable to the Germans who settled parts of Pennsylvania and Virginia in the seventeenth\nth and eighteenth centuries. With many of those German it was the custom to use the German language in their families, and to have it taught in their schools. In the Branner family the German language was kept up for at least three generations and in communities where there were several families in the same neighborhood, as in certain parts of Virginia and Pennsylvania, it was kept up much longer.
Other customs, such as yodeling and the making of sauerkraut were similarly preserved and handed down for several generations. Yodeling was so common among the boys of German descent that it was not regarded as an an accomplishment.
Where Casper Branner and his wife came from when he settled near Forestville, Virginia, is not certainly known. One Dingledine or Dinkeldine, of foreign birth, who formerly lived near Quicksburg said they came from Switzerland. Dr, Julius Goebel, formerly professor of German in Stanford University, who has examined papers written in German by Casper Branner, thinks they show that he came from southern Germany. There is a legend in the family that he first settled on the south fork of the Shenandoah river in what is now Page county, but no documentary evidence of such settlement has been found. There is also a story to the effect that he and his wife came to Virginia from Pennsylvania, and that he came from Pennsylvania is generally accepted as a fact. The records of Lancaster and York counties, Pennsylvania have been carefully examined, but no certain evidence of their having lived there has been found.
There were several Brenners both in Lancaster and in York county, Pennsylvania, but the name of Casper does not appear in any of the old documents thus far seen. The common occurrence of the name Brenner in Lancaster and York counties appears to favor the idea that Casper Branner may have come to Virginia from one or the other of those two counties. One of the old Lancaster county Brenner families is that of Gerhard Brenner who landed at Philadelphia, October 31, 1737 from the ship "William", from Rotterdam and died in Lancaster county in 1773. This Gerhard Brenner, however, claimed to be a Quaker; and his will makes no mention of a son Casper.
Another Lancaster county, Pennsylvania family was that of Philip Adam Brenner who dies in 1782. He seems to have been born about the same period as Casper Branner, and it is possible that he was Casper Branner's brother. This is all surmise, however.
In York county, Pennsylvania, an Adam Brenner lived in Paradise township, and died about 1783. His will is written in German and shows that he had six children, but the name of only one Bernhard is mentioned.
In as much as the present Shenandoah county, Virginia, once formed a part of Spottsylvania county, the records of the latter county at Spottsylvania were examined in November 1904. These records go back to 1720 when the county was formed, but they contain nothing regarding Branner or Brenner or any other name that could be mistaken for wither of these, up to 1734 when Orange county was cut off from Spottsylvania.
The records of Orange county, Virginia, were likewise examined at Orange in November 1904. These records contain no mention of Branner or Brenner or of any name that could readily be mistaken for it.
The Augusta County records were examined in November 1904 at Staunton, Virginia. They contain a deed made August 10, 1769 by Casper Branner and his wife Catherine, but the name is set down as Gasper Bramer, thus - Gasper Bramer and Catherine his wife of the parish and county of Augusta in the colony of Virginia, to Benjamin Grigsby. This deed "witnesseth that the said Gasper Bramer and Catherine his wife for and in consideration of the sum of one hundred pounds current money of Virginia to them in hand paid", etc., etc., sell a tract of land containing seventy two acres lying and being in the county of Augusta on the north side of Shenandoah River, above Lord Fairfax's line. The original of this copy shows that the original was signed by Casper Branner, and in as much as Catherine his wife, signed with a mark, it is evident that she did not write. This is the second official document known to be of record and relating to Casper Branner.
At Staunton, Virginia, Order Book No. 15, page 438, shows a judgement by the Augusta county court dated march 22, 1774, "Upon the petition of Gasper Branner against George Ruddell", in favor of the former.
Casper Branner died prior to July 26, 1792, as is shown by the deed at page 148 of Deed Book D at Woodstock Virginia, but the exact date of his death is not known. In 1793 his wife was mentioned as widow in a subscription list given on page 3, volume 1 of the old register of Solomon's Lutheran Church, now the Evangelical Lutheran Church, near Forestville. Catherine, his wife died about the year 1800; at least she was living September 9, 1799, as is shown by the deed in Deed Book M, pages 61-62, Woodstock, Virginia when the sale of her dower to her son John was recorded. Both Catherine and Casper are said to have been buried in Solomon's churchyard near Forestville, but owing to the lettering on the old headstones having become almost entirely obliterated their graves cannot now be certainly identified.
That Casper Branner was a man of some property for those times and for that region is suggested by some of the papers relating to his business. A deed of sale dated December 4, 1795, the original of which is in the writers possession, shows that his son in law, Abraham Harpine, sold to John Branner his brother in law for two hundred pounds current money of Virginia by the said John Branner in hand paid all the right and title which the said Abraham Harpine and his late wife Elizabeth a daughter of Gasper Branner deceased have or have had unto the real or personal estate of the said Gasper Branner. One half of his farm was bought by his son, John Branner for 1118 pound, showing that his land alone was worth at least two thousand two hundred and thirty six pounds.
The above record was taken from a book written in 1913.
More About Casper Branner:
Occupation: Farmer .
More About Casper Branner and Catherine Zirkle:
Marriage: December 17, 1751, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Children of Casper Branner and Catherine Zirkle are: i.+John Branner, b. August 12, 1752, Forestville, Shenandoah County, Virginia, d. April 30, 1837, Forestville, Shenandoah County, Virginia.
ii.Anna Maria Eva Branner, b. November 13, 1754, Forestville, Virginia, d. date unknown.
iii.Maria Catherine Branner, b. January 14, 1759, Forestville, Virginia, d. date unknown.
iv.Christina Elisabeth Branner, b. December 17, 1761, d. date unknown.
v.+J. Michael Branner, b. May 12, 1764, Forestville, Shenandoah County, Virginia, d. 1839.
vi.Elizabeth Branner, b. August 25, 1766, Forestville, Shenandoah County, Virginia, d. 1794.
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