Susanville’s first hotel, if you could call it such was Cutler Arnold’s story and half structure of hewn logs. For two years, beginning in the Spring of 1857, it housed the town’s only dining establishment, meals costing seventy-five cents.
As the town progressed so did the accommodations. In 1860, Emanuel “Mike” Brannan built a two-story hotel on the northeast corner of Main and Lassen streets. It was a transitional period, as the days log structures were being placed with wooden framed ones. Brannan operated the hotel for the next four years, and due to some financial problems lost the hotel. Just as the Brannan House had replaced Arnold’s, Brannan’s was replaced by the superior Steward House in 1864.
The Brannan House did not fade away entirely. Its second floor was converted into lodge hall for the Masons and the Oddfellows. The first floor was used for a variety purposes including that of the post office and the government land office. In 1880, it was torn down and replaced by a new Oddfellows Hall.
Hello,
I am a descendent of Emanuel Hamlin Brannan’s family. One of my children is named Brannan, in honor of my grandmother. Can you please share your references for Emanuel’s ownership of the Brannan House? I have searched for any records that show Emanuel and Mike were the same person, versus two separate men, but thus far I’ve found references to two men (one named Mike Brannan, and one named Emanuel and E. Brannan), but nothing that shows the two names, Emanuel and Mike, together as the name of one man. I’d appreciate your help as I really want to document definitive sources.
While on the subject of Emanuel Brannan, I am curious about his wife Millie’s family. I’ve read that her family, the Rooks, were long-time residents of the Susanville area, but thus far I haven’t found anything about them.
Also, Emanuel had a wife, Mary, with him when he arrived in Susanville. However, while there he married Millie Rooks and they remained married for many years, until death. I found Mary with Emanuel in the Iowa census records before he traveled to Susanville, and a record of them together at Honey Lake, but then nothing else about her. Do you have any information about what happened to Mary?
Thank you, I love your blog, and sorry to read about your broken hip!
Barbara
I forgot to add that Mike Brannan’s middle name was C. (Mike C. Brannan) while my 2nd great uncle Emanuel’s middle name was Hamlin. There is no name that begins with C for Emanuel. Mike C. Brannan owned the Brannan house.
Thus this photo of my ancestors is mislabeled. It should read Emanuel and Millie Brannan.
Mary was Emanuel sister not his wife. And she married a man
by the name of Robert Weathers
Read Below
Thomas Jefferson Brannan was born April 8, 1830 in Brownston, Jackson County, Indiana and died 22 Aug 1924 in Peach, Washington. He married Almira Juliatha Rogers, in Lotts Grove Missouri on August 1, 1858. Almira was born 30 Nov 1836 in Columbus, Ohio and died 2 April 1922 in Peach, Washington. Almira was the daughter of Daniel Rogers (8 Feb 1802 – 15 Jun 1895 )and Catherine Cress (1802- ) . Thomas Jefferson Brannan was a teacher in Grassy Fork Township, Brownston, Jackson County, Indiana in the 1850 census at the age of 20. Thomas and Almira Rogers had 7 children (2 in MO, 4 in OR, 1 in CA). Thomas went with his brother Emanuel during 1852 to Iowa Co., IA by wagon, as did his brother William LeGrande, and his sisters Jerusha Brannan Johnson and Mary Brannan.
Siblings:
Jerusha Brannon Johnson (1819 – 1886)*
Emanuel Hamlin Brannan (1827 – 1913)*
Thomas Jefferson Brannan (1830 – 1894)*
Mary V. Weathers (1836 – 1895)
Thank you for offering information in response to my question about Emanuel having a wife before Millie, a Mary. However, to support the belief that Mary was his sister Mary Virginia, do you have any documentation of any kind?
I ask that because, on the 1850 Indiana census, Emanuel and a Mary are listed together in their own separate household, which would have been very unusual – a brother and sister living in a home together, separate from other relatives, when they had all those relatives in the same community. Their father Moses was there, as were his sister Jerusha, his brother Thomas Jefferson, and his sister Mary Virginia.
In 1860, Emanuel and a Mary Brannan are again listed together in their own household, in the Honey Lake Valley, California. The census lists her birthplace as Kentucky. His sister Mary Virginia was born in Indiana. Further, Mary Virginia married Robert Weathers in 1856 and they are listed in the 1860 Indiana census. Emanuel and Millie Rooks married in 1862. That’s two years after the census. For those reasons, it was not his sister Mary living with him in 1850 and 1860.
In an 1856 census, Emanuel is living in Iowa with his parents, Moses and Cassandra, his newly wed sister, Mary Virginia, and her husband, Robert Weather, *plus* a wife named Mary. They are listed as married. He is 28 and she is 22.
As an aside, William LeGrand and his wife and children are already listed in an Iowa County, Iowa census in 1851.
According to Fairfield’s Pioneer History of Lassen County, California by Asa Merrill Fairfield, the Brannan House was owned by Michael C. Brannan. The book contains multiple references about both men, but as separate men. There was no letter C in Emanuel’s name, and in the several years I’ve been doing research, I’ve never seen the nickname “Mike” attached to him either.