Branch, Missouri

A few months ago, I wrote on this blog about Pumpkin Center, a crossroads community at the intersection of Highway 73 and 64 in northern Dallas County, Missouri. The reason I wrote about it, as I mentioned at the time, was that I used to occasionally drive Highway 73 on my way to Jefferson City or Columbia, and driving through the place always sparked my curiosity about how its origins and how it go its name. Well, just a couple of days ago, I took another trip to Jeff City (to talk about my Spook Light book https://amzn.to/47ufXHX at the State Archives), and on the way up, I drove Highway 73 again. Another small village along that stretch of road that has pricked my curiosity is Branch. It's located a few miles north of Pumpkin Center just across the county line in Camden County.  

From the number of houses that are still clustered at or near Branch, one would tend to think that the place was, at one time, a fairly sizeable and booming little community, but that is apparently not the case. From what I've been able to discern, Branch was never much more than a wide place in the road.

Exactly when Branch came into existence is not altogether clear, but apparently there was not a place named Branch until Joel Stoner made application in March 1898 to establish a post office at the location or shortly before this time. In fact, it appears from post office records that Stoner at first entertained the idea of calling the place Stoner after himself, because the word "Stoner" is crossed out and the name "Branch" written in its place on the application.

At the time of the application, Branch or the place that would become Branch had a population of twenty residents, but the proposed post office would serve a total of 300 people living in Branch and the surrounding area. The application was approved, and a post office was established at Branch the following year, 1899.

Like a lot of small, rural post offices, the Branch Post Office was located inside a general store, which was about the only business in the village of Branch. There was also a separate place near Branch called Long Branch, and it had a school, which also served as a church from time to time. I've seen a couple of references to Branch School, but I'm not sure whether Branch had its own separate school, or Long Branch School was simply shortened to Branch School sometimes. Today, the Long Branch Assembly of God Church is less than a mile north of Branch, but apparently the old Long Branch School was slightly west of Branch.     

In 1926, the Branch Post Office was relocated because of a new road being built through the area, and the post office was moved about 300 yards east to the new road. At this time, Branch had a population of 18, very similar to its head count 28 years earlier. 

Branch lost its post office in 1968, but, judging from the number of houses that are still at or in the immediate vicinity of the village, the population of the place remains, even today, about as big as it ever was.