Francis Ziba Branch was a sailor, trapper, and trader who worked across the United States.

Branch was born on July 24, 1802, in Scipio, New York. Both of his grandfathers were veterans of the American Revolution. Unfortunately, his father died when he was very young, and without his income, their children grew up with various relatives. Francis left his relatives at the age of 18 and went to Buffalo, New York, to find work. He was soon working as a sailor on the Great Lakes.

In 1830, he was in St. Louis, Missouri, where he joined a caravan headed for Santa Fe, New Mexico. That same year, he joined William Wolfskill on a trapping expedition to California. Along the way, the group was instrumental in opening what became known as the Old Spanish Trail from New Mexico to California. However, the trapping expedition was unsuccessful, and the group struggled with heavy snow, short supplies, and hostile Indians. After arriving in California in February 1831, the party disbanded.

Branch remained in California and spent years hunting sea otters, the first of which commanded a high price. He also invested in a grocery store in Santa Barbara.

He married Maria Dominga Manuela Carlon in about 1835 in Santa Barbara, California, and the couple would eventually have 12 children. In 1837, Governor Juan Bautista Alvarado granted Francis and his wife Maria the 16,955-acre Rancho Santa Manuela Mexican land grant in present-day San Luis Obispo County, California. In the following years, he and his wife were granted land in the San Luis Obispo area. Later, he received another grant and purchased more land until he was one of the largest landholders in the county, with 37,000 acres. Highly successful as a rancher, he had as many as 20,000 head of cattle and hundreds of horses at one time.

He was also a successful businessman, was involved in local and County politics, and allowed the use of a ranch house for a schoolhouse.

Francis Branch died of bronchitis at his home on May 8, 1874, at the age of 71. He was buried in San Luis Obispo, California, and left his large family with a considerable estate. The Branch family lived on the land until 1879, when much of Rancho Santa Manuela was sold to Philip Biddle and his son John Biddle. In the following years, the ranch was broken up and became the site of Arroyo Grande, California.

© Kathy Alexander/Legends of America, updated October 2022.

Also See:

Discovery and Exploration of America

Fur Trading on the Frontier

Trappers, Traders & Pathfinders (by Randall Parrish, 1907)

Who’s Who in American History

Sources:

A Memorial and Biographical History of the Counties of Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Ventura, California; Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago, 1891.
Mountain Men of the Rocky Mountains
Thrapp, Dan L.; Encyclopedia of Frontier Biography, Volumes I-III; University of Nebraska Press, 1988.
Wikipedia