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Melville Irby Branch

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Melville Irby Branch

Birth
Petersburg, Petersburg City, Virginia, USA
Death
21 Dec 1930 (aged 83)
Berzelia, Columbia County, Georgia, USA
Burial
Richmond, Richmond City, Virginia, USA Add to Map
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Melville Irby Branch served in the Confederate army as a cadet of the Virginia Military Institute, and was with the VMI cadets defending Richmond when the Civil War came to a close.

After graduating from VMI in 1868, he moved to Augusta, Georgia, to work in the mercantile business with his older brother, Thomas Plummer Branch. On November 9, 1870 he and Miss Susan Steiner of Tiffin Ohio; formerly of Frederick, Maryland; were married. After spending six more years in Augusta, he and his wife moved to Berzelia, Georgia.

There he became a watermelon farmer, creating the "Branch Rattlesnake" variety. He became the first man in the southeast to develop a melon that could withstand long-distance shipping.

After serving in the state legislature in Columbia as a member of the Populist party from 1892 to 1897, he chose to return to Berzelia "to raise less hell and more watermelons."

He died on December 21, 1930 at 3:20am at his residence in Berzelia, only eighteen days after the passing of his wife.
Melville Irby Branch served in the Confederate army as a cadet of the Virginia Military Institute, and was with the VMI cadets defending Richmond when the Civil War came to a close.

After graduating from VMI in 1868, he moved to Augusta, Georgia, to work in the mercantile business with his older brother, Thomas Plummer Branch. On November 9, 1870 he and Miss Susan Steiner of Tiffin Ohio; formerly of Frederick, Maryland; were married. After spending six more years in Augusta, he and his wife moved to Berzelia, Georgia.

There he became a watermelon farmer, creating the "Branch Rattlesnake" variety. He became the first man in the southeast to develop a melon that could withstand long-distance shipping.

After serving in the state legislature in Columbia as a member of the Populist party from 1892 to 1897, he chose to return to Berzelia "to raise less hell and more watermelons."

He died on December 21, 1930 at 3:20am at his residence in Berzelia, only eighteen days after the passing of his wife.

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