Gilmer, Robert D., 1858-1925

Represented are members of the Branner, Atkins, and Gilmer families, including merchant and educator Joseph A. Branner of western North Carolina and Tennessee; his wife, Mary Josephine "Mollie" Love Branner; their daughters, Love Branner Gilmer and Ella Branner Atkins; Love's husband, Robert D. Gilmer (1859-1925), lawyer and legislator of Waynesville, N.C.; opera singer Josephine Gilmer, daughter of Love Branner Gilmer and Robert D. Gilmer; and Ella's husband, James Atkins, Jr. (1850-1923), president of the Asheville (N.C.) Female College and later of Emory and Henry College in Virginia.

From the description of Robert D. Gilmer papers, 1796-1926. WorldCat record id: 30485655

Joseph A. Branner was a merchant and educator of western North Carolina and Tennessee. He was a merchant in Mossy Creek, Tenn., in the early 1870s. In 1876, with the help of Reverend H. P. Myers, he founded the Branner Institute in Mossy Creek. About 1880, he moved to Asheville, N.C., and operated the Asheville Female College with James Atkins, Jr. Branner married Mary Josephine Mollie Love Branner (d. 1914), and with her had two daughters, Love Branner and Ella M. Branner. Love Branner married Robert D. Gilmer. Ella M. Branner married James Atkins, Jr.

James Atkins, Jr., (1850-1923) was born in Knoxville, Tenn., the son of a Methodist preacher. He became a Methodist minister and served in Morristown and Mossy Creek, Tenn. In 1879, he became president of the Asheville Female College in Asheville, N.C. In 1889, he moved to Virginia to become president of Emory and Henry College. He married Ella M. Branner in 1876 and together they had four children, including Love Branner Atkins. After the death of Ella M. Branner Atkins, James married Eva Rhodes.

Robert D. Gilmer (1859-1925) was the son of Samuel L. Gilmer and Matilda C. Moore of Mount Airy, N.C. His mother was the granddaughter of Jesse Franklin, governor of North Carolina and a United States senator. Gilmer attended Emory and Henry College in Virginia, 1879-1881, and the Dick and Dillards Law School in Greensboro, N.C., from which he was graduated in 1882. He was a member of the North Carolina state legislature, 1890 and 1892, and attorney general in 1898 and 1904. He was also the author of The Trial of the Sparrow for Killing Cock Robin (1898). He married Love Branner in 1884. The Gilmers had two children: Joseph Branner Gilmer (d. 1919) and Josephine Gilmer. In the 1910s and 1920s, Love Branner Gilmer owned and operated the Suyeta Park Hotel in Waynesville, N.C.

Josephine Gilmer, daughter of Robert D. Gilmer and Love Branner Gilmer, was educated at Peace Institute and Saint Mary's School in Raleigh, N.C. She studied in New York under Madame Ziegler of the Metropolitan Opera House for three years, and then travelled with her mother to Italy, 1912-1913, where Josephine studied voice in Milan under Emilio Metellio. Upon her return to the United States, Josephine performed several concerts as a prima donna soprano. She later married Jordan P. Chase.

From the guide to the Robert D. Gilmer Papers, ., 1796-1926, (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection.)