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Ambrose Lee Brantner was born April 5, 1863 in Montgomery County, Texas. He was the second youngest of George H. and Susannah Lambkin Brantner who emigrated from Maryland via Missouri and Tennessee, arriving in Texas about 1851. They eventually settled in the Petteway Community near Bremond in Robertson County, Texas.It was in Robertson County that Ambrose (also called Brose and Bid) married Lugenia Emiline "Genie" Smith. Lugenia was born December 7, 1869, presumably in Winn Parish, Louisiana. She was the second youngest of eight children born to Pleasant S. and Maranda Amanda Smith (Smith married a Smith).
Genie was a very outgoing person and dearly loved to talk--no one was a stranger. She had dark red hair, a lovely voice, and loved to sing. This gay redhead was bound to meet the tall, slender, black-headed Ambrose with the cropped moustache, since he had not ventured far from the small community near Bremond. They were married October 2, 1890 in Franklin, Texas, by J. H. Griffin, Justice of the Peace for Precinct Six, Robertson County. Ambrose was 27, she was 21.
In 1900 Ambrose and Genie sold their 50-acre farm near Petteway and relocated to the Red Mud (Tap) community of Dickens County. Two of Genie´s brothers, Willis Anderson "Toby" and Albert Smith had moved to Red Mud in 1890 and their brother, Columbus Jeff, and their widowed mother "Grandmother Smith" had followed.
The Brantners traveled by train to Abilene and hired a wagon and driver to take them the remaining 100 or so miles to Red Mud. The family of eight arrived at Toby and Martha Ann´s dugout with two trunks, several boxes of dishes and tools, a feather bed, and a few other things. Toby and "Mattie" had eight children at the time, which made for a cozy situation. The Brantner family soon moved into a dugout on one of the McArthur boy´s farm, then later moved into a roomier half-dugout just north of the Red Mud Cemetery.
Ambrose eventually bought 80 acres of cultivated land and a 50-acre hillside pasture just across the county line in Kent County. The hillside became known as the Brantner Sandhill. He built a half dugout eventually added a frame room to the entrance.
Ambrose and Genie had four boys and four girls. The first six children, born in Robertson County, were Carl Homer, Ray Lillian (Rankin), Reba Irene (Thornton), Ruth Imogene (Fry), Ruby May (Thornton), and Kay Parrak, while Coy Lee and John V. were born at their Red Mud home in Kent County.
Ambrose was a "handyman" as well as a farmer, and loved to graft fruit trees and grow vegetables. In 1906 he hauled lumber from Colorado City to add more rooms to the one room connected to their dugout.
Life went reasonably well for the family until 1914 when Lugenia became ill from gall stones, or possibly appendicitis. She developed complications from surgery and died January 23, 1914. She was 46, and is buried in the Red Mud Cemetery.
Ambrose became very despondent from the loss and traveled back to Robertson County, leaving the eight children, ages 8-20, to manage for themselves. He was away when Coy died in 1917 and Carl in 1918. Ambrose eventually returned to Red Mud but never regained leadership of the family, and the children continued to operate the farm until they were married.
Ambrose lived with son "Johnnie" and Opal Pierce Brantner in Girard, Kent County, Texas most of his remaining years. A majority of his descendants gathered in Girard in 1958 to honor him on his 95th birthday. He died that same year on October 30, having failed to recuperate from a broken hip operation. Following his funeral in the Girard Church of Christ, where he had been a member for 55 years, he was laid to rest in the Red Mud Cemetery alongside his wife and young sons.
Submitted by Ron Brantner.
The death of A. L. Brantner Thursday morning (October 30, 1958) meant life´s end for one of Kent County´s oldest residents.A resident for 58 years, Mr. Brantner died yesterday in Spur Memorial Hospital of a heart attack. Two weeks ago he fell and broke his hip. It was set at Methodist Hospital in Lubbock and he was brought to Spur recovering from the operation. Death came suddenly at 10:30 yesterday morning.
A member of the Girard Church of Christ for 55 years, his funeral will be held there at 3 o´clock this afternoon (October 31). C. L. Smith of Abilene will officiate, assisted by Robert A. Bankhead of Spur. Interment will be in the Red Mud Cemetery.
Listed among his survivors were 18 grandchildren, 25 great grandchildren, and one great great grandchild. Grandsons served as pallbearers.
©The Jayton Chronicle, October 31, 1958.
Transribed by Ron Brantner
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