View source for Proposing to Hope Brumbach

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[[Image:Hopes mom.jpg|thumb|200px|Hazel Cardwell (Brumbach), Hope Branham's mother.]]

William Branham told a very emotional story of how he asked Charle's Brumbach for Hope's hand in marriage, while Hope asked her mother, Hazel Branham, if she could get married.  

What is surprising is that it is unlikely that '''the story was true as William Branham retold it.''' It is probable that Charles and Hazel Brumbach were divorced at the time, and Charles was remarried.  
 
1) The 1931 City Directory (they were published every two years) does include Chas and Hazel.  <ref>[[Searching for Vindication]] Timeline - 1931 City Directory</ref>

2) Charles and Hazel Brumbach divorced on November 1, 1931 when Hope was 17.  It is also unlikely that they lived together until the day they were divorced.

3) Charles Brumbach quickly married Grace Creigh on February 15, 1932 and moved away from Jeffersonville to Fort Wayne, Indiana (a 3.5 hour drive from Jeffersonville on modern roads).    <ref>[[Searching for Vindication]] Timeline re various marriage and divorce documents.</ref> 

4) Hope's mother continued to live in Jeffersonville.

5) William Branham said he asked for Hope's hand in marriage after a sermon preached by Roy Davis after a Wednesday night sermon.  They talked about it as they walked to her parent’s house from the church.  William Branham said that as he stood on the porch of her parent’s home, Charles stopped playing the Victrola and came out to the porch.  William Branham asked Charles if he could marry Hope, while Hope remained inside and talked with her mother.  <ref>[[Life story by Julius Stadsklev]] in a story written firsthand by William Branham.  Also on recording on April 15, 1951, November 8, 1953 and July 20, 1952 in sermons called “A Life Story”.</ref>
[[File:Marriage License-Branham.jpg|250px|thumb|right|Marriage Licence]]
5) The 1933 Jeffersonville City directory lists Hope Brumbach and Hazel Brumbach, but there is no mention of Charles. <ref>[[Searching for Vindication]] Timeline - 1933 Jeffersonville City Directory</ref> 

6) When William Branham married Hope on Friday June 22, 1934, the marriage license indicates that her father's residence was in Ft. Wayne. William and Hope Branham were married in Ft. Wayne, not Jeffersonville (see marriage licence on right).  According to the marriage license, he was twenty-six (born April 8, 1908) and she was twenty (born July 16, 1913). 

7) Hazel Brumbach (Hope's mother) married John Cardwell on August 22, 1935.

And what did William Branham say about his in-laws? He said that Hope's "mother was a very prissy sort of a woman. Fine woman, but she belonged up in the ranks, you know. And so Charlie was just a good old humble brother."