Proposing to Hope Brumbach
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 the story cannot be true as William Branham retold it, as 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. [1]
2) Charles and Hazel Brumbach divorced on November 1, 1931.
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). [2]
3) 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. [3]
4) The 1933 Jeffersonville City directory lists Hope Brumbach and Hazel Brumbach, but there is no mention of Charles. [4]
5) When William Branham married Hope in 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).
6) Hazel Brumbach (Hope's mother) married John Cardwell on August 22, 1935.
Footnotes
- ↑ Searching for Vindication Timeline - 1931 City Directory
- ↑ Searching for Vindication Timeline re various marriage and divorce documents.
- ↑ 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”.
- ↑ Searching for Vindication Timeline - 1933 Jeffersonville City Directory