William Branham and Howard Branham
November 29, 2019
Podcast:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/4wsgodzxWRB2rIwusUM4u4
In the "Message", there were three types of people: Those who cooked with wine, those who were vehemently against cooking with wine, and those who did not know the first category existed. Growing up as a child thought that everyone should follow William Branham's teaching to the letter, my family was in the second category and I myself was in the third; I didn't know that the first category existed.
I can remember the first time that I came in contact with the first category. Our family visited another "Message" family for dinner, and the steaks that they served were the best that any of us had ever put into our mouths! We marveled over them with every bite, praising the chef, a "Message" father who grinned from ear to ear at our compliments. Finally, after enough probing, we convinced him to share his secret. I will never forget the jaws dropping at the table when he explained how that he marinated the steaks overnight with a special blend of herbs and spices, with a ... red wine base!
William Branham spoke very harshly against alcohol in later versions of his stage persona. In his public recordings, starting in September of 1953, he claimed that a person who drank alcohol was infested with a demon from the pits of hell. As a child, I couldn't see why anyone would want to drink something that inadvertently gave them a demon! Yet as I grew older, and our family migrated from city to city, in state to state, from "Message" church to "Message" church, I came to realize that the interpretation of Branham's views of this "demonic liquid" varied to extremes.
Some of the followers of William Branham cooked with liquor while others did not. Some cooked with wine but refused to cook with liquor, while others did not. Some drank beer or liquor on weekdays, others did not. Some drank wine while refusing to drink beer or liquor, while others did not. Yet all of the parents allowed the children to drink communion wine, without even investigating state or local laws for serving sacramental wine to minors.
I remember how surprised that I was to learn the history of William Branham's family ties to the liquor industry during the time Otto Wathen used individual liquor stills to produce alcohol for the Chicago mob, and how the Ku Klux Klan had raided Jeffersonville to shut the operation down. My grandfather knew which of the Branham brothers and children drank liquor, and which did not, but only a couple of the names surprised me. William Branham often spoke about how his father and some of his brothers were involved in both drinking and producing liquor. Of Branham's siblings, the one that surprised me most was his brother, Howard Branham.
Howard Duffy Branham was born on May 5, 1923, in Indiana. Contrary to William Branham's "Life Story" accounts in some versions of his stage persona (ex 60-0312), Howard was born long after the Branham family migrated from Kentucky to Indiana, and would not have been part of the nine siblings in the log cabin William Branham used for his campaign literature. By the time Howard was born, William Branham was approximately sixteen years old.
During the early part of William Branham's ministry, Howard traveled with William both in the United States and abroad as a "faith healing" evangelist, and is featured in many of the early photographs used for marketing and for Branham's newsletter, The Voice of Healing. During the years the Branham Campaigns were affiliated with Latter Rain, many photographs depict Howard Branham posing with familiar faces: Gordon Lindsay, Ern Baxter, Jack Moore, and others.
During this time, as early as March of 1948, Howard Branham continued actively brewing, promoting, and selling liquor. In 1948, he found himself at the center of legal issues as Robert Hutsell and Earl Neal filed an injunction against Paul Jacob's and Howard Branham's Beech Grove night club and dance hall. This continued until as late as 1952. In March of 1952, Howard proudly advertised his tasty "Irish Shillelagh", an Irish mixed drink, at his nightclub, the Galway Bay. Howard had partnered with Harold Stockhoff and Kenneth Miller and invited everyone to "Greetin's on St. Patrick's Day March 17th Bock Beer"
Like many of his other siblings, Howard had been remarried after divorce, which was strongly forbidden in the doctrines of some versions of William Branham's stage persona. In earlier versions, William Branham himself performed the wedding ceremonies for his divorced brothers and their new wives. Though touring with William Branham, Howard had also been divorced and remarried. After Howard's divorce in 1944, Howard was married to Grace Wathens, and had a daughter, Linda Louann.
According to William Branham, Howard was a war veteran that was sent home to die, allegedly healed from his affliction. He died at an early age of 34, however, contrary to Branham's healing claim. On November 7, 1957, Howard died in the Clark County Hospital of rheumatic heart disease and heart failure.
https://william-branham.org/site/people/howard_branham
https://open.spotify.com/episode/4wsgodzxWRB2rIwusUM4u4
In the "Message", there were three types of people: Those who cooked with wine, those who were vehemently against cooking with wine, and those who did not know the first category existed. Growing up as a child thought that everyone should follow William Branham's teaching to the letter, my family was in the second category and I myself was in the third; I didn't know that the first category existed.
I can remember the first time that I came in contact with the first category. Our family visited another "Message" family for dinner, and the steaks that they served were the best that any of us had ever put into our mouths! We marveled over them with every bite, praising the chef, a "Message" father who grinned from ear to ear at our compliments. Finally, after enough probing, we convinced him to share his secret. I will never forget the jaws dropping at the table when he explained how that he marinated the steaks overnight with a special blend of herbs and spices, with a ... red wine base!
William Branham spoke very harshly against alcohol in later versions of his stage persona. In his public recordings, starting in September of 1953, he claimed that a person who drank alcohol was infested with a demon from the pits of hell. As a child, I couldn't see why anyone would want to drink something that inadvertently gave them a demon! Yet as I grew older, and our family migrated from city to city, in state to state, from "Message" church to "Message" church, I came to realize that the interpretation of Branham's views of this "demonic liquid" varied to extremes.
Some of the followers of William Branham cooked with liquor while others did not. Some cooked with wine but refused to cook with liquor, while others did not. Some drank beer or liquor on weekdays, others did not. Some drank wine while refusing to drink beer or liquor, while others did not. Yet all of the parents allowed the children to drink communion wine, without even investigating state or local laws for serving sacramental wine to minors.
I remember how surprised that I was to learn the history of William Branham's family ties to the liquor industry during the time Otto Wathen used individual liquor stills to produce alcohol for the Chicago mob, and how the Ku Klux Klan had raided Jeffersonville to shut the operation down. My grandfather knew which of the Branham brothers and children drank liquor, and which did not, but only a couple of the names surprised me. William Branham often spoke about how his father and some of his brothers were involved in both drinking and producing liquor. Of Branham's siblings, the one that surprised me most was his brother, Howard Branham.
Howard Duffy Branham was born on May 5, 1923, in Indiana. Contrary to William Branham's "Life Story" accounts in some versions of his stage persona (ex 60-0312), Howard was born long after the Branham family migrated from Kentucky to Indiana, and would not have been part of the nine siblings in the log cabin William Branham used for his campaign literature. By the time Howard was born, William Branham was approximately sixteen years old.
During the early part of William Branham's ministry, Howard traveled with William both in the United States and abroad as a "faith healing" evangelist, and is featured in many of the early photographs used for marketing and for Branham's newsletter, The Voice of Healing. During the years the Branham Campaigns were affiliated with Latter Rain, many photographs depict Howard Branham posing with familiar faces: Gordon Lindsay, Ern Baxter, Jack Moore, and others.
During this time, as early as March of 1948, Howard Branham continued actively brewing, promoting, and selling liquor. In 1948, he found himself at the center of legal issues as Robert Hutsell and Earl Neal filed an injunction against Paul Jacob's and Howard Branham's Beech Grove night club and dance hall. This continued until as late as 1952. In March of 1952, Howard proudly advertised his tasty "Irish Shillelagh", an Irish mixed drink, at his nightclub, the Galway Bay. Howard had partnered with Harold Stockhoff and Kenneth Miller and invited everyone to "Greetin's on St. Patrick's Day March 17th Bock Beer"
Like many of his other siblings, Howard had been remarried after divorce, which was strongly forbidden in the doctrines of some versions of William Branham's stage persona. In earlier versions, William Branham himself performed the wedding ceremonies for his divorced brothers and their new wives. Though touring with William Branham, Howard had also been divorced and remarried. After Howard's divorce in 1944, Howard was married to Grace Wathens, and had a daughter, Linda Louann.
According to William Branham, Howard was a war veteran that was sent home to die, allegedly healed from his affliction. He died at an early age of 34, however, contrary to Branham's healing claim. On November 7, 1957, Howard died in the Clark County Hospital of rheumatic heart disease and heart failure.
https://william-branham.org/site/people/howard_branham