The Disobedient Years

Music Hello and welcome to another episode of the William Brannum Historical Research Podcast. I'm your host John Collins, the author and founder of William Brannum Historical Research at William-Brannum.org and with me I have my co-host, researcher, minister, and friend Charles Paisley, the founder of Christian gospelchurch.org. And together we're examining the history and the intersections in history between William Brannum and other key figures that either influenced or were influenced by the post-World War II healing revivals. Charles today we have one of the most interesting and unusual topics. It's interesting, especially to historians, but going to be really honest it may not be interesting to call members

because we were, many of us were literally indoctrinated to mentally block this period of time from our minds. And there's this huge gap in William Brannum's history that historians just don't know what to do with because this period of time doesn't really fit the later versions of his periods, you know, his history in periods of time. And what we're talking about today is one of the earliest known evidences of William Brannum's using different versions of his stage personas.

Not much is known about this because William Brannum himself and his, you know, historians working with him have literally erased most of it from history. But we have testimonies from people about this time period that has not been made public yet. And the most damning testimony comes from William Brannum himself. So I'm pretty excited to get into this one. It's going to be quite a wild ride.

Yeah, me too, John. I know in this episode we're just going to be talking about these supposed quiet years or secret years of William Brannum's life. And when he, you know, got in his official story got married and he wasn't really doing anything until he rose into national thing. But like you said, what is official there?

Doesn't really match what is the true history. Because you know, you know, William Brannum's official biographies, nothing is supposed to really happened at all in these years. He says that after after the Ohio River flood killed his family, he says the god abandoned him that the gifts or the anointing that was on him was taken away.

And he just went through these years like a spiritual drought. And in most of the versions of a story, he says that lasted for five years. And some of them, he said it was seven, but mostly he said five.

And I'm sure they were definitely sad years for him. His family had died, he'd lost his wife, but like so much of his early life and what's in his official biographies, it actually does differ quite substantially from the truth.

William Brownam actually was, like you said, actively holding revivals and dune tours during this period. And there were reports of healings and miracles coming out in this period. And the fact that he covers all this up and changes it, you know, again, it leaves with the question why, and I hope maybe as we go through this, Roy Davis ends up in jail in this period of time.

Right. That I think feeds into part of why he starts changing his backstory through this period and covers this up. Because this is when the stuff with Roy Davis finally hits the fan and Roy Davis ends up in jail.

And his backstory is no longer spotless and pretty anymore. So he's got to change it. Yeah, I don't think we'll ever answer the why. But I think in this episode, we're going to hit pretty hard on the house.

There's so much that we do know. And like I said, some of the testimony comes from William Brannem himself. If historians are looking at this episode and they're remembering the life stories, William Brannem claims that he was commissioned to heal the sick by an alleged angel, the angel met him, and either a room or in a cave or with a wood stove or a dirt floor or windows or cave wall, depending on which version of the life story you hear.

This conflicting location where he meets this angel and the angel apparently was using his Moses stage persona. And he says, Moses was given two signs. So will you be given two signs? And if you can just get the people to believe in you, notice it wasn't in Christ, but if you believe in you, people will be healed.

And that was the version that literally got written down in history, the version of a stage persona. But I was really surprised. The first time somebody sent me photographs of the copy of the, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision tract.

Because not only is this a completely different William Brannem with a completely different vocabulary. This is just not the man that I knew when I was in the message call following. I understood William Brannem to be this Kentucky hillbilly with how did he say it?

Haints and totes and terries and all of this. vocabulary that you know literally wasn't him and then I read this track from him written by him and this was a very educated writing this was not the same man and and you know it almost certainly it had to come from him because this it was wrote before Gordon Lindsey was around before Jack Moore was around even before Kidston was around this is a very early track this is right you know even before he was working with any of those people that track was wrote so all the people who wrote material for him at points that later in life couldn't have wrote that

for him yeah so I think what the best way to start this episode out Charles I'm going to read just a couple of segments from this book and show some of the contrast between the later versions of a stage persona because William Brannum himself is actually very damning in this track if you compare it to the other versions of a stage persona the track's title was I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision and you called it the quiet years back when I did my docu series I called it what I said the missing years I think but I've actually come to call these years the disobedient

years because there's one thing that he says in this document if you read it and understand what he's saying the you know the title is I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision well he totally abandons the stage persona and literally becomes disobedient to the vision that he's proclaiming in this document yeah within a year of having it within a year of having it so let me read you part of the preface to this he says for three years I performed he performed mighty miracles then one day he called me to take the gift and the gift is capitalized to evangelize for him

many of my dear friends begged me not to leave them and I stayed because of this the gift was taken from me for more than five years though I cried and prayed earnestly for people it did not seem to work then one year ago I was standing in my yard the spirit came to me again and I was told that God had forgiven me and that a double portion of the power to heal would be given me in this book or some of the things that he did on my first trip for him now this version of the stage persona

William Brownham explains if you continue reading the document how his gift of healing his alleged gift of healing came and this gift of healing came in this tract and this version of a stage persona by a vision and not by an angel and at the point in time at which this tract was written and the events that are described of you know healing miracles in this book Israel had not yet became a nation the nation of Israel was formed on May 14th 1948 And, you know, this tract is advertising a completely different stage persona.

You remember the later versions of a stage persona. It was closely tied to the formation of Israel, and I said, the very day that the angel came to me was the exact same day that Israel became a nation.

And if you do the math on this, so it appears, based on the way I'm reading this tract, he says that one year ago, he was given this gift. So then the next paragraph, he says, in 1948, I'm sorry, 1945.

So it appears that this tract was first published 1946, and he says, one year ago, I was given this gift after five years of having no gift. So 1945 minus five is 1940. Then he says that for three years, I performed mighty miracles.

So if you take 1940 minus three, you get 1937. Right. You know, it's amazing when you look at that and you unpack it, how it conflicts so much with the official story, right? And, you know, in my sect of the message that I come from, John, we had a really strong awareness of these years because there was a lot of people in our church who were with William Brownham through these years.

And so, you know, we talked about cognitive dissonance. This is one area that we had it very strongly because we knew the, some of the true story of what happened in these quiet years, yet we still believed the official story alongside it.

And let me, let me read just something real quick, John, to put alongside what you've said. So I'm a man sent from God, you know, his official biography, this first edition. So like you said, he had, he said he had three years of miracles.

Then he had a five year drought and then he comes up to 1945 and his ministry takes off. Well here in this book, he tells, he tells the flood. He said, little did either I or my friends realize that the Ohio River flood would overtake the banks and my family would be caught in the tragedy of the awful flood.

It was at this time that the anointing of God, which had come up on me, left me, and it never really returned until five years later, right? So you see how there's a, there's a big difference, right, between that disobedient vision.

There's a, there's a difference in the heavenly vision even said more than five years. But that five year period wouldn't start until 1940. So there's, there's this just unusual difference in the timeline of his stories.

And here, here's the problem is we know that he was doing stuff, whether it was in that three year period, whether it was in the five year period, he was holding revivals in multiple different places through there with reports of miracles and things happening.

Yeah. And if you consider the mission walking, trip where you know Pentecostal historians place William Brannum at that trip with a sign advertising his healing ministries long before the flood. We know that William Brannum was touring as a healing evangelist faith healer they called them before the flood and then in our sect of the message the main sect we matched actually we were closer to that book that you just read because we were taught that William Brannum experienced the trauma of his wife dying the flood we believe that you know he was very suicidal suffered severe depression basically

isolated himself for a period of time I think it was three years you know matching that book so that would place it like you said 1940 and then we did not believe that he had his gift of healing until May the 6th 1946 which is interesting because I'm going to read you another quote 1954 he says the very day that Israel was declared a nation again I'm going to pause Israel was formed May the 14th 1948 1948 is key he said the very day that Israel was declared a nation again for the first time for 2500 years that same night that the angel the Lord sent me out to pray for

the sick that very same time May the 6th 1946 not 1948 the Lord Jesus did that he said this in 1954 and remember he's two years off so he's like everything else in his timeline he progresses the timeline into the future by a few years 1959 William Brannum says this Israel became a nation in 1947 not 1948 again on the same night that the angel the Lord visited me and you know you take all these dates we know that in the mid 1930s he's holding his own healing revivals you know while he's working with Davis prior to this what did we say 1928 I think is the earliest confirmed

he was touring with Davis who was performing healings and he's literally rewriting his own stage persona and his own history each time each version that he introduces himself yeah you're you're definitely right I see just in what we've talked about there's there's at least two reinventions of himself here yeah there's there's the there's the reinvention that happens in in 1945 I mean we see that in that I was not disobedient tracked that they released that he released at that time and at that point he's he's rewriting what happened from the death of his wife up till 1945

substantially And then his time goes on he does this another kind of a rewrite of his history and it goes to like talking about trying to connect that angelic visitation that happened the first time he talked about in 46 trying to connect that with the start of Israel as a nation and that that really coincides more with the ladder rain movement and um I know we're going to do a full episode on William Brannum in the ladder rain movement at some point but within the ladder rain movement um they had been heavily influenced by British Israelism and they viewed um developments among the

Jewish people and in the land of Israel as um events that were intimately connected to things happening within the church as well because they you know they they they married both of these things together in their ideology and so William Brannum connecting himself to the events in Israel was uh to fit and make himself a significant profit within the uh ideology of the ladder rain movement and so it's as that ladder rain movements unfold in again that he's coming back and he's trying to reconnect himself specifically to events in Israel to make him important within the framework

of that movement right um there there's so much stuff that goes on here he just he reinventes himself as time goes on and it's like you said it's he has different stage personas for different people and this connecting to Israel has to do with his ladder rain stage persona to to the people there right whereas the everything is just for a different crowd honestly that that's really what it amounts to and he so kind of you know drilling back to he wasn't supposed to be doing anything really in any of these versions this period of time is a is a drought in his ministry no miracles

no healings um but that's really not really just not the truth of what happened John we know we know he was all over the place um here is here's one uh newspaper article this is from the spring of 1940 and this spring of 1940 says William Brownem is going to hold revival meetings in uh three different uh three different locations each for two weeks uh one of which is is milltown so we we know for example from from newspaper articles like this that he was going around having meetings doing revivals and holding healings in those places and as as I I kind of read

John uh his a little excerpt from his official biography but these are the kind of pay these are the kind of publications that that my sect of the message put out on life of William Brownem and

in these versions we have these years that he wasn't doing nothing filled in because we know what he was doing because the people he's doing it with was at our church and uh and he he was he was doing stuff and there was miracles and there was healings and e And on tape, William Brownham references these things from point to point in his ministry on tape, but it is, it is left out of all of these official biographies because I don't know why.

For whatever dramatic effect, for to cover something up, he has to leave out nothing happened in these years. It was, it was a drought. What's really odd to, if you read through the text of this, I was not disobedient document.

He makes a very clear separation from his being a minister and an evangelist in this document. We were taught in the main sect, you know, that it wasn't until the angel met him in 1946 and commissioned him that he transitioned from a minister to an evangelist.

But let me read you another quote in this document. He is talking about the vision that he saw that gave him this alleged healing power. And he says, looking to my left, I saw a small heap of smooth baked bread.

There were white fowls standing near it, but they would not eat much of it. Then the Lord said to me, do you know them? I said, no, then he said, this is your tabernacle and they won't eat the bread of life anymore.

I'm sending you this way. Now keep in mind, in the same document, he mentions that he is explaining this vision to these very people that he's saying, all of you are condemned to hell.

You're not listening. You're not eating my bread. And then he continues and says, I was then brought to a plane where a platform was erected, seemingly it was under a large tent or auditorium.

There were curtains drawn in the back of the platform and the Lord said to me, to pull back the curtains. And when I did, I saw a great mountain of the bread of life.

He said, feed these. And turning around, I saw white robed people coming from everywhere, making up a large audience. So he's mentioning, you know, you can take the white robe people and you can say it's the clan or you can say it's just biblical white robe people.

But he's literally talking about his evangelism and this vision is telling him to evangelize. But again, the date on this, he's saying is 1945 and 1948. Yeah, it's something else. So my leading opinion, right?

Like you said, we'll probably never know why, but my leading opinion on why he at least initially started to rewrite stuff at this point was because Roy Davis went to jail in this period.

So in 19, so, you know, after Roy Davis's church had burned down and Roy Davis, the city refused to let him rebuild and by 1935, William Brannem has got the tabernacle started up and Roy Davis's congregation comes over to visit him or to attend the Brannem tabernacle.

Davis remained in the region and he remained connected to William Brownham. We know that through various other things, because we know, for example, the next year William Brownham was representing Davis at Michigan Walker, right?

Davis was still coming around holding revival meetings and William Brownham and Roy Davis continued to remain connected until finally the law starts to catch up with Roy Davis. Roy Davis did all kinds of touring.

I just got a couple of quick articles of some of the, some of the, some of the revivals Davis was doing during this year, during these years, but he had revivals down in Shreve Port, the Bozer City area.

So Davis is going around and he's still having revivals in Ohio and Indiana and Kentucky and other southern states. And finally, the law catches up with him and he gets arrested in Kentucky and he gets extradited to Arkansas where Roy Davis goes to jail.

Yeah. And if you read that article, I think it says that he was hiding out in Jeffersonville, which would have been, you know, with William Brownham. Yes. And this is what happened right in this time period, happened during William Brownham's five-year drought.

And Roy Davis ends up arrested and goes to jail and he's going to serve, he serves a term in prison before he gets out. And so it's, it's this time that that Roy Davis is in prison, right?

He's in jail and William Brownham is kind of left. You might say without a leader for a little while in a sense, right? And the thing is we know that William Brownham, he talked about his separation from Roy Davis.

He told that he separated from Roy Davis. One time he said it was because Roy Davis had a woman preachers and he didn't believe in woman preachers. But we know he married one of Roy Davis's woman preachers.

Yeah. And then another reason he said he separated from Davis was because Davis wouldn't do Jesus' name baptism. But again, we know that's not true because the newspaper articles record Davis doing Jesus' name baptism.

Many baptized William Brownham Jesus' name. So we know that's really not a true reason that he separated from Davis. But you know, it, it's more that he started to distance himself from Davis at this point in time, at least through his stories, I think, because Davis ended up in jail and it don't look good for him to go around as an evangelist in his bishop or his Pope is in jail.

Yeah. I am, it'll probably be published before this episode goes live, but I've been piecing together the Davis separation because in my opinion, during this period of time, remember William Brownham was a bishop in this new sect and this Pentecostal Baptist Church of God sect.

He was under Roy Davis. He was the second in command in the sect. Davis gets sent to prison and while he's in prison, you can actually look on my website. and see the prison log.

They write next to his name, sex pervert. Davis has completely destroyed the name of the Pentecostal Baptist church in Jeffersonville before he left. And William Brannum is basically left with the aftermath of what Davis did, right?

Yeah. So it looks very much, in my opinion, that this is a period of time in which William Brannum attempts to separate himself from Davis. And it isn't over any of the things that his stage persona described.

This was basically him. Davis is in prison. And I see an opportunity. I'm going to seize the opportunity. And I'm going to take over those same churches. Because remember, he didn't move to other churches.

He's still in Eltown. And he still has the tabernacle crowd. Right, exactly. And you know, when you look at the articles like this one, where he's talking about where he's going, these are all places that Davis has planted churches.

Right. And so Roy Davis had been involved out at the Milltown Baptist Church as well. And William Brannum is taking over other churches that Roy Davis had planted while Roy Davis is in jail.

And I agree with you, John. I think that he's trying to distance himself from Roy Davis in these years. I think that has a lot to do with why he is rewriting this part of his life story.

So that he's doing as much to minimize hit what happened with Roy Davis in these years. And in order to make it look more like it was all him, all William Brannum, rather than Roy Davis, has brought this whole thing together and I've inherited it.

Yeah, there's a key to understanding the separation here. Because, so remember, Davis is in prison. Brannum tries to take over. Brannum accidentally becomes famous. We'll get into that probably a little bit later. But he accidentally rises to national fame.

And at that point, he thinks, in my opinion, he thinks he no longer needs Davis. But after he becomes famous, Davis reels him back in by sending this letter to Gordon Lindsay, which causes, it's worthy of a whole other episode.

We'll probably get into this. But it causes William Brannum's whole empire to crumble. Because Gordon Lindsay is publishing the life stories. He's written books about the life stories. And he's telling this, you know, the later version of his life story where he was avoiding the Pentecostals.

Roy Davis sends a letter to Lindsay and says, no, no, no. I was the one who baptized William Brannum into his first Pentecostal assembly. And while Gordon Lindsay and Joseph Matson was there fighting each other, this article comes out that says, no, William Brannum is a liar, basically.

Yes, that's exactly right. Davis, Davis don't live the rest of his life in jail. And eventually he gets out. and eventually he comes back for William Brownham, and we'll get there at the end of the time.

I'm just chopping at the bits because that is such an interesting story. It is, John. It is. So kind of talking about Milltown a little bit, and I might just focus on that Milltown just a bit here, because to me, what happened in Milltown, personally, to me is very important because the stuff around Milltown, John, is what really opened my eyes that William Brownham had. Something was very, very wrong. Like I said, we had people in our church who were with William Brownham through these years, and like I mentioned, cognitive dissonance, he wasn't supposed to have been doing anything these years. But yet the people in our church knew

we had, and there's certain things that happened in these years that really when I put the pieces together, I realized the depth to which William Brownham had been deceptive, and it was disturbing to me.

So, you know, when Davis went to jail, and he took over, William Brownham come to take over his churches, one of the churches, William Brownham took over, was the Milltown Baptist Church. Now, we know, I know through the right family that Roy Davis had been, so the right family, the right family and the Moser family are intermarried, and through them, I came to understand that Roy Davis had planted and established the Baptist Church in Milltown, the Milltown Baptist Church.

And then we know through William Brownham's own testimonies that he took over pastorship of it. And here is an article, this is again, this is a year after Roy Davis's went to jail, where he's going to Milltown, and he's holding revivals in Milltown. And there's something here that William Brownham does, is he tells a vision that he had back in Jeffersonville, and he says, I have this vision. And in this vision, there's a sheep caught in a thicket, and the sheep is bad, bad, right? And the sheep goes, Milltown, Milltown, Milltown, and William Brownham says,

Milltown, I never heard of Milltown, where's Milltown at? He says, I had to go ask people, where's Milltown? Where's Milltown? There's a sheep caught in the thicket in Milltown. And finally, someone says, well, Milltown is out yonder, and it's just back the hills there, and you go over to Milltown, I live about 10 miles from Milltown, and that's where Milltown is.

Okay, and this was 1941 when this happened, and he went to Milltown, and this is when the healing of Georgia Carter happened, right? 1941. Right. He never heard of Milltown. He has hold in revival in Milltown years.

And here's the thing is I knew the people who were with him at those meetings and back about 30 years ago our church went around and we made recordings of all the living witnesses of William Brannum back then and gave their testimonies and multiple of them met William Brannum for the first time at revival meetings in Milltown years before Georgia Carter was healed.

Yeah William Brannum had been going there all the way back to the days that Roy Davis was still was still preaching in that church and so that that a demonstrated to me William Brannum would make up visions John right that shocked me to Mike William Brannum faked visions that Milltown vision was a fake vision that he made up shocking shocking and then that also clued into me that.

Way to minute you know he he has made up this is the first time I really got a very thing that was very important to me I realized he made up and so that that was huge and all those recordings of the people at our church who who were at those meetings those are still available on the internet I have copies of him here I'd be glad to give him to you John wanted him but he he it he made up that story and I just couldn't get over that how.

How could how could he make up a vision right like we always said he was an exaggerator but we at that was the first point I ever realized he's exaggerating the supernatural visions even yeah that was very disturbing reminds me of a conversation you and I had a few episodes back about the nostics and nosticism and lies for the sake of a holy end he thinks he can invent these visions and say that God spoke through him and God didn't speak is the problem.

I remember when I first came across that newspaper article that you held up about Milltown and saw the date I was like oh my gosh I can't believe what I'm seeing here because Milltown is more critical than people think.

Yes William Brannum mentions that Milltown I think he uses the word satellite churches or sister churches basically while he's running the brand of tabernacle this is his other church that's what he's saying. And you know learning that that church also was planted or came into the Pentecostal sect by Roy Davis.

There's another key phrase that William Brannum mentions on one of the life stories and he's talking about I can't remember the phrase but he's talking about E Howard Cadel he says that's where I met Cadel.

Yes and at this point in time I knew about the Indiana clan I knew that the clan headquarters was at the Cadel tabernacle in Indianapolis and E Howard Cadel if you look at his history it looks very much like.

he just suddenly come into this massive wealth and then all these clan people showed up. There's a lot more to that story, right? So here's William Brannum with the Howard Cato in Milltown at a date he's not supposed to be there. And then I realize he's covering this up.

It's something, it's something else. And another point here too is the Georgia Carter healing. Okay. The Georgia Carter healing is fairly well known, I think, among the message, right? Like, did you all talk about it much in your sec? The Georgia Carter healing?

We talked about it, but we glazed over the years. Like, in my head, the Georgia Carter story came at a much later date, you know, than what actually happened. So for us, for us, these things, the Georgia Carter stuff, these featured very prominently in our mythos of William Brannum, right?

Yeah. And again, I think it's because our people were there when these things happened. And so this healing of Georgia Carter happened in the five-year drought that God's anointing left him and nothing was supposed to be happening, right? During the disobedient years. Okay. So yes, so so there you go. So that that is just one example of multiples that that we could pull out, but that's a fairly well known one. That happened when the anointing was supposed to have left him, and he was supposed to be abandoned by God, right? So right. So that that alone is just a huge conflict

in his official biographies. So what what happened there? And again, like I said, we knew I know multiple people who were there when these things happened. William Brannum came to Milltown. He had a revival there. And I'll say William Brannum already knew Georgia Carter years before this healing happened, right? The he already knew Milltown years before. And the whole vision about a sheep caught in a thicket and he didn't know where it was or who it was is totally false, right? Yeah.

William Brannum knew Georgia Carter any new Milltown years before the heat this this he went there and she was healed. Now, like so many other things, there's actually no witness to the event of Georgia Carter's healing, okay? So Georgia Carter was not at the revivals that William Brannum went to. He went there, he held revivals, and then afterwards he goes to Georgia Carter's house. I think another person goes with him, but I believe he is alone in the room when she's healed. And there is no there's no other witness to that between except William Brannum and Georgia Carter. And of course, Georgia Carter says she was healed, you know, and there's

testimony out there. She seems to have got better, you know, after William Brannum prayed for her. So you end up with these weird, these very difficult things to untangle. On one hand, we know William Brannum absolutely...

loosely misled us and totally made up the backstory, the vision, the whole thing. But then you got George Carter, who says she was actually healed. So you got what seems to be a little interesting truth and then you got what seems to be a really ugly lie put together.

And what do you do with that? That's a difficult thing for me. What do you do with that? Well, even the claim that he doesn't know Milltown, it's not that far from Jeffersonville. It's really not.

And if you look at, you know, not just the fact that he was there before her holding revivals in Milltown, just take a look back at the Indiana history. He's living on Wathen's complex, you know, right where all of the gambling is happening at the horse track.

Jeffersonville was called Little Los Vegas. There were casinos and racing and gambling everywhere, right? Well, to Jeffersonville's play casinos where you go to have the games and the fun, its counterpart was French lick Indiana.

And there you had, you know, the healing spas and you had casinos there. And there were people that went constantly between the two and Milltown is on the way to get to French lick.

So there's no way he did not know Milltown. Exactly. And the state had actually built a railroad. So there was a railroad that came from Chicago down to Indianapolis, passed through their two French lick.

And they they built that because the pleasure seekers from Chicago would come down to French lick as a resort town there. And there's no way that William Brownam did not know where Milltown was because it's just not possible.

Milltown is, I think even to the present day, the second largest town in this region, right? Like it's not, Milltown's not a little small hole in the wall town and it was even bigger back then.

It's faded a lot nowadays, but yeah, Milltown was an important regional center. And so it'd be very unusual that William Brownam hadn't heard of it even in the natural sense. But like I said, I know people who were in Milltown with William Brownam well before Georgia Carter was healed.

I think I told the story, you know, a few episodes ago about a man who had invited William Brownam over for Thanksgiving after his family died to help cheer him up. Well, the home that they invited into Thanksgiving dinner in was in Milltown.

Yes. So he was at Thanksgiving dinner with them in Milltown. Years before Georgia Carter was healed, even. So there is no chance he did not know what Milltown was. No, there's no chance. And you know, it's interesting because the version of the life story that he told much later, the one that stuck in historians' minds is so far different from what actually happened.

They, William Brownam often made this statement or this claim, I don't take it off. I've never taken an offering in my life and each time he's in a meeting and people bring him money He says, wow, this is the first time I've never taken an offering in my life And then the next one will say the same thing We actually have newspaper articles where it's hefty men They said too hefty men were required to carry out the money from his revivals in the main sect We talked about how William Brannum was very poor He was very, he worked for the public service company, which is true

But he didn't have much money. He wasn't taking an offering He didn't travel much. He was depressed. His wife had just died The timeline that he gives in this document shows clearly That he did not take any time off when Hope died. It does not appear to have phased him in the slightest and It was just last night we were Discussing this article about this crazy wolf story and You know, we in our sect we thought you know Maybe he didn't know Milhtown because he didn't travel that much But there's clear evidence in that wolf article where he is definitely traveling

I was reading this article again last night and there was there was one sentence in there John that I I had somehow overlooked before and I'm still just I'm still in disbelief over this sentence I'm not sure I believe this sentence. It's pretty unbelievable. It is pretty unbelievable But but you're right In one sense, you know people tell us William Brannum was very sad and stuff over the loss of his wife and no doubt He was but it did not seem to slow him down in the least from from traveling from holding revivals From going on his hunting trips and here. Yeah, there's a newspaper article

Here it is. It's I'm sure much too small here to be read, but I'm sure we can get a better picture up maybe but The title is wolf captured alive in den near Henryville and Basically goes through here to talk about a wolf that William Brannum captured in Henryville and then put on display and this is It looks like the date on it is 1942 it's August 22nd 1942 1942, okay and and in this article It talks about all the trips that William Brannum has been taken recently He and it says Reverend Brannum is the owner of many hunting trophies

including skins of grizzly bears shot in Alaska Maine and the Rocky Mountains and pelt's off several other wild animals taken on his hunting trips So it's going through, you know, just catalog. He's been everywhere. He's been from Alaska to Maine He's been everywhere Hunting and getting animal pelt, but there's the sentence here, John

That in this in this article says he has a live wolf at his residence that he captured last year near Butte Montana So the same year that George Carter is healed, he's also went to butemontana, and he's captured a live wolf.

And he's brought it back to Jeffersonville. And he's kept it for a whole year at his half. Oh my goodness. When I first read that, you know, your mind goes all kinds of different directions.

At first I'm thinking, you know, now that we know that some of his criminal past has been covered up, was the live wolf there to scare off people who might try to come capture him.

But then also seeing that he's, you know, William Brannum is very clearly making some really good money during this period of time. You think about the hunting trips for him to go on these hunting trips.

He has to take weeks off of work where he's getting not getting any money. And who knows how many other trips that aren't even described in this paper, right? Going and then he's having the taxidermy service to stuff these animals or what not.

Was William Brannum keeping the wolf so he could collect money for visitors who wanted to pay and see the wolf? There's just no way to know. Yeah, a little zoo in Jeffersonville. And I just like logistically, I wonder, like how do you do that?

So Montana is over a thousand miles away from Indiana. I know. To me, it's just a really interesting thing. How did he capture this wolf and then bring it a thousand miles back to Indiana?

You have to have quite a set up to be able to pull something like that off, I would think. And then I'm sure a wolf needs lots to eat and everything too. I mean, I'm just really curious what all had to go in to keep this thing up.

And he's keeping it more or less as a pet in Jeffersonville. It sounds like it's stranger than fiction, man. This is for Ripley's believe it or not. Yeah, goodness. So yeah, the same year he's healing George Carter, he's captured a live wolf in Montana and brought it back to Jeffersonville.

Yeah, that's not in his biographies. No, it does confirm something in his biographies. I actually questioned whether or not he was working for the public service, even though we have photographs with him standing there.

Maybe he's posing or whatnot. But he is apparently working for the public service. And I know that you have heard some similar testimonies, but it's from what I understand from people who were alive with people who knew William Brandham.

William Brandham worked in the public service company with another person who was a member of William Soudre's cult in Shepherd'sville, which had the, you know, the school of the prophets that William Brandham himself mentions, the school of the prophets.

And apparently William Brandham went into Soudre's cult many times because of this person he worked with. And you're right. And I know for sure too. He did work with the public service company. We had at our church somebody who actually carpooled with William Branham to work in the thirties.

Oh wow. Yeah, he had all kinds of wonderful stories. He told me about William Branham. And of course, which completely conflicted with all kinds of stuff. He's actually kind of interesting, because although he had carpooled with William Branham, he was not going to the tabernacle during the thirties and forties, early forties.

He was more like just a buddy to William Branham. So he wasn't involved in all the religious stuff back then. So he got a lot more of the personal side of his life from him in those years.

But yeah, William Branham was working at the public service company. You're right. There was a Souter right at this public service company. And William Branham was being influenced by William Souter's teachings. And like Roy Davis, like other pea places we can place William Branham, it seemed like William Souter was a significant influence on William Branham's ideology theology, however you want to term it, teachings.

And Stage Persona, right? Souter's was baptizing in the Ohio River and says, God spoke from the heavens, hear my voice or whatever. William Branham literally copied that from Souter's. Exactly. Souter's had been, Souter's had had a voice speak to him on the Ohio River before William Branham came up with his story of a voice speaking to him at the Ohio River, right?

And there's a lot of copies. A Souter was very, very anti-denomination, anti-organization. He was, he was also, he wasn't trainitarian nor oneness. Souter's, Godhead had two persons in the Godhead, right? And he had a Jesus named baptism.

And William Branham, you know, we talk about he preached Trinity and we talk about he preached oneness, but he also preached Tunis. Yeah, he also preached dualism. Yes, he also preached the two as well.

And there are sex of the message that, you know, follow the two person in the Godhead model as well. Yeah. So it's, yeah, William Branham was definitely significantly influenced by Souter's as well. I know Bernice Hicks was influenced by Souter's too.

Yes. And she actually connected up with him after William Branham had put her out of the tavernacle for a period of time. I've actually been in contact with people who have escaped the Souter's cult of rank.

And, you know, I can't verify what they say because I don't have the document itself, but they say that there were records kept in the cult and that William Branham was definitely on the record books.

And at minimum, they said that they knew people who had seen William Branham there and sister Bernice Hicks, the other cult leader in Jeffersonville. Right. And I think that during the period they were with...

William Brennan was with Davis. The Davis had an interest in Souter, you know, as a possible recruitment ground for his own churches And I thought that Davis was around there and no doubt William Brennan was around in the same period That those things were going on because Souter was Souter was a very prominent Pentecostal group In this area. I think he he's probably the largest Pentecostal group in this region. I would say based based on what I've read and known And it's only natural that William Brennan and their Pentecostal group would have interacted somewhat with Souter and his group

Yeah, yeah, so bring it all this back to Milltown for one second maybe before we move on um We just know for sure that there are things going on in this period of time and William Brennan's ministry that definitely conflict with the most prominent official versions of this story right is what whatever you read whether you go to gods generals Whether you go to man sent from god And even his most prominent life stories on tape These were dead years that nothing happened But in truth we know he was actively holding revivals in multiple towns and cities

That that there was healings coming out of them and and that George Carter healing one I talked about specifically is a particularly important one because it is the story of that healing that's eventually going to connect William Brownham to national fame This this story Reaches the years of some people in st. Louis who invite William Brownham over to preach for them in 1945 And and that is then what's going to set off his national fame And will we'll talk more about that probably in the next episode But that that's the background that's what's happened in here in these years that that's bringing brannum up from

obscurity from taking over this severely damaged group that Roy Davis is left while he went to jail To William brannum doing some kind of a rebuilding rebranding and reinventing himself Which is then going to turn into him rising to national fame Yeah, and I think that ties back to what I was saying about it looks like he's trying to part ways with Davis During this period of time he also marries his second wife Mita And it was a brethren minister that married Mita Which is unusual in this type of religion, right? He would choose usually a Pentecostal minister

Um eHoward Cadill who he was working with at Milhtown. He mentions working with him was Spreading basically plant he was called the tabernacle man. He was planting tabernacles That were dedicated to the brethren and you know also working with the Ku Klux Klan William brannum after this rise to fame after he realizes wait a minute. I can make money without Oh, Davis, that's whenever he rebrands himself.

And we see, he mentions in this, I was not disobedient document, he mentions the healing of Robert Dordy's daughter, which we'll get into in the next episode. But it isn't until Dordy comes to Jeffersonville that we start seeing the first advertisements of the Branham Tabernacle.

So he's literally changing his name, he's changing his stage persona, he's changing his healing commissions of plural, name of his church, everything changes. It looks like that is the point which he tries to walk away from Davis, not because of the things that he said in his recordings were the reasons why.

Exactly, he's making a shot at National Fame. He's got to hide and cover up everything that's went on before that don't match this new story that he's invented about his life. And it's, it gets even more interesting from there.

It really, you know, if you think about it, you kind of feel sorry for him as a entertainer because that's what he's doing, he's an entertainer. And he's got this monkey on his back, right?

He's got this guy that just totally destroyed his reputation in Jeffersonville, who's in prison for being a sex pervert, who's got this long trail of criminal histories, dwindling scams, you name it, Davis has done it.

And he's associated with the Ku Klux Klan, which is losing popularity very, very quickly. That's the monkey that's on his back as he's an entertainer. Yeah, yeah, he's got, he's got skeletons of the worst sort in his closet.

And certainly as a preacher, these are all, these are all career killers, right? Yeah. So he's got to, he's got to find a way to scrub out some of this stuff from his backstory if he wants to pursue his healing ministry career.

Yeah. Yeah, it's just such a different version of history than what we were told. And you know, like I said at the beginning of this episode, it's going to be very interesting for historians, but for people who are still being or were indoctrinated by this message called the personality, a lot of this has just been mentally blocked.

Like I don't know how to explain it in a way that people that weren't indoctrinated can understand, but there were pieces of this history that I myself knew. And then even after I left the cult of personality and I started researching and finding these facts, I really just kind of discounted it.

Like I was trained, I was mentally blocking this from any history of importance because that's literally what we were trained to do because this version of this stage persona does not match the later version.

No, and for me, what interests me about... this specific area and then kind of where we're coming down to at the end of this podcast is that to me it kind of answers the question or at least gives me a direction to look in to understand why William Brannum may have felt the need to make such a substantial rewrite of his early ministry because it logically flows at this point that he's ashamed of Davis and he's ashamed of what's happened and he has to do something to rewrite some of this stuff.

And most of everything, if I think about it logically, most of the pieces that he scrubbed and changed at this point are things to downplay the importance of Davis in his life and his backstory.

Yeah. Davis was nationally famous. I mean, when you hear William Brannum talk about him, you think he's just this known name, pastor and Jeffersonville, but we have a substantial amount of history available in the website of Davis and he was not just naturally famous for the clan, but he was very big and in the fundamentalist Christian circles and we get into it later, but he was the MC at one of the national quartet conventions and he was there with his wife who was posing as his foster daughter in Jeffersonville.

It's a fascinating history. I don't want to give too much of it here, but William Brannum not only has to hide from Davis's criminal past, not only hide from Davis's Cucuck's clan past and nights of the flaming sword, other white supremacy past.

He also has to literally hide from the fact that his doctrine came from Davis, his influencers like the Souters likely came from Davis connecting him. Davis was this key element that literally created William Brannum, but everybody knows Davis and now Davis is in prison.

So how do you cover this up? Well, you have to reinvent yourself. You have to make a new identity. And remember, when he first started touring, we have newspaper articles where he's posing as Henry Brannum, he's basically taking a new identity.

Yeah, it is, it's an unusual thing that early on in the healing revivals that some of the newspapers do call him Henry Brannum, which is his brother's name. That's an odd fact that I haven't really heard a real solid explanation on why he would have done that, but he was definitely, seems to have been using an alias, at least for a little bit of the time while he was traveling.

Yeah. So much interesting history and it's got to go to another episode, even though I'd love to talk about it right now. So we've got some exciting things coming and I hope that the listener stay tuned because even if you are...

You know, if you're not familiar with this history, there are key elements of this history that you need to understand to go to the bigger things, which we're just on the cusp of getting to.

So if you've enjoyed our show and you want more information, you can check us out on the web. You can find us at www.William-Branum.org and www.ChristianGospelChurch.org. For an overview of the historical research of William Branum in the Healing Revivals, you need preacher behind the white hoods, a critical examination of William Branum and his message, available on Amazon, Kindle, and Audible.

Join us again next week. We have a great episode coming.