Thomas Alfred BRAGG. Jesse Bragg married Nancy WANEY in Alabama in 1807. They had ten children one of whom was Alfred Colum Bragg. Colum married Susan Emiline Harris, nee Boggs. Colum served in the Texas C.S.A and moved to White Oaks, New Mexico in a family wagon train from Albany, Texas in 1887. Several other and related families traveled in the wagon train. Colum’s young grandson, Alfred Thomas Bragg, was a mule skinner who took care of the mules which pulled his father’s wagon. Thomas Alfred settled along Rio Bonito and made his living training mules and herding. He came to be known as Muloamo or mule trainer.
Thomas Alfred’s parents were Ben Bragg and Anna D. Stanphill. Ben was murdered in 1896 on the Eagle Creek trail as he brought supplies to Thomas who was herding sheep beside the creek. Thomas was later pursued by Sheriff Emil Fritz for taking revenge, but was never brought to trial. Ben had nine other children who grew up near White Oaks.
Thomas Alfred Bragg married Molly Delphora Goats, a Texas lady with German ancestry, 2 April 1898 in Nogal. They had three children, Charley Lee and Emzy Everett Bragg, and Bertha Fanny Bragg. Charley and Emzy were known as fist fighters, and Bertha once won a wood chopping contest.
Several land marks are named after Ben Bragg’s family near White Oaks such as Benado—Ben sin mas ni mas, meaning it’s Ben’s place, and Canon Del Bragg, and Canon Del Bragg Del Pequeno and Benado Gap and Bragg Canyon and Little Bragg Canyon. A Veterans Civil War headstone in the historical Cedarvale Cemetery of White Oaks was erected in honor of Alfred Colum Bragg. Ben Bragg was buried in Nogal Cemetery. Thomas Bragg was buried in Angus Cemetery beside relatives.
Sources: Texas and New Mexico marriage records; censuses Texas 1830 through 1880, & New Mexico 1900, 1910 & 1920. Bragg Family Bible; Oral history by E. L. Greer; the Ancestral File; book titled Cousins of Thomas Alfred Bragg, A Little Family Book; book titled The Saga of the Sierra Blanca & book titled The Bear’s Den both by H. L. Traylor.
First Family contributed by C. W. Barnum

©2005