BRANCH encyclopedia topics

Rickey, Branch, 1881-1965, American baseball executive, b. Stockdale, Ohio. As manager or executive, he was with the St. Louis Browns (1913-15), the St. Louis Cardinals (1917-42), the Brooklyn Dodgers (1943-50), and the Pittsburgh Pirates (1950-59). He was the first to institute the minor league farm system (1919) and integrated the major leagues by signing (1945) Jackie Robinson to a contract with the Brooklyn Dodgers.

See biography by M. Polner (1982); H. Frommer, Rickey and Robinson (1982).

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Long Branch

Long Branch, residential city (1990 pop. 28,658), Monmouth co., E central N.J., on the Atlantic coast; settled 1740, inc. 1904. It has clothing, cabinetmaking, and electronics industries. Long Branch, an ocean resort since the early 19th cent., boasts a prestigious array of vacationers. Presidents Grant, Hayes, Garfield, and Arthur summered there, and President Wilson's summer house (now part of Monmouth College) was at West Long Branch. President Garfield died in Long Branch in 1881. A historical museum and an art center are in the city, and the Monmouth Park Racetrack is nearby.

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Giles, William Branch

Giles, William Branch, 1762-1830, American statesman, b. Amelia co., Va. After practicing as a lawyer in Petersburg, Va., he entered the U.S. House of Representatives as an Anti-Federalist in 1790. There he opposed the establishment of the Bank of the United States and in 1793 brought charges of corruption against Alexander Hamilton; they were rejected. Resigning in 1798, he was a member of the Virginia legislature (1798-1800), but in 1801 was again elected to Congress. From 1804 to 1815 he was a U.S. Senator. He took a leading part in the impeachment of Justice Samuel Chase, was active in factional contests within the Jeffersonian party, and vigorously directed his hostility against Albert Gallatin and James Monroe. Giles was again a Virginia legislator for several terms, was governor of Virginia (1827-30), and took part in the state constitutional convention (1829-30). His career was marred by the intense personal animosities he held. Political Miscellanies (1829) contains a number of his speeches and letters.

See biography by D. R. Anderson (1914, repr. 1965).

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia Copyright © 2004.
Licensed from Columbia University Press

Farmers Branch

Farmers Branch, city (1990 pop. 24,250), Dallas co., N Tex., a suburb adjacent to Dallas; settled 1841, inc. 1946. The city makes tiles, plastics, and bakery products.

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Licensed from Columbia University Press

Cabell, Branch

Cabell, Branch (James Branch Cabell), 1879-1958, American novelist, b. Richmond, Va., grad. William and Mary, 1898. After various experiences as a journalist and a coal miner he began writing fiction. His early works, which are sophisticated novels deriding conventional history, include Gallantry (1907), Chivalry (1909), and The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck (1915). Many of Cabell's most popular novels are set in the imaginary medieval kingdom of Poictesme; among these are The Cream of the Jest (1917), Jurgen (1919)—Cabell's most famous work because of its attempted suppression on charges of obscenity—and The Silver Stallion (1926). Cabell's novels are usually pointedly antirealistic, and many of them can be considered moral allegories. Although he was enormously popular in the 1920s, his highly artifical prose style and subject matter lost favor with critics and public alike by the 1930s. His nonfictional writing includes Beyond Life (1919), The St. Johns (with A. J. Hanna, 1943), and Here Let Me Lie (1947).

See studies by J. L. Davis (1962), D. Tarrant (1967), H. Walpole (1920, repr. 1973), and L. D. Rubin (1959, repr. 1973).

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia Copyright © 2004.
Licensed from Columbia University Press

Rickey, Branch (Wesley)

(born Dec. 20, 1881, Stockdale, Ohio, U.S.—died Dec. 9, 1965, Columbia, Mo.) U.S. baseball executive. Rickey began playing professional baseball while a student at Ohio Wesleyan University. In 1917 he began a long association with the St. Louis Cardinals (president, 1917–19; field manager, 1919–25; general manager, 1925–42). In 1919 he devised the farm system of training ballplayers. He later became president and general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers (1943–50). Defying strong resistance, in 1945 he broke a long-standing race barrier by hiring the first black player in major league baseball. Jackie Robinson played for the Dodgers' farm teams for two years before he was brought up to play as an infielder for Brooklyn in 1947. Rickey was later associated with the Pittsburgh Pirates (1950–59).

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Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.