The Bracken Family

Alma’s birth family

Cover image: Durward Bracken, born September 5, 1889 in North Carolina. Died on September 19, 1962 in Santa Cruz, California

 The father and mother of Alma Bracken were Durward Dillard Bracken and Alma T. Estein Bracken. The story that is told about their meeting is that Durward was working at the Cosmopolitan Hotel in New Orleans, where Alma was staying with her older sister, Amy. One day Durward was looking out the window of an upper floor of the hotel and saw Alma on the grounds below waving at him, or so he believed. It turned out she was actually waving at someone else, but Durward was encouraged enough to immediately descend and came out to talk with her. How long it took for them to get to know one another or for him to talk her into marrying him is shrouded in mystery, although it must not have been long, since they were married in Asheville on March 28, 1914. Durward was 24 and Alma was 23.

Alma’s Great-Aunt, Ameila Hebestreit Voegtle was married to the proprietor of the Cosmopolitan Hotel, Franz Joseph Voegtle. For more information on the hotel and the Hebestreit ancestors, click on the above button.

Durward was from a poor family and was not a overly educated boy. Early in his life, his father had packed the family into a wagon heading west, like so many others, but along the way perished himself, so the mother, with her young children, moved back to North Carolina from where they originated and did her best to provide for her children. Durward’s parents were John Dillard Bracken, born in 1867 in Transylvania County, North Carolina and Florida Brown, born in Henderson County, North Carolina in 1865. Durward had a sister who in kept in touch throughout his life.

Alma came from a very wealthy family. I (Nancy) read once in a letter to our mother that the Estein family was originally from France and were named “Etienne". During the Wars of Religions they migrated to Germany and changed their name. They were Huguenots and were persecuted in France. I can no longer locate the letter, however. Alma’s mother’s name was Pauline Estein. There is no mention of Alma’s father in any of the family documents.

Durward was not the kind of person Alma’s family had envisioned for her, so when she chose him, she also chose, apparently, to be estranged from her family for the rest of her life, although there was some contact later with cousins and other relatives. Her mother, and beloved brother Alex, and presumably the sister who had been caring for her at the sanitarium, did not seem to stay in touch, which presumably was a life-long wound.

Durward and Alma first moved to Albany, New York. After their first daughter Alma was born, they moved first to Portland for a year and then relocated to San Francisco where they raised their family. They were struggling during the depression when their daughters were young. Durward worked in hotels as he could but his employment was never entirely stable. Later in life the couple moved to Palo Alto to be close to Alma. Phil bought them a house.