The Bride of the Branch

By Harriet Outlaw
Posted 6/3/16

Everyone who walks over the Yancey Branch Bridge hopes to catch a glimpse of the lady in white. Let me tell you the story of the Bride of the Branch.

Recently, a late afternoon jogger ran along the walking trail on Whispering Pines Road in …

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The Bride of the Branch

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Everyone who walks over the Yancey Branch Bridge hopes to catch a glimpse of the lady in white. Let me tell you the story of the Bride of the Branch.

Recently, a late afternoon jogger ran along the walking trail on Whispering Pines Road in Daphne. As she crossed the wooden bridge over Yancey Branch, she saw a lady dressed in a bridal gown in the boggy bottoms of the stream. As she slowed down she heard a wailing cry. She stopped and stared as the vision dissolved into a mist. She was one of the lucky ones who saw the Bride of the Branch.

This story has been told for more than 150 years, because the traumatic event that left the ghost bride on the murky banks of the creek happened about 1850. I know this is true for I once heard it from an ancient man who was the child of former slave on a nearby plantation –  the home of the Bride of the Branch.

Joline was the lovely daughter of the owner of a large plantation near Loxley. She often accompanied the man driving the wagons loaded with cotton and produce to Wharf Landing to sell to brokers. The road to Daphne crossed Yancey Branch by way of a wooden bridge on the Old Spanish Trail.  Yancey Branch is still today a slow moving stream until heavy rains bring rushing water, causing the banks of the creek to quickly become a boggy mire, which the locals call quicksand. On one of her trips to Daphne, Joline met and fell in love with a bayboat captain, Joshua. They were soon planning marriage, but a tragic turn of events led to heartbreak.

Joline’s father was respected throughout the south, but few knew of his weakness for a game of cards.  Unbeknownst to his family, he had already lost his plantation to a doctor in Mobile. The doctor, one of Joline’s rejected suitors, offered the man a chance to win back his plantation in one more game, if Joline’s hand was his stake. In a bayside tavern his weakness sealed the fate of his beautiful daughter. When Joline’s father realized what he had done, he wept to his daughter of her impending marriage. She dutifully told her father she would honor the debt and prepared to leave.

She boarded the doctor’s buggy dressed in her white wedding gown. They left her home forever, Joline appearing calm for she knew that Joshua had devised a plan to rescue her. A terrible downpour began at dusk as they approached Yancey Branch. On the other side of the bridge, a masked highwayman met them and demanded they dismount. The doctor drew his gun and fired at the disguised Joshua. The frightened horse reared, throwing the doctor and Joline into the muddy roadway. The doctor was trampled to death, but Joline jumped up to go to her wounded lover. She ran toward Joshua calling his name, but became disoriented in the blinding rain. She stepped into the boggy quicksand, and was pulled to her death, leaving behind only echoes of her voice calling to Joshua.         

When Joshua regained consciousness, he heard his bride calling his name and began a frantic search for her. He walked for months along the banks of the branch. Sometimes he thought he saw her, but each time he approached her, she disappeared into a mist sinking into the quicksand. One day, his lantern was found near a muddy quagmire, and he was never seen again. However, Joline has been seen many times, always in her white wedding gown with her wet veil clinging to her face. Sometimes witnesses on the wooden bridge say that they hear a shivering wail, which may be the rustling of the sweetgum tree branches or the slushing of the stream, but most can distinctly hear her calling, “Joshshshsuaaa!”

Harriet Outlaw is a local folklorist and storyteller who has authored several works on local history and Baldwin County folklore.