Matt Bransford

Matt Bransford

Quick Facts

Significance:

Third generation cave guide, and owner of the Bransford Summer Resort

Place of Birth:

Edmonson County, Kentucky, USA

Date of Birth:

May 27, 1880

Place of Death:

Barren County, Kentucky, USA

Date of Death:

April 22, 1960

Place of Burial:

Glasgow, Kentucky, USA

Cemetery Name:

Odd Fellows Cemetery

Born in 1880, Matt W. Bransford was the grandson of the enslaved guide, Materson Bransford, and son of Henry and Alice Bransford.  

Despite slavery being abolished, the decades following the civil war, known as the Reconstruction Era, posed both familiar and new obstacles to many African Americans. While several accounts hold that Mammoth Cave, both in terms of work and community, was a notable exception to the routine segregation seen in Kentucky in the early 1900s and elsewhere; tourism was another matter. Tours at this time period were strictly segregated, a reflection of the expectations of many European American visitors. Lodging followed the same customs, which left few options for black visitors to mammoth cave. 

Matt and his wife, Zemmie, filled this void in the community, they owned and operated a two-story, fourteen room, hotel for black visitors called the Bransford Summer Resort. Matt also led specialty tours to black visitors; this was the first time in Mammoth Cave history that the black community could experience the same comforts and fascination of the cave white visitors had experienced for over a century. 

Matt and Zemmie were also respected and influential community members. When the process of purchasing land in order to create Mammoth Cave National Park began in the 1920s, Matt weighed in on the situation, he wrote

“they may not be so fertile as some of the other lands, but they are ours according to law, and we are as proud of our farms as if they were worth millions.”

In the years that followed this statement, many other local families faced similar decisions. Finally, in 1934, Matt and Zemmie Bransford sold their hotel and property for $3,000 – a price far under market value for the acres they gave up. After the sale of their Flint Ridge home, they moved 20 miles away and raised their son, David Bransford.  

Today Matt and Zemmie rest in a cemetery in Glasgow, Kentucky. Their headstone no doubt represents their affection for each other. It is a simple stone in the shape of two hearts bonded together.