Everyone knows that Union County is home to a good number of Country Music Stars but did you know it is also the home place of a Visual Artist Star? Enoch Lloyd Branson was born in Union County in 1853 (the year of the birth of Vincent Van Gogh). His family moved to Knoxville in 1868, where Lloyd found work in a brickyard. Around the time of the Civil War, prominent Knoxville physician John Mason Boyd noticed a sketch of Ulysses S. Grant Branson had made on a cigar box, and provided financial assistance for Branson to attend East Tennessee University. Branson moved to New York in 1873, where he attended the National Academy of Design. Two years later, he captured first prize at one of the Academy's exhibitions for his drawing of a gladiator, which earned him a scholarship to receive further training in Paris. In 1876, he returned to Knoxville, and quickly became a leading figure in the city's art community.

Branson was a stylistically conservative painter, especially in his early years, though some of his later works show elements of impressionism and modern styles. He focused primarily on commercial portraits, but his most well-known works tend to depict historical scenes of the Appalachian frontier. His work was exhibited in the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, the 1900 World's Fair in Paris, and the 1901 Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo. He won the gold medal for an exhibition at the 1895 Cotton States Exposition in Atlanta and in 1896, he won a national competition for designing the "Flag of Knoxville, TN." Branson reached the height of his career in 1910, when his work, "Hauling Marble," won the gold medal at Knoxville's Appalachian Exposition.

His works include portraits of famous people such as Brig. Gen. John Porter McCown, CSA, Ellen McClung Berry, Attorney Horace Maynard, Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer, Alvin C. York, and Captain James N. Williamson, CSA, to name a few. It is said that Branson created near a thousand paintings in his lifetime. You can view one of his portraits of Horace Maynard at our own Union County Museum. Other works are in collections and on exhibit at The Tennessee State Museum, Nashville, Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Nashville, Knoxville Museum of Art, the McClung Museum, Knoxville, and the East Tennessee History Center, Knoxville.

Lloyd Branson died on June 12, 1925. He is buried in Old Gray Cemetery in Knoxville. Branson Avenue in Knoxville is named in his honor. His house still stands along the road, and has been purchased and restored by the preservation group, Knox Heritage.