In 1906 he co-founded the Belle Meade Land Company with J.M. Overton, Stuyvesant Fish, James Theodore Harahan, and J.C. Welling. They hired Ossian Cole Simonds to design the community. In 1910 Luke Lea, publisher of "The Tennessean"; Telfair Hodgson Jr. (the treasurer of ); and David Shepherd bought Belle Mead Company. They began the development of Belle Meade's main streets, including Jackson Boulevard and Belle Meade Boulevard. Meanwhile, Johnson Bransford built Deer Park, Berkley Hills, Reservoir Hill, and the Belle Meade Golf Links.