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Hi all,
Robert Brashier (as he signed his will) was born in 1646 in Nansemond Co, VA and died in Calvert Co, MD, in 1712, leaving three sons that we know of: Benjamin Brashear Sr, Samuel Brashear Sr, and Robert Brashear, IV. There is a William B. Brashier in old Baltimore Co, MD (area now Harford Co) in the same time period. But I've never seen any shred of evidence that the two families knew of each other's existence.
Robert Brashier, was oldest son of Benois Brassieur or Brasseur, b. c1620 in France, d. 1662 in Calvert Co, MD. Benois had a father, a brother, and a son named Robert, which leads to certain confusions.
Robbert Brasseur, father of Benois and our Huguenot Immigrant to VA c1635, was probably born in about 1598, and certainly in France. He died in Nansemond Co, VA early in 1667, and his land went to John Brasseur (Jean Braser), the oldest son at the time, Benois having died five years before.
I went to France for an extended period in 2003 and searched the archives of Marseilles, but could not find a trace of Robert or any Brasseur. I've about concluded that they came from some other place. I did find some data on the deBrassier family, with whom our family is often confused. I'll try to get it in order in the new year and post it. Right now, I'm working day and night to put the finishing touches on vol 6 of A BRASHEAR FAMILY HISTORY.
Here's my
Plan for an 9-volume “A BRASHEAR(S) FAMILY HISTORY”
by Charles Brashear
1718 Arroyo Sierra Circle
Santa Rosa, CA 95405-7762
e-mail: brashear@mail.sdsu.edu
phone: 707/545-3903
I am and have been for 40-something years actively engaged in research on the
Brashear(s) Family, in all its branches, in all spellings of the surname. Some years ago, Troy
Back and Leon Brashear gave me their blessing and permission to “update” their book, THE
BRASHEAR STORY, A FAMILY HISTORY, but the more data I collected, the more I realized
that this family history will never again fit into one volume, especially if you include the
amount and kind of detail that I like to include. I now have published six (if I get this one uploaded today) of a planned nine
volumes.
Vol 1. The First 200 Years of Brashear(s) in America and Some Descendants in Maryland
(this one was published in Nov 1998 and is still available at $35 for hardcover, $25 for
paperback, plus $3 postage and packaging; CA residents add 8% sales tax. See also pricing
schedule, below.)
Vol 2. Robert C. Brashear of North Carolina and Some Descendants in TN, KY, MO, TX, etc.
(Published 1 Sep 1999. Available only in hardback. $35, plus $3 p&p and 8% CA tax, if
applicable.)
Vol 3. Robert Samuel Brashear(s) and Some Descendants in TN and KY (Published early in
2001; $40, plus $3 p&p and CA tax, if applicable.
Vol 4. Brashear(s) Families of the Ohio Valley (Published 20 April 2002. 676 pages (xx +
576) with a 59-page index, about 50 pictures, and 7 maps. $40 + $3 p&p and CA tax, if
applicable.)
Vol 5. Two Brashear(s) Families of the Lower Mississippi Valley and their Choctaw and
Other Descendants. (Published in 2002, 700 pages, including introduction, index, pictures,
maps, etc; $40 + $3p&p and CA tax, if applicable.)
Vol 6. Brashears/ Breshears Families of TN, MO, ID, WA, OK, etc including Beshears,
Boshears and Other Descendants. (The data for Vol 6 got so big, I had to divide the book. This
“half” is close to 700 pages and was published in Dec, 2004, with about 100 pictures, 8 maps
and scanned documents; $40 + $3 p&p and CA tax, if applicable.)
Vol 7. Brashears Families of SC, MO, IL, etc. (This one will include William Brashears and
Sarah _____ of Spartanburg, SC, and their sons, William Brashears (m. Mary Elizabeth
Clayton) of MO and Ithra Brashears (m. Hannah Elizabeth Middleton) of Crawford Co, IL;
Scott and Campbell Co, TN Boshears Families; and Jeremiah and Isaac Beshears of Christian
and Hopkins Co, KY.
Vol 8. Brashear(s) Families West of the Mississippi River (Have been collecting chapters
for this one, but it’s not very well formed yet. My family will finally get its space in this one!!)
Vol 9. Brashear Additions, Corrections, Strays, and Non-Brashear(s) Families (Plenty
of stray data, and plenty of non-Brashears families; the problem is how to organize it all. And
then who would want it? Send your data anyway; I’m keeping files as if I wanted to print a
volume of miscellaneous data.)
Order published books from me: Charles Brashear, 1718 Arroyo Sierra Circle, Santa Rosa,
CA 95405-7762 (please add $3 postage and packaging for the first book, $1 each for each
additional book sent to the same address at the same time; CA residents add 8% sales tax).
Please do not order books that have not yet been published.
Prices are as follows; CA residents please add 8% sales tax
vol. 1 (hardback)$38 ($35 + $3 p&p)
vol. 1 (paperback)$28 ($25 + $3 p&p)
vol. 2 (hardback only) $38 ($35 + $3 p&p)
. . . . . (v.1 hardback & v.2 together$65 + $5 p&p)
vol. 3 (hardback only) $43 ($40 + $3 p&p)
. . . . . (v.1, 2, & 3 together$100 + $5 p&p)
vol. 4 (hardback only) $43 ($40 + $3 p&p)
. . . . . (v.1 & v.4 together$70 + $5 p&p)
vol. 5 (hardback only) $43 ($40 + $3 p&p)
. . . . . (v.1 & v.5 together$70 + $5 p&p)
. . . . . (v.1, 2, & 5 together$100 + $5 p&p)
. . . . . (v.1, 2, 3, 4, & 5 together$170 + $7 p&p)
Vol. 6 (hardback only) $43 ($40 + $3 p&p)
. . . . . (v.1 & v.6 together$70 + $5 p&p)
. . . . . (v.1, 2, & 6 together$100 + $6 p&p)
. . . . . (v.1, 2, 3, 4, 5 & 6 together$200 + $10 p&p)
The other volumes (7, 8, & 9) are yet to be finished.
. . . I also have copies of A BRAZIER/BRASHER SAGA, 300 Years of the Brasher, Brazier,
Brasier, Brashier Family in America. Which is an altogether different family: Descendants of
William B. Brashier Sr, who died at age 34 in Old Baltimore Co (now Harford Co), MD in
1708, leaving four orphans, whom the courts took care of. This SAGA is available only in
8.5"x11" paperback and sells for $28 ($25 + $3 p&p).
. . . I'm working on the other Brashear books.
To order the printed volumes (please do NOT order the volumes not yet printed!),
send a note, saying which volume(s) you want (so I won’t get confused) and where you want
it/them sent, along with a check or money order, to
Charles Brashear,
1718 Arroyo Sierra Circle,
Santa Rosa, CA 95405-7762
Phone: 707/545-3903
I’ll mail the books as soon as I can put them into the mailing boxes and get to the Post Office.
. . . If any of you want to order a gift copy for your favorite library, I’ll knock $10 off the price
(that is, you pay $25 for the hardbacks of v.1 & v.2, $30 for the others, plus p&p), and I’ll
send it to the library in your name. Just tell me which library, or let me pick one. (Some 30
libraries already have gift copies of vol 1, not so many of the other volumes.)
MORE DETAILS
Here are some more detailed descriptions of the contents of the printed volumes, as well
as some of my other writings:
Vol 1: THE FIRST 200 YEARS OF BRASHEAR(S) IN AMERICA
and Some Descendants in Maryland
WARNING! Don’t mistake this for something it isn’t. (Some people bought the
Brazier/Brasher book and then complained that their Brashear family was not in it; these
are two wholly different families.) This is a volume about the first five generations of the
descendants of Robert and Benois Brasseur, French Huguenot immigrants to Virginia, c1635,
whose surname was Anglicized as Brashear. Over the years, many branches of the family
added an “s” to make it Brashears. Benois Brasseur was naturalized in Calvert Co, MD, in
1662, and became known as Benjamin Brashear; he is the progenitor of virtually all
Americans with surnames Brashear, Brashears, Brashares, Breshear(s), Breashear(s),
Broshear(s), Beshear(s), Boshear(s), Beshires, often Brasher, Brashers, Brashier, Brashiers,
sometimes Brazier, and about 35 other spellings. Also, this volume only treats the first 200
years of the family, mainly in Virginia and Maryland, from about 1635 to about 1835, except
that the Western Maryland chapter comes up to the last few years. I’m working on other
volumes that will bring many of the Brashear(s) lines down to more recent times.
. . . The volume is 7" by 10", 336 pages long (16 pages of front matter, including contents
and a review of the deBrassier Family of Carpentras, France; 300 pages of text (see contents
below); and 20 pages of 4-column index--about 3500 entries).
Abbreviated CONTENTS of Vol 1:
1. Robert Brasseur, The Huguenot Immigrant ........................ 1
2. Benjamin (Benois) Brassieur, The American ..................... 23
3. John Brasseur, of Nansemond Co, Virginia ..................... .50
4. Thomas Brasher, of Cecil Co, MD ................................65
5. Robert Brasheur, II, “Elder” ...................................70
6. Robert Brashier, III, The Improvident...........................77
7. Three Brothers of Maryland: Benjamin, Samuel, and Robert IV ... 92
8. Benjamin Brashear Jr and Rebecca Walker .......................121
9. John Brashear “Junior” and Mary Dowell ........................131
10. William Brashear “Senior” and Sarah Wallingsford .............156
11. Speculations About Dowell Brashears, His Family ..............169
12. Samuel Brashear Jr and Elizabeth Brashear ................... 177
13. John Brashear “Senior” and Ruth Walker .......................193
14. Hard Times in Maryland: Two Brothers Go Broke .......... .....207
15. William Brashear “Junior” and Priscilla Prather ..............215
16. William Brashears, The Millwright, and Margaret Carr .........229
17. John Brashears, III, and Mary Pottinger ................... . 241
18. Some Brashear Families of Western Maryland .................. 260
Index ............................................................301
Vol 2: ROBERT C. BRASHEAR OF NORTH CAROLINA
and Some Descendants in TN, KY, MO, TX, etc,
The 1740s were an economically rough time in Maryland (some of our family lost their land
and/or spent time in debtors’ prison). Newly opened land in the Granville District of North
Carolina was an invitation to a new start. Three Brashear brothers--Robert C., Basil, and
Otho--migrated to NC in the late 1740s/ early 1750s, where Robert and Basil got land grants.
Basil went broke again and left about 1766, and Otho simply disappeared, but Robert C.
Brashear and his wife, Charity Dowell, stayed on and (we think) prospered. They were
patriots during the Revolutionary War, after which newly opening land in western places
beckoned again, and the family succumbed to wanderlust or land-hunger; they became part
of the American westward movement. This volume traces Robert C. Brashear in North
Carolina and the families of sons Philip, Asa, and Zaza, and daughter, Ann (Brashear) Ball;
Robert Samuel Brashear and Jesse Brashears have to wait for vol. 3 and vol. 5, respectively.
. . . The volume is 7" by 10", 316 pages (290 pages of text, about 50 illustrations, and 24
pages of 4-column index--over 4000 entries).
ABBREVIATED CONTENTS of VOL 2
Preface .......................................................... vii
1. The First Four Generations of Brashear(s) in America ............11
2. The Guilford County Brashear Colony .............................17
3. Robert C. Brashear and Charity Dowell,
of Guilford County, NC .........................................32
4. Philip Brashears Sr and Ann Wilson of Henry Co, VA ..............47
5. Ann “Nancy” Brashears and Moses Ball of Fairfax Co, VA ..........69
6. Robert Samuel Brashears, “The Rolling Stone,”
and Phoebe Nicks ...............................................77
7. Jesse Brashears, of Pensacola, and Elizabeth Prather ............82
8. Captain Asa Brasher and Jemima Nelson
of Rockingham Co, NC ...........................................87
9. Zaza Brasher Sr and Elizabeth Adkinson,
of Rockingham County, NC ......................................117
10. Zaza Brasher Sr and Elizabeth Lomax ..........................139
With Special Thanks to Joy (Hines) Horton
11. James Brashears and Nancy Bowling, of Lee Co, VA .............162
12. John Wesley B. Brashears and Drucilla ?Wilson ................183
With Special Thanks to Doyle Fenn
13. Absalom Brashears/Beshears
and Martha Ann “Polly” Phillips ..............................218
Co-author: Jerri Beshears Kennedy
14. Robert Brashears/Beshears
and Elizabeth Whitten, of Pike Co, MO ........................242
With Special Thanks to Larry Howser
15. Benjamin Brashears
and Some Greene County, Missouri, Families ...................264
16. Jesse Brashears and Betsy Shell ..............................270
With Special Thanks to Darrell Spencer
Index ............................................................293
Vol 3: Robert Samuel Brashears, “The Rolling Stone,”
and Some Descendants in TN and KY.
Very early in the Revolution (or maybe even before), several of the Guilford Co Brashear(s)
again got wanderlust, or they had worn out the land. At any rate, Robert Samuel Brashears
and all of his children migrated to the frontier, first to Sullivan Co, NC (it would become
Sullivan Co, TN), then to Roane Co, TN. RSB’s son, Isaac Brashears, went on to
Perry/Decatur Co, TN, and his son, Capt. Samuel Brashear (he dropped the “s” on his
surname), moved on to Perry Co, KY. RSB’s son, Basil, stayed on in Roane Co. This volume
is about these families.
. . . The volume is 7" x 10", 496 pages, including 41 pages of index and about 40 maps,
pictures, or other documents. Since it costed me considerably more to print this one, I have
to charge $40 per copy. Sorry.
ABBREVIATED CONTENTS OF VOL 3:
1. Robert Samuel Brashears, “The Rolling Stone,”
And Phoebe Nicks ..............................................14
2. Philip Brashears, Son of RSB....................................35
3. Isaac Brashears, The Patriarch..................................38
4. Capt. Samuel Brashear and Margaret Eakin........................47
5. The Daughters of Robert Samuel Brashears........................59
6. Basil Brashears and Margaret “Peggy” Horton.....................92
. . . The next Six Are Children of Isaac Brashears, the Patriarch
7. John Brashears and Charity Bradley.............................116
8. Robert B. Brashears and Sarah Rhea Hankins,
. . . of Lawrence Co, Tn............................................139
9. Walter Brashears And Elizabeth Roberts.........................174
10. The Daughters of Isaac Brashears: ............................205
11. Judge Samuel Brashers And His Descendants.....................221
12. Absalom Alfred Brashears and Ellender Ross....................260
. . . The Rest Are Descendants of Capt. Samuel Brashear
13. Margaret Brashear and John Larkey.............................268
14. Sampson Brashear and Margaret Bright..........................278
15. Robert S. “Old Bob” Brashear and Mary Everidge................326
16. Two Brothers of Webster Co, Mo................................336
17. James N. Brashear Sr and Elizabeth Young......................342
18. Eli Brashear and Sarah “Sally” Campbell.......................346
19. Robert S. Brashear and Sarah “Sally” Hall.....................357
20. Adeline Brashear and Robert S. Cornett........................399
21. James N. Brashear Jr and Elizabeth Pratt......................409
22. Sampson Brashear and Mary Ann Hall............................431
24. (Rev.) William E. Brashear
and Mary Hampton/ Fanny Elkins................................440
25. Elizabeth Brashear and Benjamin Engle.........................452
Index.............................................................455
Vol 4. Brashear(s) Families of the Ohio Valley
Well before the Revolution, a burgeoning population made new land necessary. If you have
a family of 12 children, there is no way in the world those 12 families can live on the same
land as the parents, especially when the parents’ land is already old, nearly worn-out. As
early as the 1750s, Americans began crowding Western Maryland, the Monongahela River
valley in southwestern Pennsylvania, and by about 1775, the Ohio River Valley. A fair
number of Brashear(s) families and their relatives were among these emigrants— the Elder
and Younger William Brashears; Otho Brashear and his wife Ruth Brown (along with two of
her brothers who had married two of Otho’s sisters); Ignatius “Nacy” Brashear; Marsham
Brashear (and his father, Benjamin, and brothers, who soon moved on to Mississippi);
remnants of older Maryland families, like Lt. Rezin Brashears, Nathan Brashears/Brashares
Jr, Zachariah Brashears/Broshars; and strays like Joseph M. Brashears of Steubenville. This
volume is about these people and their families.
. . . The volume is 6" x 9", hardbound, 676 pages (xx + 656), with 59 pages of index, about
50 pictures and seven maps. $40, plus $3 postage and packaging.
ABBREVIATED CONTENTS OF VOL 4:
1. The First Five Generations..................................................1
2. Brashear Families of Western Pennsylvania...............11
3. The Brownsville Colony......................................................39
4. William Brashear and Anne Ray.......................................123
5. Marsham Brashear and Lucy Phelps
Of Louisville......................................................................235
6. Benjamin Brashear, of Menallen Twp...................................261
7. Eden Brashear and Priscilla Gilliland............................287
8. Edward Brashear and Nancy Dyson
And Other Kentucky Strays...............................................335
9. Ignatius "Nacy" Brashear Sr
And Frances Permelia Catheral...............................352
10. Lt. Rezin Brashear Sr and His Four Wives............................398
11. Nathan Brashears Jr
And His Brashares Descendants..........................................410
12. Zachariah Brashears
And His Broshar Descendants.....................................446
13. Thomas Broshears and His Sisters........................................473
14. Samuel Mason Brashears/Broshears
And Hannah Standiford.................................................491
15. Joseph M. Brashears and Rebecca Viers
Of Steubenville, Oh..............................................................552
Index..................................................................................................597
Vol 5. Two Brashears Families of the Lower Mississippi Valley,
their Choctaw and other Descendants.
VOL. 5 of A BRASHEAR(S) FAMILY HISTORY, "Two Brashear(s) Families of the Lower
Mississippi Valley, Their Choctaw, & Other Descendants," 700 pages (xvi + 686) and hard
backed.$40 per copy, plus $3 postage and packaging for the first volume, $1 p&p for each
additional volume.
Here is what this volume is about:
. . . By the late 1770s, American and European immigrants were already moving into the
lower Mississippi Valley in search of new land, even though much of that territory was under
Spanish control. Some of them came by ship to Pensacola, Mobile, New Orleans, Baton
Rouge, and Natchez, all of which were developed ports under French and Spanish
administrations. Others came by flatboat down the Cherokee (Tennessee) River, then
proceeded down an ancient, Indian trading path, soon to be known as The Natchez Trace.
Still others began floating down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers to find new land.
. . . Two branches of the Brashear(s) family were among these early immigrants: 1. Benjamin
Brashear and all his children, except Marsham (who stayed in Louisville, KY) and 2. Jesse
Brashears and all of his children. In both cases, one or more members of the family married
into the Choctaw tribe and founded large families that are still traceable today. Other of their
brothers and cousins founded large, non-Indian families.
Here is an abbreviated outline of the volume:
1. Benjamin Brashear and Catherine Belt of Maryland and Mississippi . . . 1
2. Capt. Richard Brashear, Soldier on the Mississippi . . . 20
3. Capt. Tobias Brashear and Martha Brocus, of "Pleasant Hill," MS . . . 35
4. R.T. "Turner" Brashear, The Choctaw Trader . . . 54
5. Jesse Brashears and Elizabeth Prather, of NC, GA, and Pensacola . . . 78
6. Philip Brashear of East Baton Rouge Parish, LA . . . 110
7. Samuel Brashears, Sr and Rachel Durant . . . 137
8. Zadock Brashears, Sr and Susannah Vaughn . . . 188
9. Jesse Brashears and Delilah Juzan, of Tombigbee . . . 223
10. The Debacle at Dancing Rabbit Creek . . . 244
11. Betsy Buckholtz's Battle for Her Entitled Land . . . 272
12. Other Squabbles With Squatters: The Reservations of Alexander Brashears, Delilah
(Juzan) Brashears, Zadock Brashears, Jr & Sr, and Turner Brashears, II . . . 309
13. The Lost And Found Reservation of Susanna (Brashears)
Stewart-Graham . . . 361
14. The Trail of Woe to Oklahoma: The Families of Delilah "Lila" Brashears and
Wesley Trahern & Vaughn Brashears and Isabella Leflore . . . 382
15. Good Times in Indian Territory: Descendants of Sophia Brashears, I, and
Sampson Moncrief . . . 427
16. The Choctaw Children of R.T. "Turner" Brashear . . . 487
17. The Dawes Disaster And American Chicanery . . . 571
Appendix— . . . 610
INDEX . . . 623
Vol. 6 Brashears/Breshears Families of TN, MO, ID, WA, OK, etc, including Beshears and
Boshears families. almost 700 pages (xx + 668, including 80 pp of 3-col index) and hard
backed. $40 per copy, plus $3 postage and packaging.
In the 1830s, the old restlessness overtook the Brashears/Breshears families of Lawrence
Co, TN (besides the land was wearing pretty thin), and they started looking for new land in
the west. Several brothers and cousins from Lawrence Co— Middleton, the Younger; Nathan
Turner; Alexander; John (m. Naoma Hogg); Henry Breshears Jr; Berry Boshears; and many
of their grown children headed west in 1832, 1838, 1842, etc and found new lives in Benton,
Polk, Dallas, and neighboring Counties, MO; White and Saline Co, AR, etc.
These were all probably descendants of Basil Brashears, b. 1714, MD, m. Anne Belt; and
their son, Middleton “The elder.” After hardly a generation, many of them moved to Boise, ID,
Omak, WA, Indian Territory, TX, and other neighboring counties in MO.
Abbreviated Contents of Vol 6:
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v
1. Basil Brashear(s) and Anne Belt. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Basil’s Ancestry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Basil in Maryland . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Basil in North Carolina . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Basil in South Carolina . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
2. Middleton Brashears, the Elder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
3. Basil Brashears Sr, b. c1765 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
4. John Brashears Sr, and Mary Berry. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
5. Isaac Brashears/Beshears, Sr . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
6. Jacob Brashears/Boshears Sr. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
7. Berry M. Brashears and Frances Pryor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
William James Brashears and Elizabeth _____/ Nellie _____. . . 98
Henry Newton Brashears and Mary Ann Brownlow/ Sarah Ann Allie . . 101
Dicey Ann Brashears and James M. Brookins . . . . . . . 117
Martilla “Teallie” Brashears and John W. Penny . . . .. . . . . . 121
8. Reuben T. Brashears and Elizabeth “Bettie” Harbour . . . . . . . . 124
9. Henry Brashears/Breshears, Sr, and Eleanor Hardin . . . . . . . .154
10. William Breashears and Anna Etheridge . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
Matthew Breashears and Elizabeth Parker . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
Sarah Ann Breashears and John Humphreys . . . . . . . . . . . 189
11. John Breshears and Naoma Ann Hogg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .191
Mary Albany Breshears and Abraham James Baker/ Noah Jackson Bray 205
Henry Hardin Breshears and Catherine Baker . . . . . . . . . . .206
12. Reuben Dobbin Breshears and Mary H. Batten . . . . . . . . . . .209
13. William Arthur Breshears and Abigail Jane Batten . . . . . . . .223
14. Jesse Carroll Breshears and Rhoda Catherine Jump . . . . . . . .241
15. Younger Children Of John Breshears and Naoma Ann Hogg . . . . . .251
John Westley Breshears and Lucy Baker . . . . . . . . . . . . . .251
Margaret Naomi Breshears and Joseph Henry Jump . . . . . . . . . 257
Joseph W. Breshears and Isabell Brashears/ Prudence Tipton . . . 260
James Knox Polk Breshears, I and His Three Wives . . . . . . . . 265
Thomas Hart Benton Breshears and Nancy Ann Potter . . . . . . . .274
Andrew Jackson Breshears and Martha Hammack . . . . . . . . . . .276
16. Jesse Brashears and Elizabeth Bell/ Mary Ellen Franklin . . . . 279
17. Henry Breshears Jr, Atsa “Atsey” Etheridge, and Older Children. .298
James Alexander Breshears Sr, and Sarah Ann Jordan . . . . . . . 303
Levi Robert “Lee” Breshears and Mary Anna Garner . . . . . . . . .306
18. Madison Golman Breshears and Elizabeth M. Brown . . . . . . . . .312
19. Younger Children of Henry Breshears Jr and Atsa Etheridge . . . 362
Susanna “Sukey” Breshears and Shandy Jordan/ Jesse Miller . . . . 362
William Marion Breshears and Mary Jane Pippin . . . . . . . . . . 364
Sarah Malissa Breshears and William Nute Jordan . . . . . . . . . 366
Henry Thomas Breshears and Sabrina J. Murray . . . . . . . . . . .369
John Martin Van Buren Breshears and Susannah Ihrig . . . . . . . .385
Andrew Jackson Breshears and Mary Jane Parsley . . . . . . . . . .394
Marcus Monroe Breshears and Leanna Murray . . . . . . . . . . . . 403
Atsey Adaline Breshears and Joel Ihrig . . . . . . . . . . . . . .404
William Carroll (Green) Breshears and Mary Orleana Rice . . . . . .406
20. James Brashears and Three Brothers of Missouri: . . . . . . . . .412
21. Middleton Brashears (The Younger), and Jane _____ . . . . . . . . 416
22. Nathan Turner Breshears and Elizabeth Catherine Keele . . . . . .422
23. Alexander Brashears and Margaret Breshears . . . . . . . . . . . .451
24. The Phantom Absalom Brashears . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .478
25. Berry Brashears (Boshears) of Arkansas . . . . . . . . . . . . . 479
Henry Clay Brashears, II and His Seventeen Children . . . . . . . 505
Henry Clay Brashears, I and Martha Godwin . . . . . . . . . . . . 520
26. John Brashear and Betsy Randall/ Elizabeth Chambers. . . . . . . .539
27. Brashears Families of Angelina Co, Texas . . . . . . . . . . . . .547
James M. “Jim” Brashears and Mary Elizabeth Maribe Jones . . . . . 547
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 587
Appendix. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 668
MY HISTORICAL FICTION:
I also write fiction (mainly historical fiction about American Indians) and books about the
writing process. If any of you are interested, here are some descriptions:
Killing Cynthia Ann, a novel, published 1999 by Texas Christian University
Press. $21.50. In 1836, blonde, blue-eyed Cynthia Ann Parker was kidnaped by Comanches
in East Texas. She refused to be repatriated and lived with the Indians almost 25 years,
marrying and raising a family (Quanah Parker, last chief of the Comanches, was her oldest
son). In 1860, Texas Rangers captured Cynthia Ann and her toddler daughter, Toh-Tsee-Ah-
ne, and took them to East Texas, where her Parker relatives held her prisoner the rest of her
life. She wanted nothing but to return to her family on the Comanchería, but her Parker
relatives could not imagine why anyone would want to be an Indian. Unwittingly, they
psychologically tortured her to death. The book is a documentary novel about the last ten
years of Cynthia Ann Parker’s life. Footnotes in the margins tell the reader where the data
comes from.
Comeuppance at Kicking Horse Casino, and Other Stories, published
in 2000 by American Indian Studies Center, UCLA, $15. This collection of stories is a mix of
historical and contemporary fictions. The historical stories provide a background for the
contemporary stories, so that the entire collection becomes a loose chronicle of the Native
American experience since the European settlement of North America. A wide range of tribes
is represented--Powhatan, Cherokee, Creek, Comanche, Lakota, Navajo, Ute, Keres, Ácoma,
Zuni, and an unnamed southern California tribe. Each story highlights some individual’s
quandry--and often alienation--in negotiating and adapting to a face to face encounter with
the whites.
Brain, Brawn, and Will: The Turmoils and Adventures of Jeff Ross. Published
in 2001 by 1stbooks Library. 6x9 Paperback: $19.95. Jeff Ross was a quintessential 19th
century man. As a teenager in Tennessee, he lay on the bank of the river and watched the
Battle of Shiloh. A few years later, he rode in a vigilante party that gunned down his father’s
murderer. Thus, he learned early that violence was a socially approved way of achieving
social goals. At the same time, he went to college and graduated from Cumberland University
Law School in 1872 at the head of his class. He then embarked upon a career in which the
mind was the instrument of social progress. Thus, his personality was formed by the twin
and contradictory forces that have permeated American culture from the beginning— violence
and intellect.
. . . In 1878, at the age of 27, he ran away from his law practice and home. He traveled for
a time in New England with a circus, running a “panorama” side show and hawking a “magic
solder” for mending pots and pans. He hitch-hiked through Europe for a couple of years,
shipped for Rio de Janeiro on a Norwegian freighter, led exploring parties into the interior of
Brazil. He then took a job, running a mule team to supply railroad-building enterprises.
Soon, he had worked his way up to transportation chief, then to construction chief,
eventually to a licensed civil engineer, who actually designed and built railroads and bridges.
. . . In 1893, he got involved in the Brazilian revolution— on both sides: he sold to each, what
he had discovered from the other. When the police came looking for him, he conned the
American Consul in Rio into smuggling him out of the country. In New York, he bought a
boat-load of munitions for the Brazilian government, then hired a crew of rebels to transport
it.
. . . Back in small-town Tennessee, he became a town character, curmudgeon, and
philosopher of sorts. He once proposed that “the world” should dam Gibraltar, drain the
Mediterranean, and claim a continent of naturally irrigated farm land that would have fed the
world for many generations to come. “It would work, too,” he told a Memphis reporter in
1924, “if we had the brain, brawn, and will to accomplish it, just as the Panama Canal was
accomplished.”
. . . The book is a story of his life, told largely through his own letters, essays, fragmentary
novels, etc.
Contemporary Insanities: Short Fictions, by Charles Brashear. Published in
1990 by The Press of MacDonald & Reinecke, P.O.Box 840, Arroyo Grande, CA 93421-0840. $9.95
(mail orders add $2 postage) ISBN 1-877947-11-3. Ask at your bookstore, or order from the
publisher. (I also have a supply of these books.)
. . . Each of these short fictions treats some aspect of everyday life that is common enough, but
from some eccentric perspective could be considered an insanity—the cruelty with which we
“sane” people treat autism; the little “itches” we torture each other with; the ego-centric, sexual
fantasies we trick ourselves with; the artifices we use to present ourselves to the world; the ogres
of our nightmares and dreams; the games we play on the young, the aged, the unusual, the
famous, and (as a nation) on each other and other nations. The theme that runs through all these
fictions makes this a coherent book, not just a collection of miscellaneous stories. Our insanities
are greed, pretensions, the exercise of privilege, the failure of our compassion and understanding,
disrespect for those who are even a little different from us, the abuse of power.
FIVE BOOKS ON WRITING
Long-time professor of Creative Writing and author Charles Brashear has recently published
five books on writing, “The Elements of Writing” Series. For thirty years, Dr. Brashear taught
writing and literature at three universities: the University of Stockholm (on a Fulbright grant), the
University of Michigan, and San Diego State. He is now retired and devotes full time to writing,
research, and travel. This series brings his total to 20 books, including a recent novel, Killing
Cynthia Ann; a short-story collection, Comeuppance at Kicking Horse Casino; and a biography of
a remarkable 19th century man, Brain, Brawn, and Will: the Turmoils and Adventures of Jeff Ross.
. . . Among his textbooks on writing are: Creative Writing: Fiction, Drama, Poetry, the Essay
(American Book Co, 1968); The Structure of Essays (Prentice-Hall, 1973); and several on creativity
in writing.
ELEMENTS OF CREATIVITY:
On Creativity in General and Creative Writing in Particular
(No. 1 in “The Elements of Writing” Series; ISBN: 0-75963-362-2; $19.95)
“Simply the best book on the subject.” —pre-pub review
. . . “Brashear has done something amazing in pulling together so many strands in the web of creativity.”
(pre-pub review)
Elements of Creativity integrates most of what we know about the several creative
processes into one handbook. Using research in Psychology, Sociology,
Philosophy, Pedagogy, the nature of language, the creative process, and my own
experience as a writer and teacher of writing for 30 years, I've illustrated how the
human mind works while it is inventing, revising, re-envisioning, and arranging
creative ideas.
Chapters 1-6, “Creativity in General,” offer a comprehensive understanding of a
complex process; chapters 7-16, “Creativity in Writing,” offer practical aspects of
creating, especially in writing, but also in business and science; chapters 17-19,
“Creativity with Others,” offer integration and connection with larger social and
philosophical issues. I haven't tried to say everything about creativity, but I have tried to touch
all the types of things there are to say.
ELEMENTS OF DIALOG, DIALECT,
and CONVERSATIONAL STYLE
(No. 2 in “The Elements of Writing” Series;
ISBN: 0-75963-372-X; $17.95)
Elements of Dialog, Dialect, and Conversational Style presents the language of talk,
its structure, style, grammar, methods of making meaning, aesthetic organization,
and much more. Different chapters derive from descriptive linguistics, non-verbal
and para-language studies, games theory and transactional analysis, social
dialectology, linguistic geography, style studies, even rhetoric. Here are the
building blocks of good familiar style. Here are the nuts and bolts, the range of
possibilities, the elements with which the languages of reports, speeches, informal
essays, fiction, poetry, plays, business and personal letters are held together.
“Many current books on writing devote a chapter or a few paragraphs to writing dialog, but
there is a lack of books zeroing in on the subject. Here, at last, is a good one. The author’s
approach is a new one, and he shows great familiarity with linguistics. He covers the subject well,
including non-verbal language, explaining how it supplements words as part of dialog. His down-
to-earth analyses and examples of dialects and accent can be quite useful. I have never seen the
subject covered so thoroughly. His arguments contrasting academic, journalistic, and
conversational style were coherent and logical.” —U.N. Tejano
“I believe this book will become at least moderately significant among publications for writers. I
would, indeed, want it in my personal library.” —U.N. Tejano
ELEMENTS OF THE NOVEL: An Update on Forster
(No. 3 in “The Elements of Writing” Series; ISBN: 0-75963-370-3; $19.95)
“ BREATH OF CLEANSING SEA-BREEZE” —Bill Baeddekker
Elements of the Novel is about the fundamental aspects of the modern novel—
story and plot; character and characterization; theme, fantasy, and prophecy;
point-of-view and belief; rhythm and pattern; aesthetic structure. It follows and
expands the scheme used by E. M. Forster in his classic Aspects of the Novel,
adding perspectives and insights that have emerged in the last seventy-odd years.
It is intended as a handbook and stimulus for people actively involved in writing
novels, but would also enrich anyone’s novel-reading experience.
. . . “Whether you think the novel is a vehicle for character study, or a vehicle for
story and plot, or for some more “poetic” elements, like aesthetic design and
structure, this book is for you. The depth of discussion at every phase is notable
and rare in this sort of book. Brashear knows what he’s talking about—and does it with clarity
and economy.” —Joel Black
“Brashear is a modernist, who finds much in Post-Modernism simply nonsense. For those of us
who have resisted the waves of absurdities over the last fifty years, he’s a breath of cleansing sea-
breeze.” —Bill Baeddekker
A WRITER’S TOOLKIT: Elements of Writing Personal Essays, Poems, Stories
(No. 4 in “The Elements of Writing” Series; ISBN: 0-75963-368-1; $23.95)
“Good book! You’ll want it on your shelf.” —Jane Wall
A Writer’s Toolkit presents the fundamental principles of creative writing and
illustrates them with both student and professional writing. Its basic strategy
is to offer samples of essays, poems, and stories by way of definition, then ask
emerging writers to develop their voices in suggested writing assignments.
The book assumes a writer should develop as many voices and tools as he/she
has things to say. It takes a modular approach to fostering writing skills in
students. It views basic techniques of writing like intellectual bricks. One has
to have the first one in place (let’s say control of image) before one can lay the
second (let’s say the manipulation of image into metaphor). One has to
understand scene and character before one can make these ingredients into a plot. However, like
a spider, writers have to be constantly attached to the far-flung foundations of their art. Writers
are doomed to be always working simultaneously on the strands and anchors of the webs they
weave.
“Every beginning writer should know what’s in this book. And every experienced writer should be
reminded of it once in a while.”—Jane Wall
ELEMENTS OF FORM AND STYLE IN EXPOSITORY ESSAYS
(No. 5 in “The Elements of Writing” Series; ISBN: 0-75963-365-7; $17.95)
“Highly recommended!” —Howard Koppolo
. . . Elements of Form and Style in Expository Essays is about the techniques of organization and
the ingredients of style in the formal, or expository, essay. It deals in detail with the three forms
of human understanding and organizing ideas— chronological sequences, classification/analysis
of component parts, and comparison/contrast, as they relate to strategies in short and longer
essays. It shows how we make sentences in English, how we make them effective and sensible,
and how they mature as we become more skilled at writing. It offers a compendium of
organizational techniques and stylistic considerations that we all grapple with as we learn to write
well. It is both process-oriented and information-rich.
. . . Strategies and styles of good writing are illustrated with both student and professional
samples. The student paragraphs and essays will show an emerging writer how others in his/her
situation have dealt with learning to write. The professional writing samples show the
sophistication we all ultimately aim toward. The book is both small enough to be usable and full
enough to be useful.
“This author makes essay writing seem simple, rather than the arduous task I remember it being.
Where was he when I needed him? And his examples, especially those on Washo and Koko, the
Ameslan “talking” chimpanzee and ape, are a treat in themselves. Highly recommended!” —Howard
Koppolo
All of the above books are currently available.
Cheers
Charles Brashear
1718 Arroyo Sierra Circle
Santa Rosa, CA 95405-7762
707/545-3903
brashear@mail.sdsu.edu
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