| ISAAC BRASHEARS |
| Son of Robert Samuel and Phoebe Nicks Brashears |
From information furnished by Charles Brashear, San Diego:
Generation No. 1
1. ISAAC7 BRASHEAR (ROBERT SAMUEL6 BRASHEAR*, ROBERT C.5 BRASHEAR, SAMUEL4 BRASHIER,SR., ROBERT3 BRASSEUR, BENJAMIN2 BRASSIEUR, ROBERT1 BRASSEUR) was born 23 Oct 1760, and died 1833 in TN. WIFE UNKNOWN
ISAAC BRASHEARS, THE PATRIARCH
Isaac Brashears was born in Orange, later Guilford Co., North Carolina, on 23 Oct 1760. His father, Robert Samuel Brashears, and several others of the family, had removed from Maryland to N.C. about 1753 and founded a Brashear colony on the banks of Reedy Fork of the Haw River and Buffalo Creek in present-day Guilford County.
Sometime in the 1770's, however, Robert Samuel Brashears and some of his sons had moved west into this forbidden territory, in what is now Sullivan Co. Tennessee, and built a large house near Timberlake branch of Reedy Creek, north of the Holston River and not far from present-day Kingsport, TN. This house stood on the shoulder of a hill, some 200 yards above the Wilderness Road to Kentucky. Travelers certainly stopped often to visit with the Brashears clan. Isaac and his brother, Samuel, apparently stayed on this land with their families, while RSB, their brother, Philip, and the younger children went to the Pendleton District of South Carolina.
About 1793, Robert Samuel Brashears, his sons Philip and Isaac Brashears, and some of his sons-in-law had moved to the banks of the Clinch River in present-day Roane County Tennessee. They were on the west bank of the river, where Cherokee Indian title was not "extinguished" until 1808.
In 1801, Issac signed a petition to create Roane County from a portion of Knox Co.
The would-be county was organized into 7 militia companies for military and tax purposes. In 1802, Isaac was in Capt. Gray Simms's Militia Co. (see Wells, History of Roane County.)
On 23 Jan 1806, Isaac bought two negroes, Joanna and Ratliff, from David Haley of Grainger Co. for $450. Basil and John Brashears were witnesses. (Roane Co. Deeds, Book B, p.127. Isaac's brother, Basil, was 25 that year; his son, John, was 20; these witnesses may have been cousins.)
On 26 Aug 1813, Robert Samuel Brashears deeded 247 1/4 Acres on the North side of the Clinch River to Isaac "in consideration of the natural love and affection that I have for my son, Isaac Brashears, & for divers other considerations." Witnesses were Wm. Brown, Walter Brashears (Isaac's son, b. c1790), Sampson Brashears (Isaac's brother Samuel's son, b. 21 Dec 1788). (Roane Co. Deeds, Book D, p.241. The next page is an identical transaction to son, Samuel Brashears of Sullivan Co.)
On 14 Nov 1813, just three months later, Isaac and Samuel deeded these same two tracts amounting to 494 1/2 acres back to Robert S. Brashears, "return gift deeds to their beloved father, Robert Samuel Brashears," as described in Deeds D:241 & D:242. Witnesses were John Brown and Zaza Brashears. (Roane Co. Deeds D:391. Zaza was a nephew to Robert Samuel Brashears.)
Isaac was summoned to Jury duty in Roane County in 1802, 1805, 1810, 1816, and 1817. He is listed in the Aug, 1815 List of Voters, and on a petition with his father in 1815 for the construction of a road. He is not listed in the 1821 militia roll.
On 4 Mar 1823, he is referred to as "Isaac Brashears of Perry County"; he was selling 100 acres to his grandson-in-law, Jesse Galloway, for $900.
About 1820, at the time of the "extinction" of Chickasaw Indian title to West Tennessee, Isaac and five of his sons moved to the west side of the Tennessee River, in what was then Perry County and is today Decatur Co, and started taking up land. Another son, Robert, had moved earlier to Lawrence Co, on the southern boundary of Tennessee and two counties east of the river. Three or four of Isaac's cousins, sons of his uncle Zaza Brashears, moved about the same time to Perry County and settled on the east side of the river, near the Brashears clan.
On 14 Jul 1825, Isaac Brashears received Tennessee General Land Grant #23950, 82 acres (Perry Co., Book AA:388) He recorded the grant in Murfreesboro on 9 Sep 1825, the same day as his youngest son, Zadock, recorded a grant in the same district and section. Surely, they made the trip together.
Isaac's land passed to his son, Absalom Brashears, who had a grant adjoining it. In 1847, Absalom's widow, Ellender (nee Ross) sold this land to William Morgan; so for almost a century it was known as the Morgan place. In 1968, it was owned and farmed by Lathan Blount. On this land is "the Morgan Cemetery," where no Morgans, but several Brashears are buried, probably including Isaac.
An entry in the Family Bible of Samuel Brashers, Isaac's son, reads: Isaac Brashers Sr my Father departed this life the 25th day of July in the year of our Lord 1833.
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Isaac's wife (or wives) is (are) unknown. He had nine children, five in a matter of about six years; then there is a gap of about seven years, then he had four more children rapidly. It looks to me like he had two wives; I think (cannot prove yet) that the second wife was a Cherokee girl from the Clinch area. Circumstantial evidence includes: three of his sons from the second group were associated with Indian families: Samuel m.1. in Roane, Hannah Tuten (the Tuten family have been documented as part Cherokee); Zaddock, the youngest, married a Cherokee girl and took up land in Arkansas in the area where some of the Eastern Cherokees had been moved; Jesse moved to Arkansas and also took up land in the Cherokee "reservation."
| CHILDREN OF ISAAC BRASHEAR |
JOHN8 BRASHEARS, b. Abt 1786; m. CHARITY BRADLEY.
ROBERT BRASHEARS, b. 05 Jan 1787, Guilford Co. NC; d. 1852, Lawrence Co. TN; m. SARAH R. HANKINS, 11 Nov 1808, Roane Co. TN.
SARAH "SALLY" BRASHEARS, b. 10 Oct 1788; d. 23 May 1874; m. JOHN B. RICE.
WALTER BRASHEARS, b. Abt 1790, Sullivan Co.,TN(NC); d. 04 Oct 1837, Perry Co, TN; m. ELIZABETH ROBERTS, 05 Dec 1816, Roane Co. TN by Alex. Nesmith JP. [daughter of EliasRoberts and Rebecca Brashears Roberts]
ELIZABETH "BETSY" BRASHEARS, b. Abt 1797; m.
SAMUEL BRASHEARS, b. 16 Mar 1798; m. HANNAH TUTEN.
ABSALOM BRASHEARS, b. 20 Dec 1799, Roane Co,TN; d. Abt 1847, Decatur County, TN; m. ELLENDER (NELLIE) ROSS.
JESSE BRASHEARS, b. Abt 1800.
ZEDOCK BRASHEARS, b. Abt 1803; m. MARTHA (CHEROKEE).