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Isaac Artiberry Brashears, Sr. and
his brother John were the first Brashears to settle in our Flo, Leon County.
Artiberry, Sr. had already provided a
greatness of the frontier Illinois, where he was born and raised in Crawford
Co., Illinois in 1834. His parents ere Middleton and Sara Brashears.
He and his parents and family members were influential homesteaders with
Christian and family values.
Isaac Artiberry, Sr. was an honorable
and outstanding gentleman. He came to Flo, Leon co. to be with his brother
John before 1860. In the Leon Co. United States census, there was a
Brashears living with a Theo Anderson family that was 27 years old and a John
Brashears living in a different household, both being listed from the state of
Illinois.
Both Artiberry and John enlisted and
served in the Confederate Army. Art, Sr. served with Co. C, 5th Texas
Regiment, Hoods Brigade Longstreet Corps Army of North Virginia organized of the
Leon County Hunters that was organized in Centerville.
Art, Sr. endured many hardships of
the Confederacy. He was among the 86 in number to march to Virginia.
He was hungry, cold, bare-footed with make shift shoes), worn out clothing and
suffered with diseases. He was in many battles and survived with scars of
the body and mind. Art, Sr. returned home to Flo, Leon Co. after the war
was over.
Art Brashears, Sr. married Sarah Ann
Burleson, the daughter of Benjamin and Kessiah (Matthews) Burleson, who were
important immigrants that settled in our Leon Co. in the 1840's. They
established a Burleson homeland in Leon Co. This includes Centerville and
Flo.
These Burleson's were ancestors of
the Burleson's who manufactured honey of Waxahachie bee operation. Every
summer, Art and Sarah Ann received honey from her brother Monroe Burleson of the
honey business.
Art and Sarah Ann owned a farm and
built a home. They were hard workers and were busy at all times in making
their home and community a place that anyone would be proud to live in.
Art, Sr. and Sarah Ann were proud
parents of Art, Jr. (he passed away), and they had three daughters (only two are
mentioned in this article) Bunie and Meacon. During these years, Art and
Sarah changed the name of Brashears to Beshears, of which they go by today.
The first known Brashears that came
to America were Robert and Benois, French Huguenots, whose family name was
anglicized as Brashear. It is not known if these two knew each other.
Robert was much older than Benois. Robert's name appeared in land records
in 1635. Benois showed up in land records in 1653. The records do
show that Robert and Benois were both Huguenots, which is Puritan, Protestant
dissenters, followers of the teachings of John Calvin. In the midst of a
very old, very militantly Catholic country.
Shortly after, Martin Luther had
created his Reformed Church in protest to Catholic practices of the time.
Reformed churches began springing up throughout Germany, Switzerland, and
France. The humanistic ideas of the Reformation were widely held, this was
in 1517.
John Calvin gained many followers as
did Beanson Hughes, a preacher and political leader in Geneva. Many of
these new churches were very strict Puritanical, even in their adherence to
biblical teachings. They intended to remain small and intended for their
group to live a simple pure life and keep to themselves as the Amish.
By the middle 1500's, the Huguenots
had become a large and politically influential group in France. The first
Huguenot Church was formed in Strasbourg in 1538. By 1562 there was a
power struggle between the Huguenots and Catholics about who was in religious
control. The Huguenots were annihilated, Catherine Medici was influential
in the massacre, Pope Gregory XIII commanded a commemorative medal to be in her
honor.
Later, Henry III was assassinated and
Henry of Navarre became Henry IV and converted to Catholicism. He granted
the Huguenots religious freedom, the proclamation granted religious an political
freedoms, which was known as the Edict of Nantes in 1598.
Robert Brasseur (our Brashears) was
born about that time, probably into a family of some wealth and power. He
must have grown up very aware of strife and danger. Yet, after the Edict
of Nantes was established, there were some years of peace. However,
through the 1600's there were repeated outbreaks of war and danger against the
Huguenots. This became serious when the Huguenots met another terrible
defeat being captured by Cardinal Richelieu, who launched a wild emigration to
England, Holland, and America. These families had two stages of
immigration. They migrated to England, Holland and Germany and if they
could afford it, to Virginia in America.
The Brasseur family may have been
from the south of France, the area around the mouth of the Rhone River.
They probably migrated to England in 1629, a date that the family legend keeps
using as a date that seems to be the time of the birth of Benois happened
before. The Brasseur's were in danger, our Robert Brasseur being the
Huguenot immigrant to America. |