The Order of the First Families of Mississippi

I work in the library at church for a brief time most Wednesday afternoons.  I enjoy it because I get to see people that I wouldn't see otherwise.  One intersting character who used to come through frequently was Mr. Thomas Bowen Jr.  Tom Bowen was a past Governor General of The Order of the First Families of Mississippi.  He passed away a couple months ago.  

A few years back on one of his stops in the library, Tom asked about my McBride's and if they had been in Mississippi long.  He was interested because he had a son-in-law who was a McBride. He also had a passion for the First Families organization.  I knew Tom's son-in-law because we had boys that did scouts together.  We've been on many camping trips, endured foul weather, gruelling hikes and questionable scout cuisine.  I figured out at some point that we share a pair of great great great grandparents.  Actually, our shared ancestor is my third great and his fourth great grandparents.  That makes us fourth cousins once removed.  Our boys are 5th cousins once removed.  The ancestor we share was John McBride (1800-1868).  There is a blog post about him a couple posts back.  He spent 45 years in Mississippi starting from about 1821.

Tom was wondering if our John McBride would qualify me (and his son-in-law) for membership in "First Families."  To qualify for membership in the Order of First Families of Mississippi, you have to prove descendancy from someone who resided in the Territory of Mississippi-- that is, the area of the state before it became a state in 1817.  Unfortunately, John McBride was 4 or 5 years too late to the party but Tom's asking got me interested in the organization.

My sister was also interested in joining, so I checked into the options.  What I liked about the organization is that it is history minded.  First Families is "dedicated to perpetuating the memory of the founders of the state of Mississippi."  They "work to preserve for future generations the history and genealogy of Mississippi's colonial past."  They meet a couple times a year and offer lectures and tours during those meetings.

I found at least 5 ancestors who would qualify me for membership.  The easiest to document was already in the Roster on their website, Benjamin Brashear.  Three of them were already on the roster. I've already written about the Brashear family on this blog.

I did some legwork and pulled together the proofs and Tom and his daughter agreed to sponsor me and my sister.  We were made members just before the 2017 celebration of Mississippi's 200th birthday.  I've been to a couple of the meetings, toured the Governor's mansion and an antebellum home in Natchez and heard a couple great lectures since joining.

Here is the website...  https://offms.org/

The roster of ancestors on the First Families' website provides an option for submitting a short bio for your ancestor.  I wrote the following and submitted it...

Benjamin Brashear (1727 - 1809) 

Benjamin Brashear, a fourth-generation American colonist of Huguenot descent, was baptized in 1727 at Saint Barnabas Episcopal Church in Prince George's County, Maryland.  Within the impressive brick structure is currently housed a marble baptismal font and silver communion set inscribed “St. Barnabas Church in Merreland, 1718.”  Benjamin and his children were likely baptized from that font.  

Benjamin was a veteran of the French and Indian Wars having served in the Maryland Militia.  He married his Captain's niece, Catherine Lucy Belt, in 1750.  Their union produced 10 children.  Lucy was the grand-daughter of Colonel Joseph Belt who is credited as the patentee of Chevy Chase, Maryland and member of the House of Burgesses. 

In 1773, Benjamin removed his young family from Maryland and embarked for the western frontier initially settling at Red Stone Creek near Fort Burd on the Monongahela River, then part of the Colony of Virginia.  It was here, two of Benjamin's sons, Richard and Tobias, enlisted under General George Rogers Clark and embarked on the notable Northwest Campaign near the end of the Revolutionary War.  Benjamin and the rest of the family accompanied Clark's army down the Ohio River stopping briefly at Bullitt County Kentucky and on through the Illinois territory; settling for a time at Kaskaskia, Illinois after Clark and his men wrested the area from the British. 

Benjamin’s oldest son, Marsham, remained in Bullitt County and established a trading post on the Wilderness Road between Harrodsburg and the Falls of the Ohio River.  Marsham’s was purportedly the first marriage ceremony performed in the fledgling settlement of Louisville.  Marsham married Lucy Phelps, a survivor of the Boonesborough siege of 1778.  In an interview with Lyman Draper, she recounted having watched Col. Daniel Boone sharply eye an Indian spy peering into the fort from an adjacent sycamore tree.  A crack from Boone’s musket and the Indian was felled from his branch. 

In 1780, the Brashear family left Clark’s army in the Illinois territory and made their way down the Mississippi River. Benjamin secured a Spanish land grant of 400 arpents on the waters of Bayou Pierre in the Spanish held Natchez district.  Sons, Richard and Tobias had married in Kaskaskia and brought their young families south as well.  The entire family settled in and around Natchez and Port Gibson marrying into local families and becoming intertwined with the community.  Several of Benjamin’s sons and sons-in-law also secured Spanish land grants in the area. 

One son, Turner Brashear, is well known for having established, in 1806, a stand on the Natchez Trace.  Today, Brashear’s Stand is a featured historic waypoint on the Natchez Trace Parkway at Ridgeland, Mississippi.  Turner married into the Choctaw Nation and served Spanish and American authorities as an official Choctaw interpreter.  His name is found among the signatures of many notable treaties.  Turner and his younger brother Eden served in several capacities at the nearby Choctaw Agency in conjunction with their business endeavors along the Natchez Trace.  Their father, Benjamin, maintained a plantation on Bayou Pierre in what is now Claiborne County until his death in 1809 after over 20 years in the Mississippi Territory. 

Benjamin Brashear passed away when he was 82 years old outliving his wife and five of his children.

Ambush Rock - Eliot, Maine

Illus. from the publication, "Ye romance of old York"
by Herbert Milton Sylvester

Phebe Littlefield Heard was a second generation colonist in 17th century New England.  Her father, Francis Littlefield, was born in Hampshire on the southern coast of England.  He migrated to the colonies in the 1630's.  Francis married a Maine native, Rebecca Rust, in December of 1646 in Wells, Maine which is just a couple miles down the coast from Kennebunkport.  Phebe was born in 1670, one of several children.  She married Captain John Heard in April of 1690.  By 1697, Phebe and John had three girls and one boy under the age of 7--  Dorcus, Phebe, Shua and James.  They were living in the vicinity of the village of Eliot, Maine.

The following excerpt was written in 1906.  Like the picture above, it is taken from the book, "Ye romance of old York" by Herbert Milton Sylvester.  Eliot is in York County, Maine.  The passage describes the final moments of 10th great grandmother, Phebe Littlefield Heard.

This was old Quamphegan, better known in these hurrying days, as South Berwick.  It was here that church service was first inaugurated, for John Mason sent over with his pioneer colonists (which was in 1631), a communion set, also a "great Bible and twelve Service Books."  The service was of the Episcopalian order, and I have no doubt but the service of the Church was read, and that the laborers joined in saying of the responses and the creed with bowed heads and an accompanying reverence.  As early as 1640 fines were imposed for such violations of the Sabbath as occurred, which may be taken as an indication of the sanctity with which this day was thus early clothed.

This, in 1668 was known as the parish of Unity.  Stackpole concludes that the first meeting-house here was built about 1659;  but the service seems to have been of a somewhat desultory character, as this parish was presented to the court four separate times in as many years, "for not providing a minister."

It was from this old church that Captain Frost was returning on that summer morning of 1697, in company with Dennis Downing, John Heard and his wife Phoebe.  They had reached a point in the bridlepath of those days, opposite a huge boulder, which was about a mile away to the north from the Frost garrison house.  The sharp reports of three guns broke the silence.  Captain Frost and Downing were killed instantly.  The Heard woman, although sorely wounded, tried to regain her saddle but was unable to do so.  Falling back into the path, Spartan-like she urged her husband to ride for the cabin and place the children in safety, which he did, notwithstanding the savages chased him and shot his horse under him just as he got to the garrison.  He saved his house and his children.  Heard was a great Indian fighter, and the Indians were desirous to obtain his scalp.  They lurked about his place to finally come across him in the woods.  Heard ran and the Indians gave chase.  He remembered a hollow log in the woods and made for that, into which he crept, thereby evading his pursuers.  He had killed his dog, so he might not be betrayed by that faithful animal, and while thus concealed the savages came to the log.  Here they sat down to get their wind, and he listened to what they would do to John Heard when they caught him.

The body of Frost was decently buried, and the night after these ghouls of the woods had opened the grave and taken the body to the crest of Frost's Hill and impaled it upon a stake.  Such was their hatred of the man who helped to plan and carry out the trick which has come down in history as Waldron's Ruse.  This boulder still cleaves to its pasture side and is known as Ambush Rock.

Major Charles Frost was a well known leader and Indian fighter in his day.  At the time of the ambush he was the highest ranking military officer in Maine.  According to the Eliot Historical Society, the heavy granite stone used to mark his final resting place and secure his remains from further desecration is the oldest grave marker in the state.

Waldron's Ruse, mentioned in the passage, refers to a deception carried out by Richard Waldron (militia leader) and Charles Frost during King Philip's War (1676) where about 400 Indians were convinced to pitch a mock battle with the militia.  After the Indians had fired their guns, they were quickly forced to surrender their weapons to a fully armed militia.  The Indians were marched to Boston and those not executed were sold into slavery.  Most were shipped to the Caribbean.  The remaining Native population in the Colony were set on revenge.

In 1897, the village of Eliot created the Eliot Historical Society with the intent of commemorating the 200th anniversary of the ambush.  A ceremony was held.  Songs were sung; speeches and poems were read.  In 1915 a bronze plaque was placed on the boulder at the site of the ambush.  The plaque lists the people killed during the ambush, including Phebe Heard.  In 2018, a full 321 years after the event, the boulder is still marked and the story is still told.

Ambush Rock as it appears today

--Lineage from Phebe Heard--

Phebe Littlefield (1670-1697) who married John Heard (1667-1751)

[mother of]

Shua Heard (1694-) who married Nathan Bartlett (1691-1775)

[mother of]

Phebe Bartlett (1721-1805) who married John Dennett (1716-1787)

[mother of]

Phebe Dennett (1744-1799) who married Henry Sherburne (1737-1823)

[mother of]

Samuel Sherburne (1770-1819) who married Ursule Rose DuBois (1768-1824)

[father of]

Eugene Amedee Sherburne (1802-1860) who married Margaret Newton Lindsay (1816-1852)

[father of]

Charles Brashear Sherburne (1841-1913) who married Patience Elizabeth Young (1841-1892)

[father of]

Annie Eliza Sherburne (1876-1915) who married Nathaniel William Sentell (1866-1936)

[mother of]

Annie Lou Sentell (1903-1990) who married William McGinty McBride Sr (1899-1963)

[mother of]

William McGinty McBride Jr (1929-2016) who married Marjorie Catherine Keller

[father of]

John Sentell McBride who married Karen Nell Cochran