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.