robert samuel brashear
20 aug 1731 - abt 1815
born in brashear meadows, prince george's co, md. died about 1815 in roane co, tn.
aka: the rolling stone brashear, robert brasher, robert samuel brashears
parents: robert c. brashears (1704-aft 1782) and charity dowell (1711-bet 1782)
phoebe nicks
8 jun 1738 - aft 1781
born in talbot co, md. [i have not independently verified this birth location]. died after 1781 in guilford co, nc. both historians snyder roberts and charles brashear say that robert samuel gilliland, a grandson who would be a long-time sheriff in roane county, transported his grandmother phobe (nee nicks) brashear's exhumed body through the smoky mountains from guilford co, nc at the behest of his grandfather who loved phoebe so much that he wanted her body close to him. she was reburied on land the family had settled in what would become roane county, tn.
the brashear farm in sugar grove valley, roane co, tn, passed from brashear/s hands early in the 20th century. it was bought by the recently newlywed couple elmer and lynda edwards. by sep 2003, on the first visit for my husband and me, both mr. and mrs. edwards had died, and the home, its outbuildings, and the family cemetery were in bad shape. a return visit in aug 2004 alarmed us. there had been an enormous amount of deterioration in eleven months. the cemetery grounds looked as if they'd been burned or sprayed, perhaps, with a strong weed killer.
many more stones had fallen between our visits, and many of the stones' surfaces had markedly deteriorated as well. many markers that had could be read in sep 2003 were no longer legible by aug 2004. robert samuel's stone is still there but is much more difficult to read than previously.
though brashear historian charles brashear's book says that phoebe's stone was present when he visited, we were unable to locate it on either of our two visits. the day we visited in august 2004 was bright - super bright - and so not conducive to photographing already difficult-to-read headstones. nevertheless, i attempted to photograph every grave marker, legible or not, to help document the placement of stones within the cemetery. unfortunately, my memory card ran out, and so i was unable to make individual photographs of all graves, though i believe that with the group photos i did manage to capture all of the markers that still exist.
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