I have to confess that I’ve currently been having too much fun and some good successes pursuing research using FamilySearch’s full-text search so will continue looking at various families to learn what new information I might add to the ancestors already in the family tree.

I’m not expecting to extend any lines further back, but am certain that lots of new details about migration, land and FAN clubs will be learned.

Today, I’ll share new details I’ve uncovered about my husband’s paternal great grandfather, Joseph Henry Brasher.

Here’s a short timeline about what I already knew:

1874, November 17 – Joseph Henry born in Cumby, Hopkins, Texas, youngest of three sons of Emsley Harrison Brasher and Mary Woosley Perkins
1882, March 4 – His mother, Mary Woosley (Perkins) Brasher, died in Cumby, Hopkins, Texas
1886, April 23 – His father, Emsley Harrison Brasher, died in Cumby, Hopkins, Texas
1895, May 12 – Joseph married 16 year old Minnie Mae Williams, Hopkins County, Texas
1898, February 9 – Daughter Pearl Lillian Brasher born in Sulphur Springs, Hopkins, Texas
1900 Census – Family lived in Precinct 5, Hopkins County, Texas [farmer]
1903, September 26 – Joseph Brasher appointed post office worker, Carter County, Oklahoma
1904, February 24 – Joe and Minnie divorced before this date as Joe married (2) Della Mae Benton in Springer, Carter, Oklahoma. Minnie married (2) Charles Horne, 2 October 1904, in Paris, Lamar, Texas.
1907 – Son John Alsus Brasher born in Oklahoma
1909, August 7 – Son Wilmer Lois Brasher born in Springer, Carter, Oklahoma
1910, May 2 – Brasher family resided in Tuttle Twp., Grady, Oklahoma for the census [assistant postmaster]
1912, August 12 – Son Omer Andrew Brasher born in Oklahoma
1914, September 3 – Joseph H. Brasher appointed post office worker
1920, January 15 – Brasher family resided in Noble, Cleveland, Oklahoma [post master]
1925, December 31 – Joseph Henry Brasher died in Noble, Cleveland, Oklahoma of an ulcerated stomach
1926, June 19 – Daughter Joan born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma six months after her father’s death.

Reviewing these dates and places, it seems like Joe Brasher didn’t stay in any one place for an extremely long time. He was born in Cumby, Texas, in Springer, Carter, Oklahoma by 1904, in Tuttle, Grady, Oklahoma in 1910 and then settled in Noble, Cleveland, Oklahoma in 1920.

Therefore, I was somewhat surprised to find a number of land transactions for Joe and second wife, Della, recorded in Cleveland County.

Here’s a partial plat map, all I could find, showing the layout of the blocks and lots in Noble:

What is also odd is that I can’t find Joseph Brasher buying land in Noble until the middle of these deed recordings so I have no idea where or how he obtained all these lots.

1918, June 14 – Sold Block 31, Lots 27- 31
1920, March 30 – Sold Block 52, Lots 1-4 and Lots 25-32
1920, April 8 – Bought Block 62, Lots 1-32, $675
1920, April 10 – Sold Block 62, Lots 1-16; no price stated
1920, June 4 – Bought Block 44, Lots 11-13
1920, October 8 – Bought Block 44, Lots 14-16
1921, March 3 – Sold Block 44, Lots 3-7

That’s a lot of land whose origins can’t be determined!

How was Joe, an assistant postmaster promoted to postmaster, able to afford all this land?

In this case, full-text search has created a question I can’t yet answer. Looking at the deed index books, in case full-text search missed something, yielded no results and it doesn’t seem likely that he got all this town land by land grants.

Definitely, the most fun part of genealogy research is discovering the surprises. While I know quite a bit about Joe Brasher, his life and his family, his “second” family with Della was a lost branch of the family tree.

I decided to see if I could change that. It can be difficult finding living people today, particularly if a surname is not very unusual and you have no idea where cousins might be living.

Persistent is a word that has been used to describe me and my persistence paid off. My husband and his brother now know their cousin Cindy and we have been sharing family photos. Joseph
Brasher is a very recent common ancestor and they are first cousins once removed!

Best of all, Cindy is also interested in the family history and we’ve been able to help each other fill in the gaps. Neither of us had any of the family photos that the other had, which maybe isn’t too odd given that Joe married twice.

Cindy has given permission for me to share these pictures, which help round out the Brasher family:

Joe and Della Mae Benton, probably on their wedding day in 1904

Della with Johnnie and Wilmer Louis, c1912

This might be the only photo that exists of Johnnie. I love this picture with the children’s fashions. Mom Della is also dressed beautifully with her hair up.

From the plot section and grave numbers for Wilmer Louis and Johnnie, it looks like W.L. purchased the gravesites. He and his wife are buried next to his big brother, Johnnie.

Joseph Brasher, in Sulphur Springs, Texas

This photo is quite intriguing to me, as it was taken in Sulphur Springs, Texas. That’s in Hopkins County, as is Cumby, where Joe was born.

Boy, do I wish that someone had left this photo intact because I have to wonder who else was in this picture. I have never seen it before. There is clearly a person standing behind Joe’s right shoulder and, if you look carefully, you can see white fabric to the left of Joe. Could this have been a picture of Joe with his first wife, Minnie Mae Williams, and her family?

That would explain why they were cut out of the picture, wouldn’t it?

Cindy, I am so glad that we found each other and have been able to fill in more of the details of the life of Joseph Henry Brasher.

Yesterday, I shared the life story of Joseph Henry Brasher, who worked in three post offices in the early days of Oklahoma – in the towns of Springer, Tuttle and then Noble. Sometimes, the passage of time, and taking new looks at old items, really does help solve mysteries.

Ruby, my mother-in-law, had written this on the back of a photo:

Back of Old Photo

These pictures are of Joe Brasher at work. The 1910 census of Tuttle, Grady County, Oklahoma and 1920 census of Noble, Cleveland County, Oklahoma both showed that he worked as the town post master.

Now take a look at the front of this and a couple of other photos:

Post Office, 1910-1920

Who is in this photo anyway? That was, and might still be, a mystery, but I think I’ve got it figured out. I’m quite sure that these are the three men who worked in the post office. The calendar on the wall is dated and it is difficult to make out, but I think the last digit in the year is a “2,” and the year is 1912.

I don’t know when Joe moved from Tuttle to Noble, but I think this might be the post office in Tuttle and I might even know who each of these people is. Exactly how would I be able to pull names out of thin air? Well, the 1910 census is a great help. It perhaps has given me the answers because it included the occupations of the adults and Tuttle was a very small place with only 794 souls living there in 1910.

I found only three men whose jobs were related to the post office. First was William H. Cooper, aged 57, and a widower. He worked as a mail carrier. Second was Joseph Henry Brasher, who worked as a postmaster. He was 36 years old in 1910. The third man was William F. Elsner, aged 22, who also worked as a postmaster.

Now, take another look at the three men in the photo. I think the man on the left is William H. Cooper. He is much older than the other two men and easily could be 57 years old. The middle man is also the man who looks to be younger than William and older than the man to the right. That is Joseph Brasher, who would have been about 36 years old. The man on the far right looks way younger than the other two and I believe he is William F. Elsner, aged 22, in 1910 and a newlywed.

Unfortunately, I don’t think this building is standing anymore.

Newly Built Post Office

The new post office was constructed of wood. It looks like William Cooper and Joe Brasher are standing out in front.

Just to be sure that this isn’t the Noble Post Office in 1920, I checked that census for postal workers and again found three. Joe Brasher is listed as the actual postmaster, Florence Noyes, aged 39, is a clerk and W.E. Morris, aged 36, is the mail carrier. They definitely don’t fit the photos above!

I can narrow down this photo just a bit more to pre-1915, as Joe’s daughter, Pearl, came to live with him and his second family and she was a graduating member of the Class of 1916.

The Tuttle Post Office was established in 1902, but Joe Brasher was living in Carter County, Oklahoma in 1904 when he married Della Benton so this picture can’t be any earlier than 1904. He was in Noble by the fall of 1915, when Pearl attended school there.

Where might I find more information that might tell me exactly when he moved from place to place? A city directory, possibly, if there was one in Tuttle or Noble in those very early days. There is a better source linked to his job as postmaster – that was an appointed U.S. government position and Ancestry has the records in one of its databases, U.S., Appointments of U.S. Postmasters, 1832-1971.

Joseph Brasher, Entry #9, Springer Post Office Appt.
Source: Ancestry

A surprise was that Joseph H. Brasher was appointed postmaster of Springer, Carter County, Oklahoma on 26 September 1903. The postmaster who followed him in Springer was appointed on 22 October 1909, so I believe he was a new arrival in Tuttle, not long before the 1910 census was taken. He wasn’t the actual postmaster in Tuttle, just an assistant, as there is no appointment in the records for him there. When did he move on to Noble? Well, he was appointed as the Noble postmaster on 3 September 1914, so he likely moved there by the summer of 1914.

I mentioned a surprise at the beginning of yesterday’s post. Come back tomorrow and I will share it with you. 🙂