First Settler in Hamilton County.
The first settler within the present limits of Hamilton county was Minter Brassfield, of Kentucky. He came to
Iowa with his family in the fall of 1847. They located at Hook's Point, and for several years their cabin home
was a stopping place of interest when members of our family made trips to Des Moines. The visits of the Brassfields
at our home always were anticipated with pleasure by old and young. Twenty-five years later, my own family of growing
children were delighted at the prospect of a visit from the Major, and his appearance was a joyful assurance to
the youngsters that tales of pioneer times were to be recounted. Our neighbor from the south gained his title from
a hunt in the hills of Kentucky. The hunting party agreed that the one who bagged the most game should receive
the title of "Major." The youngest member of the company won the honor and thereafter was known as Major
Brassfield. Mrs. Brassfield, a woman of culture and refinement, was the daughter of a southern planter who owned
a long retinue of slaves. From ease and opulence to the privations of pioneering was a marked change in her life,
but single-handed and without servants, Mrs. Brassfield courageously and uncomplainingly assumed the complex duties
incident to household management and the rearing of a large family. Years later Mrs. Brassfield was afflicted with
eye trouble. The mother did not see the face of her youngest daughter Kate, until the child was four years old.
Her sight was restored after treatment by the veteran oculist, Dr. James Campbell of Des Moines. The pioneer friendship
initiated by Major Brassfield and Wilson Brewer has endured through four generations. His daughters and I were
fast friends and his grand and great grandchildren and mine are appreciative companions. Some time ago one of Iowa's
small town papers contained a ludicrous, although convincing account of an early settler. It said: "Mr. ____
was the initial, first pioneer in this section, coming here before anyone else." The exclamation often was
heard when Wilson Brewer and Major Brassfield were seen together: "There go the two first settlers."
The ambiguous expression easily could be made clear, however. Brassfield was the first settler in Hamilton county,
and Brewer the first settler in Webster City. Soon after the Major's removal to Wright county, mentioned elsewhere,
Mrs. Brassfield died. Several years passed and the Major married Mrs. Montgomery, mother of Alfred Montgomery,
the well known Iowa painter of sheep and corn.
-Submitted by John W. Brassfield jbrass@foothill.net
son of Morgan E. Brassfield
son of Cora M. Lamson
daughter of Lucy Ann Brassfield
daughter of Othnal Minter Brassfield
a pic and a short bio of Major Othnal Minter Brassfield, my gg grandfather:
http://www.foothill.net/~jbrass/genealogy/brassfield/pics/OthnalMinter.jpg
