Mahlon D. Brassfield

Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois (edited by Newton Bateman, L.L.D., and Paul Selby, A.M.) and History of Peoria County (edited by David McCulloch), Illustrated; Volume II; Chicago and Peoria: Munsell Publishing Company, Publishers 1902; p. 798.

BRASSFIELD, MAHLON D.: Farmer; born in Park County, Indiana, April 7, 1834; is the son of Michael Brassfield, born in North Carolina December 12, 1810, and died February 5, 1857, and Ruth F. (Freeman) Brassfield, born in North Carolina December 6, 1813, and died February 1, 1900. His grandmother was Mary F. Brassfield, a native of France. Michael Brassfield moved to Indiana when the country was new and there married. He was a farmer, and in 1840 brought his family to Illinois and settled in Radnor Township. Mr. M.D. Brassfield was married to Mary A. Jessup in Richwoods Township, January 1, 1862. Three children were born to them: John S., born December 27, 1862, married Ida E. Harrison; George M., born September 15, 1865, married Minnie A. Adkinson; and Clara E., born June 16, 1874. Mrs. Brassfield was born in Huron County, Ohio, March 15, 1838, the daughter of John K. Jessup, who was born in New Jersey in 1807 and died in 1886, and Lucy M. (Thomas) Jessup, born in New York in 1814 and died in 1886. They came to Ohio in 1837, removed to Michigan in the fall of 1838, and to Peoria County in 1848, when they settled on a farm. Gideon Thomas, Mrs. Brassfield's maternal grandfather, was of Welsh descent; he came to Illinois in 1836 and settled in Kickapoo Township, where he died in 1851. His wife, Fanny, died April 14, 1861. Mrs. Brassfield is a prosperous farmer and owns one hundred and seventy acres of land in Radnor and one hundred and twenty in Akron Township. He is a Democrat, has been School Director and served several terms as Road Commissioner. He is a member of the Methodist Church.