Death Ends Long Career of Man for Whom East Adair County Town Was Named; Donated City Park Here and Laid Out Additions to Kirksville.

Richard M. Brashear, donor of the park in East Kirksville which bears his name and the man for whom the town of Brashar was named, died last night about 8 o'clock following an illness with hyperstatic pneumonia. He was 87 years of age.
Mr. Brashear had been in declining health for the past few years but had been improving since he was taken to the hospital a month ago. The fatal illness is said to be common among aged persons whose physical condition has been impaired by injury or disease.
He was injured in an automobile accident about three years ago when his car overturned on him while he was driving to his 1500 acre farm in Pike County. He sustained two broken ribs and numerous bruises and abrasions. In December last year Mr. Brashear became ill with influenza and was slow to recover, it finally being deemed advisable to provide hospital care.
Masonic funeral services are to be held Sunday afternoon at 2 o'clock at his home at 1318 East Normal Avenue. Burial will be in the family lot in the Forest-Llewellyn cemetery here. The body is now at the Summers & Son Funeral Home, where it will lie in state until a short time before the funeral hour.
Mr. Brashear, whose full name was Richard Matson, was born January 13, 1846 on a farm near the present site of Brashear, a son of William G. snd Rosa Wood Brashear. The farm land had been entered by his father who died in 1862 at the beginning of the Civil war. Conditions at that time had been responsible for cute depletion of the family resources and as Mr. Brashear was the oldest son at home its care devolved upon him.
He not only succeeded in keeping the family together but educated himself. He attended the public schools of J.M. Greenwood, then a country school teacher. He next went to a college at Monroe City with the intention of preparing himself for the study of law but after a short time returned home to assume the burden of family support again.
He became a stockman and achieved success in buying and selling cattle. He was married October 23, 1873 to Miss Margaret Montgomery and they had seven children, two of whom preceded him in death. Mrs. Brashear died here two years ago.
In 1871 and 1872 the railroad now known as the Q.O. & K.C. was built through Adair county and residents of the vicinity of Paultown, a vilage in the eastern part of the county which was the predecesor of Brashear, made an effort to get a depot located there. Failing in that, they finally succeeded however in getting a depot located where the Brashear depot now stands. Mr. Brashear devoted a year's time to the fight and invested all he owned. When it was finally accomplished, the people, in recognition of his service, named the place Brashear. Paultown soon passed into oblivion as its residents moved to the new location.
In 1882 Mr. Brashear sold his farm near Brashear and purchased a farm of 200 acres adjoining Kirksville on the east, later adding 280 acres. From this he laid out three additions to the city, the last one being from land contianing a seven-acre orchard about the family home.
After establishing residence in Kirksville, he continued in the livestock business for about 10 years, subsequently becoming interested in the real estate business. He built a large number of houses and the Ward Infirmary building. In June, 1908, he purchased a farm in Pike County for $100,000 trading in the infirmary building and some other properties here.
After the building was removed from the lot he conceived the plot as a park site. He had set out the trees in the Brashear city park and dug the city well and it was his desire to duplicate the plan here. He went to timbered tracts and dug up saplings, arranging them upon the lot as he had at Brashear, one in the center and rows radiating from it as spokes in a wheel. He deeded the plot to the city June 30, 1919 and the council shortly thereafter purchased adjoining lots on the west from Dr. George Still and converted it into a park.
Mr. Brasear sold his Pike county farm about two years ago and since has spent his entire time here.
In the last years of his life, it was said, nothing gave him greater satisfacion then proximity of his home to the park and evidence of its great utility as a recreation ground visited by hundreds each summer.
When a marker was unveiled on the site of old Ft. Matson in the Ft. Madison churchyard two miles east of Sublette last Sept. 25. Mr. Brashear, who bore the name of Captain Richard Matson, for whom the fort was named when it was erected in 1832 as a defense against warring Indians, was chosen to unveil it but illness prevented him attending the program and A. Buckallew of Greentop took his place.
He was a member of the Elks and Masonic lodges and organized the later lodge at Paultown.
Surviving are the following sons and daughters: Miss Minnie M. Brashear of the University of Missouri, Columbia; Mrs. George R. Barker, Beverly Hills, Calif.; W.P. Brashear, Clark's Fork, Ida.;, Everett E. Brashear, Goodnoe Hills, Washington; Miss Roma Brashear, New York City and Clarence Eugene Brashear, Ames, Ia. There are two sisters, Mrs. Cynthia Hosley, Ramona, Okla., and Mrs, Martha Conkle, Brashear; one brother, Bruce Brashear, Bartlesville, Okla., and four grandchildren.