Editing Brashear, Missouri (section)

==History==
[[Image:Brashear Gazebo.jpg|thumb|left|Entertainment gazebo in City Park]]
The town of Brashear was laid out in 1872.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_RfAuAAAAYAAJ | title=How Missouri Counties, Towns and Streams Were Named | publisher=The State Historical Society of Missouri | author=Eaton, David Wolfe | year=1916 | pages=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_RfAuAAAAYAAJ/page/n12 201]}}</ref>   It was named after Richard Matson Brashear (1846-1933), who was a prominent farmer and businessman in the area.  Richard Matson Brashear was the son of William Gowan Brashear (1807-1862),  who is said to have been one of the first white settlers in the area in 1842.<ref>''A Book Of Adair County History'' Published by the Adair County Bicentennial Committee, 1976.</ref> However, the Brashear community dates back prior to 1872 by several years. Approximately one mile north of the current location, there once stood a prosperous small village named Paulville, also known as Paultown, which was established around 1855 by a man named Walker Paul (1816-1888). Paulville served as a trading hub for the farms of eastern Adair County, along with several other businesses, one of which was a grist mill. Sometime during the Civil War, the grist mill was put to the torch to prevent Confederate recruits from being resupplied.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_pX0UAAAAYAAJ | title=History of Adair County | publisher=The Denslow History Company | author=Violette, E. M. | year=1911 | pages=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_pX0UAAAAYAAJ/page/n421 405]}}</ref> The coming of the Quincy, Missouri & Pacific Railroad in 1872 saw a wholesale population shift. The building of a rail depot at the newly platted town of Brashear caused a very large portion of Paulville's population and business to migrate the short distance south. Through the latter half of the 19th century and first few decades of the 20th, Brashear's business district ebbed and flowed. Similarly, the Great Depression and post-World War Two mobility of the American public led to many changes. In 1950 Brashear had a population of only 152, however that number has been on a slight rise ever since. A few business concerns remain today, but most residents travel west to Kirksville or east to Edina for their shopping and employment.