BRASHEAR, TEXAS. Brashear, on Interstate Highway 30 and Farm Road 2653 in west central Hopkins County, was named for Joseph Brashear, who surveyed the townsite. The area was part of the Wise Ranch in 1898, when G. W. Mahoney bought the ranch, divided it into small farms, laid out the townsite, and donated land for a school, a church, and a cemetery. A post office was established at Brashear in 1899, with W. G. Crain as postmaster. A school opened the same year, and in 1905 it had an enrollment of 149. By 1914 the town had Baptist, Christian, and Methodist churches, a bank, a newspaper, a telegraph connection, and a reported population of 400. Its population was estimated at 300 in the mid-1920s and 350 in the late 1940s. In 1948 the town had six stores, four churches, a two-teacher school, and a cotton gin. The population declined during the 1960s to 280 and continued to be reported at that level in 1990 and 2000. In the late 1980s Brashear had four churches, a factory, a post office, and a number of scattered houses.

Christopher Long