P. S. Got the last cheap copy of the book by the grandson, Cousin J. Lawrence Brasher, The Sanctified South. Notice that Find a Grave has John Lakin Brasher dying in 1961, contrary to the 100th birthday celebration below. Click on the tombstone and you see that the year is 1971. Some of us lived a long time.
Name: Rev. Dr. John Lakin BRASHER
Sex: M
Birth: 20 JUL 1868 in Etowah County, Alabama
Death: 25 JAN 1971 in Etowah County, Alabama
Burial: Brasher Church Cemetery, Brasher Spring, Etowah County, Alabama
Note:
Dr. John L. Brasher was a famous
Methodist minister, who lived at Attalla, Alabama, where at his 100th
birthday celebration, he preached an hour-long sermon. He owned a
Methodist boook, printed in 1818, and inscribed "James Brasher, Sr., his
book." According to his obituary, he was survived by three sons and
four daughters, but the 1910 Census of Marshall Co., AL names a boy not
listed in the obituary.
In one news article about his 100th
birthday: "Dr. Brasher has lived long enough to see his son, the Rev.
James Hendricks Brasher, reach retirement age. He retired at the annual
meeting of the Philadelphis Conference earlier this year."
At
Birmingham Southern College, shortly before his 101st birthday, he
preached a memorial service for conference members who had died during
the previous twelve months.
In his sermon, he recalled the
history of the Chrisian Church from the death of Jesus to the present,
placing special emphasis on the spiritual side of the faith. His
profound sincerity and quick wit frequently stirred the audience of
several thousand delegates from near tears to outbursts of laughter. It
left little doubt that heis not only the oldest member of the
conference, but one of the most aware. "It's not the wrinkles on the
face that makes folks old. It's the wrinkles on their spiritual life,"
proclaimed Dr. Brasher, who limits his sermons to "whenever I feel up to
one." He lives on the family's old home place at Brasher's Springs,
some seven miles west of Attalla. (from B'ham News, Wed, Jun 11, 1969)
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Lakin is an uncommon name, and I thought almost all of them were descendants of the 17th-century Massachusetts immigrant William Lakin of Groton. Is this fellow part of a branch that moved south, or is he perhaps an independent occurrence?
ReplyDeleteSee: Douglas Richardson, "The English origin of the Lakin family of Reading and Groton, Massachusetts, with the possible origin of the Bloods of Reading and Groton," The American Genealogist, 71: 142-148, 1995
It's the only occurrence in the family I know of. Larkin is not uncommon in Laurens County, SC (e.g., "Asa Larkin Tindall") and I see Larkin T. Basher Sr and Larkin Terrence Brasher Jr on 282-283 of the big A BRAZIER/BRASHER SAGA. I did not know about John Lakin Brasher until this morning.
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