One would think that a town named after a particular person was because there had to be a special connection. Maybe perhaps he was the first mayor, or the first doctor, or the first postmaster. Not Brevard. The namesake of our community, Ephraim Brevard, never set foot here. So why was this honor bestowed on someone with no apparent connection to our history?

Ephraim Brevard was born in Maryland in 1744. He came to North Carolina at about age four and grew up in what is now Iredell County. As a young child he was blinded in one eye while playing ball. Despite his disability he graduated from the College of New Jersey, now known as Princeton University, in 1768, then studied medicine in Philadelphia, PA, and moved to Charlotte, NC to start his medical practice and teach at Queen’s College. He married Martha Polk, who died young leaving behind one child, Martha Polk Brevard.

At a meeting on May 20, 1775 the citizens in the town of Mecklenburg, NC proclaimed their independence from England. Dr. Brevard prepared a series of twenty resolutions called the Mecklenburg Resolves on May 31, which ultimately became the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence. The resolutions declared that “all laws originating or authorized from the King, or Parliament, are hereby annulled and vacated” and ceased recognition of the Crown’s power in the colony of North Carolina and the other American colonies.

When the British invaded the southern states, Dr. Brevard joined the Revolutionary Army [NR1] as a surgeon to fight for independence, where he rose to the rank of colonel. He was captured at the fall of Charleston in May of 1780. As an officer he was given the option of signing a parole that would allow him to go home, but he chose to stay in Charleston to care for his fellow American prisoners. Diseases such as dysentery ran rampant among the prisoners and Brevard became severely ill. He was released some months later, intent on returning to Iredell County, but died enroute in Charlotte in 1781. He was buried in Hopewell, Mecklenburg County in an unmarked grave. He was a Revolutionary War hero and patriot.

Jumping to the future, Transylvania County was established February 15, 1861, the same day North Carolina seceded from the Union. In 1868, three years after the Civil War ended and the township was founded, there was deep division over the war with half the residents supporting the Union and the other half supporting the Confederacy. The leaders looked back to the previous century for an inspiring true patriot as a namesake for the town and settled on “Brevard” to avoid controversy.

Ephraim Brevard was recognized as a Revolutionary patriot, and he was connected to Brevard through county founder Lambert Clayton. Clayton married Sarah Davidson Clayton, niece to Ephraim Brevard. It seems that the Brevard name was not randomly chosen. The citizens chose a local hero, but one from a much earlier time not associated with the Civil War conflict.

In 1985 a monument was erected in front of Brevard City Hall by his descendants declaring he, “fought bravely and died a martyr to that liberty which none loved better and few understood so well.” Photographs and information for this column are provided by the Rowell Bosse North Carolina Room, Transylvania County Library. This article was written by Library Assistant Helaine Kranz. Sources available upon request.