After the war Captain Brevard married Rebecca, a daughter of Major John Davidson, one of the signers of the Mecklenburg Declaration.  Major Davidson suggested to himself and General Joseph Graham, another son-in-law, the propriety of entering into the manufacture of iron.  They readily approved of the suggestion and went over into Lincoln county.  There they found General Peter Forney in possession of a valuable iron ore bank.  With him they formed a copartnership and erected Vesuvius Furnace on the public road from Beattie’s Ford to Lincolnton—­at present known as Smith’s Furnace.  After operating for a time altogether, Forney withdrew.  Davidson and Brevard then left Graham in the management of Vesuvius Furnace, and built Mount Tirzah Forge, now known as Brevard’s Forge.  The sons-in-law shortly afterward bought out Davidson, and finally they dissolved.  Brevard then built a furnace on Leeper’s Creek, above Mount Tirzah Forge, and continued in the iron business until his death.

Captain Brevard, being of a retiring disposition, never sought political favor, but preferred to discharge his obligations to his country rather by obeying than by making her laws.  His manners were frank and candid, and the more intimately he was known the better was he beloved.  The dishonest met his searching eye with dread, but the industrious and the honest ever found in him a kind adviser and beneficent assistant.  Long will he be remembered as a pure man, a faithful friend, and an upright citizen, conscientious in the discharge of all his obligations and in the performance of all his duties.  He was for many years, a worthy elder in the Presbyterian Church, and died, as he had lived, a true christian, and with humble resignation, on the 1st of November, 1829, in the seventy-fifth year of his age.  His mortal remains repose in a private cemetery, selected by General Graham and himself as a family burying ground, and near which has lately been built the church of Macpelah.  He left seven children—­Ephraim, Franklin, Harriet, Robert, Joseph, Theodore and Mary.  Franklin and Joseph represented, at different times, the county of Lincoln in the State Legislature.

Joseph Brevard, the youngest son of John Brevard, Sen., at the youthful age of seventeen, held the commission of Lieutenant in the Continental army.  His brother Alexander said he was at that time quite small and delicate, and that he always pitied him when it was his turn to mount guard.  General ——­, who was in command at Philadelphia, discovering that he wrote a pretty hand, appointed him his private secretary.  In this position he remained until he received the commission of Lieutenant in the Southern army, which he held until the close of the war.  After the war he studied law, and settled in Camden, S.C., where he took a high stand both as a lawyer and a citizen.  After filling several offices of public trust, he was elected one of the Judges, which position he occupied with distinguished honor.