The Breland–Ball Connection
The Breland family forms an important part of the Ball family’s South Carolina and Mississippi heritage. According to the compiled family pedigree, Abraham Breland was the fifth-great-grandfather of Jefferson Martin Ball. The family line continued through Absalom Breland, Hiram Breland, Mahala Breland, Jefferson Davis Byrd, Leona Virginia Byrd, and Lamar Osby Ball. The records presented here preserve the family’s migration, military service, landholding, and life in Greene County, Mississippi.
Abraham Breland: Records and Family Origins
Abraham Breland appears in eighteenth-century records under several spellings, including Breler, Breeler, Brelen, Brelow, and Breland. Compiled family research places his birth around 1725 and records his presence in North Carolina before his settlement in South Carolina. A proposed connection to Abraham Andersen van Bruland of Rotterdam appears in the family timeline below, but that European identification should be treated as a research theory until supported by original records.
Hiram Breland in Greene County, Mississippi
Hiram Breland was born on April 28, 1797, at Boggy Gut in Beaufort District, South Carolina, and later settled in Greene County, Mississippi. In “Rough Riding Down South,” published in Harper’s New Monthly Magazine in 1862, traveler John F. H. Claiborne described finding shelter at Hiram Breland’s roadside home. He praised the family’s hospitality, food, and musical ability, reporting that Hiram and his wife had eighteen children and that six of their daughters were gifted musicians. Claiborne wrote that the household was known throughout the surrounding country as “the musical family.”
Source: J. F. H. Claiborne, “Rough Riding Down South,” Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, June 1862, pp. 29–37. The description of Hiram Breland and his family appears on page 31.
Research Notes and Sources
The Breland collection includes compiled family research, land-record references, a family pedigree, and the 1862 Harper’s Magazine account. Historical records spell the surname in several ways, including Breler, Breeler, Brelen, Brelow, Breelo, and Breland. These variations should be considered when searching tax lists, military records, land plats, census schedules, and court records.
Key sources:
• C. G. Breland, The Breland Families of the Southern States, 1755–1850 (Huntsville, Alabama: C. G. Breland, 1987).
• J. F. H. Claiborne, “Rough Riding Down South,” Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, June 1862, pp. 29–37.
• Compiled pedigree: Jefferson Martin Ball to Abraham Breland.
• South Carolina land plats and memorials associated with Abraham Breland and the Boggy Gut–Savannah River area