Once More from the Beginning

Once more, from the Beginning

By Donald G. Brooks

AuthorHouse

Copyright © 2012 Donald G. Brooks
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4685-6070-1

Contents

Dedication..........................................................5Preface.............................................................9Thomas Brooks.......................................................14Thomas Brooks Jr....................................................15Thomas Brooks III...................................................19Thomas Brooks IV....................................................22William Brooks......................................................23William Marion Brooks...............................................24Benjamin O. Brooks..................................................26James H. Brooks.....................................................27William Fletcher Brooks.............................................33Topographical Information...........................................38Warrick County Family Records.......................................42Gilbert W. Brooks...................................................48Helen D. (Smith) Brooks.............................................53Gilbert W. Brooks – Detailed History..........................63Gilbert and Helen – Marriage..................................811940 – 1945...................................................851946 – 1950...................................................911951 – 1953...................................................1251954 – 1957...................................................1591958 – 1961...................................................1951962 – 1965...................................................2491966 – 1969...................................................2711970 – 1989...................................................2901990 – 1999...................................................3252000 – 2009...................................................337Part VII Sibling Biographies........................................341Judith A Brooks.....................................................344Linda T. Brooks.....................................................348Joan D. Brooks......................................................350James W. Brooks.....................................................353Brenda J. Brooks....................................................355Thomas D. Brooks....................................................356Carol E. Brooks.....................................................359Karen K. Brooks.....................................................360Part VIII The Future................................................363Part IX Summation...................................................371Part X GENERATIONS FOLLOWING US.....................................375To our Young Women..................................................382To our Young Men....................................................385Owen / Hart Township Maps 1880 & 1899...............................392 - 395

Chapter One

PART I

Our Ancestors

Family Ancestry from 1710 - 1908

I want readers to be able to easily identify the chain of our paternal family members. For that purpose, I have emboldened and italicized this text's first mention of the names of our family's succeeding bloodline.

Thomas Brooks Sr. was reportedly born in 1710, likely in Burlington, New Jersey. Quakers incorporated Burlington – the county seat of Burlington County – on October 24, 1693. So it is highly likely that Thomas Brooks Sr. was a Quaker. Burlington sits 15 miles northeast of Philadelphia, on the Delaware River.

The Indians by that time were resisting white settlers along the Eastern Seaboard. During Thomas's early life, hostilities occurred between Native Americans and settlers in the Carolina territory just to the south. Following a massacre of settler families in that area, the Tuscarora Indian War began. It lasted from the fall 1711 to February 1715. During that conflict, in May 1712, the Province of Carolina was officially divided into North Carolina and South Carolina.

The Pennsylvania Assembly had just banned the import of slaves into that colony. Philadelphia became the central meeting place for all the territories. It was in 1714, tea was first introduced into the American Colonies and King George I had ascended to the English throne, succeeding Queen Anne.

No other information is available on Thomas Sr. other than that he was the father of - Thomas Brooks Jr.

Thomas Brooks Jr.

Thomas Brooks Jr. was born in 1730 in Southampton, New Jersey. The next year, Benjamin Franklin founded the first American public library in Philadelphia. Thomas Jr. married Mary Blacknall, born in 1732 in Burlington, New Jersey.

Thomas Jr. and his young wife married in spring 1747. They left home shortly thereafter, travelling through Baltimore on their way to Winchester, Virginia. (Baltimore was founded in 1730 in the Maryland colony.) The move from New Jersey to Winchester, Fredrick County Virginia is about 180 miles southwest of Burlington, New Jersey.

During the late 1720s, the Governor of the Virginia territory offered 200,000 acres to families willing to settle in the Shenandoah Valley. The town of Winchester was laid out in half-acre lots in 1741. A good reason for Thomas and Mary's move to Fredrick County could have been the offer of land grants.

George Washington was born two years after Thomas Jr., on February 22, 1732. They lived in adjoining counties in Virginia during their young adult years.

Thomas and Mary had one recorded child, a son. Thomas Brooks III who was born in 1747 in Winchester. When we do the math, Thomas Jr. became a parent at 17 and Mary at 15. One wonders if their parents and Thomas Sr. may have encouraged them to move to the new lands due to the pregnancy. Perhaps their families also had friends there who could help with a new start that would be better for the young couple.

In June 1732, Georgia became the 13th English colony. Benjamin Franklin, still in Philadelphia, published Poor Richard's Almanac. This publication contained weather predictions, humor, proverbs, and epigrams. It sold nearly 10,000 copies each year from 1732 to 1757.

The English Parliament passed the Molasses Act, a not-so-sweet deal, in 1733. This was done to protect the English planters in the Caribbean from French and Dutch competition. It imposed heavy duties on molasses, rum and sugar imported from non-British islands in the Caribbean.

England declared war on Spain in 1739. As a result, hostilities broke out in America between Florida's Spaniards and the colonists in Georgia and South Carolina. That same year, three separate violent uprisings by black slaves occurred in South Carolina. In 1740, fifty black slaves were hung in Charleston, South Carolina after plans for another revolt were revealed.

Other historical events during Thomas Jr's life included the English Parliament passing the Iron Act in 1750 and the Currency Act in 1764. The former limited the growth of the iron industry in the American colonies to protect the English iron industry. The Currency Act prohibited the issuing of paper money by the New England colonies.

The French and Indian War erupted in 1754 as a result of disputes over land in the upper Ohio River Valley. In May, the then 22-year-old George Washington led a small group of American colonists to victory over the French. He then built Fort Necessity in the Ohio territory south of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Washington later was outnumbered by the French at that fort and had to surrender it. Since this was the principal route west into the Ohio territories, until the area was secured, families could not move freely on the Ohio River into Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, and beyond.

In February 1755, England's General Edward Braddock arrived in Virginia with two regiments of English troops. Braddock assumed the post of commander-in-chief of all English forces in America. That April, he and Lt. Col. George Washington set out with nearly 2,000 men to battle the French in the Ohio territory. The French, trying to establish holdings, had been encouraging the Indians to plunder the Colonists. The British and George Washington were promptly defeated. The next year England declared war on France. The colonies' French and Indian conflict now more deeply divided the British and the French.

Benjamin Franklin, in July 1757, began a five-year stay in Great Britain as an ambassador for the colonies. The first Indian reservation in America was started the following year on 3,000 acres in New Jersey.

Over the next five years, the French, Indians and English continued to battle over rights to the territories. This French and Indian War ended with the Treaty of Paris in 1763. Under that treaty, France gave England all French territory east of the Mississippi River, except New Orleans. That same year the Spanish gave England east and west Florida in return for Cuba. By this time, the population of colonists in America had reached 1.5 million.

Mary and Thomas Jr. experienced the whole Revolutionary War, from beginning to end. Living where they did, close to the center of things during those years, they were no doubt participants in many ways.

Although unknown, the Brooks families appeared to be mostly farmers. Their migrations from New Jersey to Virginia, then later to Kentucky and eventually to Indiana were likely motivated, at least in part, for more or better farmlands.

Mary and Thomas Jr. died in Frederick County, Virginia. He died in 1786 and she on April 4, 1787.

Just barely three years after Mary's death, Benjamin Franklin died on April 17, 1790, in Philadelphia at age 84. His funeral four days later drew over 20,000 mourners.

Thomas Brooks III

Thomas III, by then an adult, moved to Christ Church, Middlesex County, Virginia. There he met and married Margaret Beaman, born November 13, 1747. They made their home about a half-mile west of the Rappahannock River and about 150 miles southeast of Winchester, Virginia, his childhood home. They were married January 29, 1771.

Certainly, Thomas III, then age 24, was influenced by the Revolutionary War even more than his parents. In March 1774, an angry English Parliament enacted the first of a series of Coercive Acts (called Intolerable Acts by Americans) in response to the Boston Tea Party. The Boston Port Bill effectively shut down all commercial shipping in Boston Harbor until Massachusetts territory paid taxes owed on the tea dumped in the harbor and reimbursed East India Company for the tea's loss.

June 1774 saw the English Parliament enact a new version of the 1765 Quartering Act. The revised version required all American colonies to house British troops in occupied houses, taverns and unoccupied buildings. From September 5th to October 26th of 1774, the First Continental Congress met in Philadelphia. Every colony was represented except Georgia. Patrick Henry, George Washington, John Adams, Sam Adams and John Hancock were among the 56 delegates present.

At that time, Thomas III would have been 27 and living about 100 miles southwest of Philadelphia.

It was August of 1781, while Thomas III and Margaret were living in Christ Church that General Gilbert La Fayette or better known as the Marquis de La Fayette, a 19 year old French General and aristocrat, herded Lord Charles Cornwallis and his English army southeast through Virginia, past Fredericksburg and Richmond into Middlesex and the surrounding counties of eastern Virginia. Surrounded, Cornwallis was held at bay between the Rappahannock and York Rivers until the French Navy, requested by La Fayette arrived. The French Navy prevented British ships from aiding or providing escape for Cornwallis. It was this campaign that turned the tide for the colonies. The colonies were now driving out the British.

One can only imagine what life was like for Thomas and Margaret that summer as the British controlled life in the eastern Virginia counties. No doubt in addition to other atrocities they were forced as well, to house British soldiers in their home in Christ Church, at a time when they had a young family of children ranging in ages from 1 to 10 years.

Two years later on February 4, 1783, when Thomas III was 36 and young Thomas Brooks IV was 10 years old, England officially declared an end to hostilities in America.

Thomas and Margaret's children were: Ruth (1771 – 1837), Sarah (1771 – 1857), James (1772 – 1838), Margaret Elizabeth (1772 – 1857), Thomas IV (1773 – 1854), Rev. Thomas M. (1775 – 1839), Robert H. (1780 – 1847), Jesse (1784 – 1860) and Rebecca (1786 – 1860/1870).

It appears there were two sets of twins, Ruth and Sarah (1771), as well as James and Elizabeth, (1772).

Thomas Brooks IV

Thomas Brooks IV, born in 1773, married Mary (no maiden name recorded) in 1807, while continuing to reside in Virginia. Mary was born in 1782 in Virginia. They and their children moved in 1835 to Logan, Kentucky, in the northern Kentucky territories. Thomas IV was then 62 and Mary was 53. The trip likely took weeks and was a distance of nearly 800 miles. In all probability, they traveled to Pittsburgh, some 250 miles to the northwest. There they boarded a flatboat for the almost 600-mile, arduous trip down the Ohio River to a settlement called Owensboro, Kentucky. Owensboro had been first settled in 1797, 38 years earlier.

Both Thomas IV and Mary died in the town of Logan, Ohio County, Kentucky. He died August 29, 1854, and she passed away in September 1860.

Their children were: William M. Brooks (February 23, 1808), Phoebe (1810), Elizabeth (1812), Humphrey (1813), George (1815), Thomas (1817 – 1892), Philip (1818), Joseph (1822), twins Silas and Silisa (1825) and Caroline (1829).

Captain William Brooks

Captain William Brooks was born February 23, 1808, in Virginia. Mariah Frances Brown, his future wife, was born 1802. They were married December 27, 1831, in Caroline County, Virginia, just 10 - 15 miles south of present-day Fredericksburg, Virginia. They moved to Ohio County, Kentucky – about 30 miles south of today's Owensboro – about 1835, bringing along his parents (Thomas IV and Mary). This shortly followed the death of William and Mariah's infant, Martha, in 1834.

No information is available to explain why William was termed "Captain." He died January 28, 1884.

International Genealogical Index indicates William and Mariah had eight living children, including "one male born 1846 in Kentucky." No names are listed there except Mariah, who died April 11, 1858. Another information source says their children were: Margarette M. (Gaines) (October 28, 1831 – May 7, 1904), Robert S. (November 12, 1832 – 1850), Martha (June 6, 1834 – 1834), William M. (February 16, 1836 – March 24, 1913), Benjamin O. (February 4, 1839 – December 5, 1932), Mary Catherine (January 28, 1841 – April 21, 1880), Eldred Chiles (May 14, 1843 – November 25, 1926), George (1847), Mariah Frances (July 13, 1848 – 1906) and James Hardin (August 3, 1850 – September 14, 1920). William Marion (see "William M." above) was the first child of our family recorded to have been born in Kentucky, in Ohio County.

Three of the sons – William M., Benjamin O., and James Brooks – are those who we will follow more closely from this point forward. These boys, born in Kentucky, moved to Owen Township, Warrick County, Indiana, likely in the late 1850s.

William Marion Brooks

William Marion Brooks was born February 16, 1836. He married Suisen ("Susan" on marriage license record) E. Pemberton in Warrick County on January 12, 1871. The couple purchased 40 acres from George Taylor on December 28, 1871. The plot was located in the southeast quarter of the southeast quarter of Section 15, Township 4 South and Range 7 West. The $1,000 William paid would amount to nearly $100,000 in 2011 dollars.

William also purchased the south half of the northwest quarter of the southeast quarter of Section 15, Township 4 South, and Range 7 West, consisting of 20 acres. He bought this from F. Starrabush for an undisclosed amount. William's ground was about a quarter mile east of his brother James' property and north of Barren Fork Road. Both properties faced Barren Fork Road. James' acreage averaged about $40 an acre. If $40 an acre was the average price for road-front property, then perhaps William's ground averaged $25 an acre for the whole 40 acres. The back acreage, amounting to 20 acres, may have been about $10 an acre, but we don't know that. At one time, William owned almost 250 acres.

When we correlate 1880 dollars with 2011 dollars, the value has inflated nearly 100 times. An example is property then might have averaged $20 an acre. Two hundred fifty acres times $20 an acre equals $5,000. William's personal property, such as farm equipment and stock, could have been worth about $2,000. His total worth of $7,000 times 100 (adjusting 1880 dollars to 2011 dollars) shows his present-day gross worth would have been about $700,000.

Susan died in 1899 and William March 24, 1913. They are buried in the Folsomville cemetery, Warrick County, Indiana.

The names and birth dates of William Marion and Susan E. Brooks' children were: James M. (1873), Eldred P. (1876 – 1944), Melvin C. (1879).

Following Susan's death in 1899, William, then age 65, remarried an Ollie J, (no maiden name). This was about 1900. The names and birth dates of their children were Russell (1901), Revis (1903), Lillie (1904), Myrtle (1906), and Bessie J. (1909). It begs a serious question of the children's parentage because in 1900 William was 64 years of age and Ollie J. was 72 year of age. This information was verified by both Familysearch.com and Ancestery.com. Revis Brooks appears in the 1920 Censes, married and residing with Amos and Hanna Hart in Owen Township. One possibility might be that these were the children of William's extended family. Another possibility is that after marrying Ollie J. he later adopted her family's children, changing their last name. My best estimate is this happened about 1908 or 1909.

Note: See Index for 1880 and 1899 Hart and Owen Township maps, pages 392-395.

Benjamin O. Brooks

Benjamin O. Brooks was born February 4, 1839. He married Druzilla Jane Pemberton on October 13, 1860. She had been born in 1844.

Benjamin may have been the first of his clan to move to Indiana from Ohio County, Kentucky. Some records suggest he moved to Owen Township in Warrick County as early as 1859. However, county records don't report anything about Benjamin until he purchased property May 27, 1869. On that day, he acquired 80 acres from Abraham Phelps. The property was located at the east half of the northwest quarter of Section 22, Township 4 South, and Range 7 West. It was purchased for $500. Benjamin's ground cost about $6.25 an acre, a very reasonable price. He would have had personal property perhaps in the range of $1,000. His total worth of about $1,500 in 1880 dollars would amount to approximately $150,000 – not a great deal – in 2011 dollars. Benjamin died December 5, 1933, in Evansville, Indiana.

The names and birth dates of Benjamin O. and Druzilla Jane (Pemberton) Brooks' children were: Lora B. (1863), Amos F. (1864), Cordelia J. (1867), Ida A. (1869), Laura B. (1870), Coria G. (1874), Stella M. (1877) and Mary A. (1879).

Note: See Index for 1880 and 1899 Hart and Owen Township maps, pages 392 - 395.

James Hardin "Jim" Brooks

James Hardin Brooks, the youngest brother, was born August 3, 1850, and married Nancy E. Jones on November 1, 1870. Her parents had migrated from Ohio to Kentucky. James and Nancy's first child, Amanda, was born 1872 in Indiana.

James' property was south side of Barren Fork Road, at the corner of what is today Bass Road. Warrick County deed records indicate James bought two parcels of ground January 15, 1873, four years after Benjamin's purchase. James purchased his land from William Jones, possibly a relative of Nancy's. The first parcel was seven acres, located in the east end of the west half of the northeast quarter of the northwest quarter of Section 21, Township 4 South, Range 7 West for $125. The other parcel consisted of two acres at the southwest corner of the intersection of Barren Fork and Bass roads. The legal description is part of the northeast corner of the east half of the northwest part of Section 21, Township 4 South and Range 7 West. For this corner lot, James paid $152.

Of the three brothers, all sons of William Marion Brooks, James was financially the least well off. His worth in 1880 dollars is estimated to be near $1,200. In 2011 dollars, that amounts to about $120,000.

James died September 14, 1920. He and Nancy are buried in the Barren Fork Cemetery. His last days were spent in his son Ora's home.

James and Nancy's children were: Amanda Frances (Brooks) Schultz (December 2, 1872 – August 9, 1961), Susan Dill (Brooks) Retter (January 14, 1874 – 1965), Charlotte Jane "Lottie" (Brooks) Samples (1877 – 1956), William Fletcher (May 14, 1880 – May 21, 1939), Ollie Belle (Brooks) Brown (1881 – 1963) and Ora Alvin (November 3, 1883 - ?). In William's obituary, Maude (Brooks) Begulin is listed as his sister in California. Neither Ancestery.com nor Familysearch.com was able to confirm William had a sister by this name.

October 23, 1871

To help with some geographic perspective of this area in Warrick County, about four miles west and one mile south of the above Brookses lived the Dials. The Dickeyville Road would have been the main road, running east and west between their communities. Hart and Owen townships adjoined one another.

The John C. Dial family had a daughter named Rachel Dial, who married James Wheeler October 23, 1871. One source of information indicates Rachel had an illegitimate son, named William Coulter, in 1867. This same source reports the children of Rachel and James Wheeler were: Myrtle (Wheeler) Knickerbocker, Nora (Wheeler) Cox, John Wheeler, Belva Leona (Wheeler) Brooks, Teddy Wheeler and Imogene Wheeler. The Dial property began at the Eby Union Meeting House on the east side of Eby Road and ran south about 1,760 front feet. It consisted of approximately 200 acres. The Brookses lived on their Barren Fork Road properties about the same time the Dials lived south of Eby. In fact, it was James H. Brooks' son, William F. Brooks, who married Belva L. Wheeler, the daughter of James Wheeler and Rachel Dial.

Note: See Index for 1880 and 1899 Hart and Owen Township maps, pages 392 – 395.

June 15, 1878

During 1878, an unexplained and interesting thing happened to James and Nancy's two-acre parcel. James deeded the two acres to Nancy for $5. Nancy was named as an "assignee" of James Wilson. Wilson filed a claim (suit) against James H. Brooks and Joseph F. Pemberton, with the two acres being the property interest in the suit. Subsequently, a court judgment granted Wilson $88.45 plus court costs of $27.70. On June 15, 1878, the court instructed a sheriff's deed be prepared, and the property was transferred to James Wilson.

Several scenarios are possible:

1) Brooks and Pemberton may have defaulted on a civil matter jointly with Wilson and the property became the settlement. Brooks and Pemberton may have been instructed to attempt an outright sale to compensate Wilson and, should a sale not occur, then a sheriff's sale would take place, which ultimately happened. Because no one outbid Wilson's $5 bid, he was awarded the property with the stipulation that Brooks and Pemberton had one year to redeem the parcel.

(Continues...)

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