BEGATS AND BEQUEATHALS

Children of Johnson H. Brooks and Elizabeth Hunter (Gailey)

The children of Johnson H. Brooks and Elizabeth Hunter were as follows:

a. Nancy Caroline Brooks was born 7 June 1836 in Lawrence County, Alabama, and died 2 August 1840 in Lawrence County. According to George A. O’Reilly, Dorothy Ratledge, whose research was cited in the previous posting linked at the head of this one, provided him with a transcript of a Brooks family bible that did not belong to her and whose owner she did not know.^[2] George thinks this bible must have belonged to Johnson H. Brooks — and it records the dates of birth and death of Nancy Caroline Brooks.

b. Clarissa C. Brooks was born in 1838 in Lawrence County, Alabama, and died before 2 October 1875, when her father’s will was probated in Lawrence County. On 7 April 1855 in Lawrence County, Clarissa married John Reuben Flannagan (note the multiple surname spellings below), son of Thomas Jefferson Flannagan and Jane Murphy.^[3] In his January 1909 account of Johnson H. Brooks in the Moulton Advertiser discussed in the previous posting, Simeon W. Barbee recounts the circumstances of this marriage (a digital copy of the clipping is at the head of this posting):^[4]

From the first union there were three children, two sons and a daughter. The daughter became the wife of constable John R. Flannagin, about 55 years ago. It was a “runaway” match, though I suppose there was no great amount of parental objection to the marriage. The marriage occurred on Sunday, and the “Stolen” bride faulting to her place behind the groom on his faithful horse, the pair hurried away to the “Square,” and were married. Mr. Flannigin, in an official capacity, was well known about Oakville and Moulton.

John and Clarissa appear on the 1860 federal census in Lawrence County and then disappear from the federal census.^[5] According to George A. O’Reilly, the family moved in September 1866 to DeSoto County, Mississippi.^[6] George states that on 10 September 1866, John Flannagan came on John Free beating his wife Ellen, who was Flannagan’s sister, and Flannagan killed Free, who is buried in the Flanigin family cemetery at Youngtown in Lawrence County.^[7] At this point, the family left for Mississippi and no record of what happened to them after they moved to Mississippi has been found.

Since Lawrence County probate court ordered Johnson H. Brooks’s widow Olive to notify his heirs of her intent to probate Johnson’s will when she applied for probate on 2 October 1875, and Clarissa’s name is not listed among those who were notified, it’s assumed she had died by that date — or was perhaps assumed dead, having left Alabama in 1866.

c. James Wesley Brooks was born in March 1839 in Lawrence County, Alabama.^[8] He died on 19 January 1902 at Meridianville in Madison County, Alabama.^[9] On 4 January 1870 in Marshall County, Tennessee, James Wesley Brooks married Mary Catherine Marshall, daughter of Robert Armstrong Marshall and Mary America White.^[10] Mary Catherine was born 17 November 1852 at Chapel Hill in Marshall County, Tennessee, and died 29 March 1931 at Meridianville, Alabama.^[11] She is buried at Maple Hill cemetery in Huntsville, Madison County; James Wesley’s burial place is unknown. During the Civil War, James Wesley was a private in the Confederate army in Co. C of the 5^th Alabama Cavalry.^[12] His wife Mary Catherine filed a pension for his service at Huntsville on 7 August 1915.^[13]

d. Christopher Columbus Brooks was born in September 1842 in Lawrence County, Alabama.^[14] He died before 24 July 1863 while serving as a Confederate soldier in Co. D of the 27^th Alabama Infantry, a unit whose soldiers were largely drawn from Lawrence County.^[15] His service packet does not state exactly when, where, or how he died. 

e. Olive Jane Brooks was born 11 February 1845 in Lawrence County, Alabama, and died 24 November 1892 in Lawrence County.^[16] On 11 July 1869 in Lawrence County, Olive Jane married Thomas Jefferson Clark, son of Thomas Jefferson Clark and Nancy Royer.^[17] Olive Jane and Thomas J. are buried together in the Bald Knob cemetery at Five Points in Lawrence County, with tombstones giving their dates of birth and death.^[18] His stone states that he was born 15 November 1833 and died 22 November 1910. Further information about Olive Jane and her husband Thomas J. Clark, including a photo of Olive Jane, is found in an article on the Clark family by Rosalie M. Clark in The Heritage of Lawrence County, Alabama.^[19]

f. Ilenah (possibly Ilenah Beulah or Beulah Ilenah) Brooks was born in December 1850 in Lawrence County, Alabama, and died in Lawrence County between 1860 and 1870. The previous posting discusses this child of Johnson H. Brooks and Elizabeth Hunter, noting that her name is difficult to read on the 1860 federal census, but appears to be Ilenah, and that, according to researcher Dorothy Ratledge, a Brooks family bible whose original owners or current whereabouts Dorothy did not know, this daughter was named Beulah — and George O’Reilly concludes she was born in December 1850.^[20] It states that she was 10 years old.

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Okay, stop the presses: since I’ve posted the preceding information, I’ve had an email from John Blythe of Huntersville, North Carolina, a faithful reader of this blog and assiduous research, whose eagle eye often spots mistakes that John kindly tells me about — and I welcome any and all corrections! John thinks that the daughter of Johnson H. Brooks who appears as Ilenah on the 1860 federal census is actually Johnson’s daughter by wife Olive Jane Gibson, Iberiah Jane, and not the last child Johnson had wife Elizabeth Hunter.

John has given me permission to share his email about this to me. Here it is:

The person recorded as “Ilenah” in the 1860 census is actually Iberiah Jane. Here’s why.

1. If you go back a few pages to frame 48 of the 1860 census, you’ll find several infants under the age of a year old. While the enumerator occasionally wrote a complete fraction for the age, as often as not he simply substituted a dash for the denominator 12.
2. Take another look at Ilenah’s age, and you’ll see that it is recorded as “1/-” (in other words: one month old). A decade later, Isabella J.’s age is recorded as 10 years. That’s two times in a row that the census messed up Iberiah’s name.
3. If you drop the first letter or syllable of Iberiah, as was common practice (Isabella = Bella; Eudora = Dora; Jerome = Rome, etc.), you’ll have Beriah, which easily could be mistaken for Beulah. Since we can’t see the Bible entry that caused Dorothy Ratledge to record the name as Beulah, we might assume that her transcription does not reflect what the scrivener wrote or intended.
4. If there actually was a Beulah, she must have been born and died between censuses, and therefore was never recorded.

I’m pretty confident John is right about all of this, and that the daughter Dorothy Ratledge thought had the name Beulah was Iberiah/Beriah.

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Children of Johnson H. Brooks and Olive Jane Gibson

The children of Johnson H. Brooks and Olive Jane Gibson were as follows:

g. Iberiah Jane Brooks was born in 1860 in Lawrence County, Alabama, and died in Lawrence County between July 1889, when her daughter Flora was born, and 5 February 1891, when her husband Stephen W. Livingston married Georgia Ann Hampton.^[21] As we saw in the previous posting, the 1870 federal census shows her in the household of her parents in Lawrence County with the given name Isabella J.^[22]

The 1880 federal census, also cited in the posting I’ve just linked, gives her name as Ideri, and her age as 20.^[23] In her father’s 16 March 1874 will, her name is clearly written as Iberiah Jane.^[24]

On 17 December 1882 in Lawrence County, Iberiah married Stephen W. Livingston, son of Samuel and Frances Livingston.^[25] The marriage record gives her name as Ibara. Stephen Livingston’s brother Samuel Butler Livingston was a witness to the 1874 will of Iberiah’s father Johnson H. Brooks. Steven Livingston was born in May 1839 and died 21 October 1905 in Lawrence County.^[26] I have not found information about the burial places of Iberiah Jane or Stephen.

h. Robert J. Brooks was born 9 November 1862 in Lawrence County and died 24 February 1885 at Oakville in Lawrence County.^[27] On 16 December 1879 in Lawrence County, he married Rebecca Jane Mayfield.^[28]

i. William Walter Brooks was born in 1864 in Lawrence County, Alabama. He disappears from the federal census after 1880 and seems to have died between 1880 and 1900. As we saw in the preceding posting, the 1870 federal census shows him in his parents’ household as Walter Brooks, aged 6, and in 1880, he’s listed twice, once as Walter Brooks working on the farm of Joseph T. Hunter at Oakville in Lawrence County, and then again as William Brooks, living in his mother’s household in Lawrence County, in both cases aged 16.^[29] A Walter Brooks found on the 1910 federal census in Lawrence County appears to be a different person unless the age is wildly wrong: this Walter is aged only 18.

The previously cited will of Walter’s father Johnson H. Brooks gives his name as William W. Brooks.

j. Lee Vallandingham Brooks was born in either December 1866 or in 1867 in Lawrence County, Alabama, and died 23 January 1932 at Danville in Morgan County, Alabama.^[30] Lee did not marry and spent his adult life living with relatives. Lee is buried in Johnson Chapel cemetery near Danville in Morgan County.

k. Rome Kansas Brooks was born in 1872 in Lawrence County, Alabama, and died there in 1880, apparently.^[31]

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^[1] George A. O’Reilly, The History of E. James Brooks Family of Lawrence County, Alabama (1500 Trinity Road, Huntsville, Alabama 35802-2779; Oreilly0103@gmail.com), pp. 200-308.

^[2] Ibid., p. 201.

^[3] Lawrence County, Alabama, Orphans Court Marriage Bk. B, p. 28. 

^[4] S.W. Barbee, “Old Lawrence Reminiscent,” Moulton Advertiser (5 January 1909), p. 1, col. 3-4.

^[5] 1860 federal census, Lawrence County, Alabama, southern division, Moulton post office, p. 907 (dwelling/family 709; 23 August).

^[6] O’Reilly, The History of E. James Brooks Family of Lawrence County, Alabama, p. 226. 

^[7] See Find a Grave memorial page of John Free, Flanigin cemetery, Youngtown, Lawrence County, Alabama, created by WSALMOND, with a grave marker photo by Raven Smith Millwood.

^[8] George A. O’Reilly thinks this birthdate from the 1900 federal census is the most reliable of several given in various records for James Wesley’s birth: see The History of E. James Brooks Family of Lawrence County, Alabama, p. 227, citing 1900 federal census, Madison County, Alabama, p. 202. As O’Reilly also notes, various sources have recorded conflicting information about where James Wesley was born — e.g., in either Lawrence or Lauderdale Counties, Alabama — but Lawrence County seems likely.

^[9] See O’Reilly, The History of E. James Brooks Family of Lawrence County, Alabama, p. 241, citing a Brooks family bible in the possession of Ruth Hutchins. 

^[10] Marshall County, Tennessee, Marriage Bonds Bk. 1865-1877, p. 102.

^[11] See her obituary in Huntsville Times (30 March 1931), p. 8, col. 2, which states her date and place of death and burial place.

^[12] See NARA, Compiled Service Records of Confederate Soldiers Who Served in Organizations from the State of Alabama, RG 109, digitized at Fold3.

^[13] See Alabama Department of Archives and History, Confederate Pension Applications, 1880-1940, digitized at Ancestry.

^[14] See O’Reilly, The History of E. James Brooks Family of Lawrence County, Alabama, p. 265, citing the previously mentioned Brooks family bible transcribed by Dorothy Ratledge.

^[15] See NARA, Compiled Service Records of Confederate Soldiers Who Served in Organizations from the State of Alabama, RG 109, digitized at Fold3.

^[16] According to O’Reilly, The History of E. James Brooks Family of Lawrence County, Alabama, p. 267, Olive Jane’s date of birth is recorded in the previously mentioned Brooks family bible transcribed by Dorothy Ratledge. Her dates of birth and death are also given on her tombstone in Bald Knob cemetery at Five Points, Lawrence County, Alabama: see Find a Grave memorial page of Olive Jane Brooks Clark in this cemetery, created by FHTerry, with a tombstone photo by FHTerry.

^[17] Lawrence County, Alabama, Orphans Court Marriage Bk. E, p. 169.

^[18] See supra, n. 16. Thomas Jefferson Clark’s Find a Grave memorial page is here.

^[19] Rosalie M. Clark, “The Clark Family,” in The Heritage of Lawrence County, Alabama, ed. Lawrence County Heritage Book Committee (Clanton, Alabama: Heritage, 1998), p. 105.

^[20] O’Reilly, The History of E. James Brooks Family of Lawrence County, Alabama, p. 291.

^[21] Ibid., p. 293.

^[22] 1870 federal census, Lawrence County, Alabama, Dry Creek post office, township 6, range 6w west, p. 29 (dwelling/family 89; 10 August).

^[23] 1880 federal census, Lawrence County, Alabama, Dry Creek post office, p. 394 (dwelling/family 53; 4 June 1880).

^[24] Lawrence County, Alabama, Probate Court Minute Bk. I, pp. 370-371.

^[25] Lawrence County, Alabama, Probate Court Marriage Bk. I, p. 178.

^[26] See O’Reilly, The History of E. James Brooks Family of Lawrence County, Alabama, p. 295, who does not cite a source for the death date. The May 1839 birthdate is given in his listing in the 1900 federal census in Lawrence County.

^[27] According to George A. O’Reilly, ibid., p. 301, the date of birth is recorded in the Brooks family bible from which Dorothy Ratledge sent him information. For the date and place of death, George O’Reilly cites Lawrence County, Alabama, Register of Deaths 1881-1895, certificate #23.

^[28] Lawrence County, Alabama, Probate Court Marriage Bk. H, p. 301.

^[29] See supra, n. 22 and n.23; and 1880 federal census, Lawrence County, Alabama, p. 394C (ED 171; dwelling/family 61; 5 June).

^[30] The 1900 federal census gives his birthdate as December 1866. He was enumerated in the household of Samuel Hampton at Oakville in Lawrence County, p. 5 (dwelling/family 88; 5 June). Samuel was the husband of Margaret Caroline Lindsey, daughter of Fielding Wesley Lindsey and Clarissa Brooks. The Alabama Death Index states that he was 35 when he died on 23 January 1932: see Family Search, Alabama Deaths and Burials, 1881–1952. George A. O’Reilly reports that, according to Dorothy Ratledge, the Brooks family bible from which she sent George information has Lee born in 1867: O’Reilly, The History of E. James Brooks Family of Lawrence County, Alabama, p. 305. In addition to the Alabama Death Index, which provides his date and place of death, an obituary in Decatur Daily on Monday, 25 January 1932, states that he had died on Saturday at the home of his nephew Posey Livingston at Danville: Decatur Daily (25 January 1932), p. 4, col. 7.

^[31] See O’Reilly, The History of E. James Brooks Family of Lawrence County, Alabama, p. 308, which says that the Brooks family bible on which Dorothy Ratledge reported to him has the date of birth and a statement that Rome “died young,” with someone having written in it that the date of death may have been 5 March 1880. But Rome C. is listed in his mother’s household in Lawrence County on 4 June 1880, so his death occurred after that date: see supra, n. 23.