10. John Wesley Stewart Brooks was born, according to the transcription of the register of the James Brooks bible, on 28 January 1822.[1] Memory Aldridge Lester’s transcript of the bible register indicates that it gives his name as John W.S. Brooks. But note a problem here: according to the bible register, the two siblings born before John, twins Alpha Caroline and Samuel F., who were twins, were born 5 August 1821. As the previous posting notes, Caroline’s tombstone in Davis Chapel cemetery at Alpha, Clinton County, Kentucky, also gives her a birthdate of 5 August 1821, so this birthdate seems to be well-established for these twin children of James Brooks and Nancy Isbell.
You do see the problem here, right? If Caroline and Samuel were born in August 1821, it’s pretty certain their next sibling John would not have been born in January 1822. Unfortunately, the original register of the Brooks family bible that Memory Aldridge Lester transcribed in 1951 appears not to be extant, so it’s not possible to compare the original document with her transcription. To me, it seems likely that she mistranscribed the register and that the year of John’s birth as written in the register was later than 1822.
The bible register gives the birthdate of James and Nancy’s next child, Charles Wesley Brooks, as 13 December 1829, so John would have been born between 5 August 1821 and 13 December 1829. As George A. O’Reilly points out, John W.S. Brooks enlisted as a 1st lieutenant in Co. H. of Kentucky’s 30th Infantry (Union) on 12 November 1863.[2] His service record card file states that his age when he enlisted at Monticello, Wayne County, Kentucky, in November 1863 was 41, which would give John W.S. Brooks a birth year of 1822. The enlistment record also states that he was born in Clinton County, Kentucky, a piece of information that appears to be incorrect, since all other documents showing his birthplace state that he was born in Alabama.
J.S. Brooks is found on the 1860 federal census in Clinton County, Kentucky, and J.W.S. Brooks is living in Saline County, Missouri, on the 1870 federal census.[3] The 1860 census has J.S. Brooks born in 1825 and the 1870 census places the birth of J.W.S. Brooks in 1823. Both censuses state that he was born in Alabama.
In what follows, I’m relying very much on George O’Reilly’s research about this son of James Brooks and Nancy Isbell, and adding to George’s good research pieces of information I’ve found.[4] George thinks that James and Nancy’s son John is a John Brooks enumerated on the 1840 federal census in Lawrence County, Alabama, next to a Thomas Brooks, with a household comprised of nine persons, but in my view, this John Brooks is not likely James and Nancy’s son John.[5] The John Brooks of this 1840 census listing was born between 1810 and 1820, and had a son born between 1825 and 1830. The 1860 federal census listing for J.S. Brooks and wife Susan at Alpha in Clinton County, Kentucky, shows the couple having a daughter Mary C. born about 1847 in Kentucky, and this indicates to me that John probably married his wife Susan around 1845 — and would not have appeared on the 1840 federal census heading a household, especially one with a number of children in it.[6]
The 1860 federal census in turn points us back to the 1850 federal census, which shows a Stewart Brooks with wife Susan living in Clinton County, Kentucky, with daughters Mary C. and Ann E. in their household. Stewart is aged 28 (so born about 1832), Susan is 35, and Mary and Ann are 4 and 2.[7] Stewart’s birthplace is Alabama and Susan’s is Kentucky; both daughters are born in Kentucky. The 1860 census shows J.S. Brooks as 35 and Susan as 44, with daughters Mary C., Ann Eliza, and Clarissa E. as 13, 12, and 8. Susan’s birthplace is Kentucky on both censuses.
Move from Lawrence County, Alabama, to Clinton County, Kentucky
Put together, these two censuses not only suggest to us that John married his wife Susan about 1845, but they also tell us that his full name was John Wesley Stewart Brooks. They also suggest that John followed his older sister Alpha Caroline to Clinton County, Kentucky, perhaps even moving there with Caroline and husband John Milton Davis, who married in Lawrence County, Alabama, on 8 October 1839, as we’ve seen, and then moved immediately to Clinton County, Kentucky, to join John’s parents there. As we’ll see in a moment, John is buried in the Davis Chapel cemetery at Alpha in Clinton County, where his sister Caroline and her husband John M. Davis are buried. I think it’s likely that John married wife Susan in Clinton County, whose marriage records begin only in 1865 with fragmentary records back to 1852; courthouse disasters in 1865 and 1890 destroyed many early records in the county.
Note that if John moved to Kentucky about 1839 with sister Caroline and her husband John M. Davis, he was probably still a teen. Their parents had died days apart from each other in 1835, and, as was the custom in that period, the children who were still unmarried at home when their parents died were usually taken in by older married siblings — and I think it’s likely that John’s sister Caroline took him under her wing as she married.
John’s wife Susan was the daughter of Peter Harget Stockton and Rachel Stockton (first cousins) of Clinton County, Kentucky. This is noted in a Clinton County circuit court case in August 1865 in which J.W.S. Brooks sued Isaac Stockton and others regarding distribution of land from the estate of Peter H. Stockton.[8] The minutes of this circuit court case name the heirs of Peter H. Stockton, including Susan Brooks.
As I noted above, on 12 November 1863, John enlisted at Monticello in Wayne County, Kentucky as a 1st lieutenant in Co. H of Kentucky’s 30th Infantry (Union).[9] I also noted previously that the enlistment card in his service packet states that he was 41 years old at the time, and had been born in Clinton County, Kentucky. The card also states that he was a farmer, 6’2” tall, with fair complexion and hair and blue eyes. George O’Reilly notes that John’s sister Caroline was living at Monticello at the time John enlisted there.[10] The service packet shows John mustered out of this unit on 18 April 1865.
Another document indicates that John was serving as captain of a Clinton County unit of the Kentucky Home Guard prior to his enlistment in the 30th Infantry. At a U.S. Senate pension committee hearing on 10 October 1888, a pension claim by Milton Wallen that had been filed as an affidavit in Clinton County on 12 July 1888 was heard.[11] Wallen’s affidavit states that he enlisted in July 1861 in Captain J.W.S. Brooks’s Clinton County unit of the Kentucky Home Guards.
As noted previously, John appears in an 1865-6 circuit court case in Clinton County, Kentucky, regarding the land of the estate of his father-in-law Peter Harget Stockton. At some point after 1867, he moved his family to Jefferson township in Saline County, Missouri, where, as noted above, John and his family are enumerated on the federal census.[12] We can date the move after 1867 since J.W.S. Brooks appears in a list of Master Masons of the Albany Lodge of Freemasons in Clinton County, Kentucky, in 1867.[13]
Move from Clinton County, Kentucky, to Saline County, Missouri
The 1870 federal census shows J.W.S. Brooks and wife Susan as both aged 47, he born in Alabama and she in Kentucky. He’s farming, and is listed as a male citizen of the U.S. over 21 years of age whose right to vote has been denied or abridged on grounds other than rebellion or other crime. In the household are daughters Mary C., 23, and Clara E., 18, both born in Kentucky. I have found no record of daughter Ann Eliza following the 1870 federal census, and think she likely died between 1860 and 1870.
What prompted John’s move to a county along the Missouri River in the Little Dixie section of north central Missouri, I haven’t discovered, though it might be noted that a sizable proportion of settlers of that part of Missouri came from Kentucky and Virginia. They included John’s first cousin Thomas Whitlock Brooks, son of Thomas Brooks and Sarah Whitlock, who moved from Wayne County, Kentucky, to Randolph County in the Little Dixie part of Missouri between 1830 and 1840.
At some point between 10 March 1874, when John’s daughter Clarissa/Clara married in Saline County, Missouri (see more about this below), and 1 May 1877, John died. As a previous posting notes, on 1 May 1877, Sarah Lindsey Speake, oldest daughter of Dennis Lindsey and Jane Brooks of Lawrence County, Alabama, wrote her sister Margaret Lindsey Hunter in Red River Parish, Louisiana, sharing family news with Margaret. Among the pieces of information Sarah’s letter conveys to her sister is that Cousin John Brooks had died. The letter suggests to me that John died in 1876 or 1877, since Sarah states in her letter that she sent yearly letters to her brothers and sisters, and she’s conveying this news to Margaret in the May 1877 letter as though it’s new information since she had written Margaret in 1876. I have searched for but have not found a probate record for John in either Saline County, Missouri, or Clinton County, Kentucky — and it’s not clear to me whether he died in the former or latter place.
John Wesley Stewart Brooks is buried in Davis Chapel cemetery at Alpha in Clinton County, Kentucky, where, as noted above, his sister Alpha Caroline Brooks and her husband John Milton Davis are also buried. His burial site is marked with a tombstone giving his name as Lieut. J.W.S. Brooks and noting his service in the 30th Kentucky Infantry.[14]
I find no record of John’s wife Susan after the 1870 federal census. I also find no record after 1870 of John and Susan’s daughter Mary C. Brooks. John and Susan’s daughter Clarissa/Clara E. Brooks married Robert Hall Williams on 10 March 1874 in Saline County, Missouri.[15] Robert was the son of a noted Baptist minister, Reverend Alvin Peter Williams and wife Elizabeth Armour.[16] The marriage record of Robert H. Williams and Clara E. Brooks states that the couple were married at the home of Clara’s father by another well-known Baptist minister of Saline County, Reverend Israel Smith Nordyke.
Robert Hall Williams was born in Missouri on 4 February 1846 and died 11 May 1930 at the Confederate Home in Dover township, Lafayette County, Missouri. His death certificate states that he was widowed at the time of his death.[17] I have not found a death record for his wife Clarissa/Clara, who is in his household in 1880 but not in 1900, when Robert is living as a widower with their daughter Estella and husband Edward Egan as a widower on the federal census. Robert is buried in the Confederate cemetery at Higginsville in Lafayette County, Missouri, with his tombstone giving his dates of birth and death.
[1] Memory Aldridge Lester transcribed the register of the James Brooks family bible in 1951, publishing her transcript in two places,as noted here. As the link I’ve just provided indicates, the bible Lester identifies in her transcript as the James Brooks family bible evidently passed to James’s son James Irwin Brooks, or, as I have suggested previously, it’s possible the bible actually belonged to James Irwin Brooks and he transcribed the information found in his parents’ bible into his own bible. Information about this bible is found in the two postings I’ve just linked and also here. Digital images of Lester’s transcript of the bible register are in the first posting linked above.
[2] See 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. 340-1, citing NARA, Compiled Service Records of Volunteer Union Soldiers Who Served in Organizations from the State of Kentucky, RG 94, M397; available digitally at Fold 3 site.
[3] O’Reilly, The History of E. James Brooks Family of Lawrence County, Alabama, pp. 340-1, citing 1860 federal census, Clinton County, Kentucky, Alpha post office, p. 261 (dwelling/family 715; 21 July); 1870 federal census, Saline County, Missouri, Jefferson township, Arrow Rock post office (dwelling 97/family 100; 11 August).
[4] See supra, n. 2.
[5] 1840 federal census, Lawrence County, Alabama, p. 180.
[6] See supra, n. 3.
[7] 1850 federal census, Clinton County, Kentucky, district 1, p. 180B (dwelling/family 360; 22 August).
[8] Clinton County, Kentucky, Circuit Court Minute Bk. 1, pp. 244-5, 403.
[9] See supra, n. 2.
[10] O’Reilly, The History of E. James Brooks Family of Lawrence County, Alabama, pp. 340.
[11] U.S. Congress, United States Congressional Serial Set, vol. 2526 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1888), report 2368 of first session of 50th Congress.
[12] See supra, n. 3.
[13] See Proceedings of the Grand Lodge of Kentucky, at a Grand Annual Communication Held in the City of Louisville, Commencing the 19th Day of October, A.D. 1867, A.L. 5876 (Frankfort: James A. Hodges, 1876), p. 170.
[14] See Find a Grave memorial page of J.W. Brooks, Davis Chapel cemetery, Alpha, Clinton County, Kentucky, created by Kyroots, with a tombstone photo by Judy Reneau. Though the memorial page gives John’s name as J.W. Brooks, the tombstone states that he was Lieut. J.W.S. Brooks.
[15] Saline County, Missouri, Marriage Bk. C, p. 453.
[16] See D.C. Allen, “Rev. Alvin Peter Williams, 1813-1868,” in Missouri Baptist Biography: A Series of Life-sketches Indicating the Growth and Prosperity of the Baptist Churches as Represented in the Lives and Labors of Eminent Men and Women in Missouri, vol. 2, ed. Missouri Baptist Historical Society (Liberty, Missouri: Liberty Advance, 1916), pp. 270-283.
[17] Lafayette County, Missouri, Death Certificates, 1930, #16593, available digitally at Ancestry.
BEGATS AND BEQUEATHALS 