a. Thomas Walter Brooks was born 20 March 1856 at Elgin, Bastrop County, Texas. According to Eunice Brooks Freese and Katherine B. Elliott, Walter died 22 February 1862.[1] The biography of his brother John Lee Brooks in History of Texas and Texans states, however, that Walter was killed by a vicious horse he was handling at eight years of age, which would place his death in 1864.[2] Walter is buried in the Bastrop County cemetery named after his grandmother, the Mary Christian Burleson cemetery, in which Mary is also buried. His tombstone gives his name as Thos. W. Brooks and states the date of birth given above.[3] As noted previously, Walter appears on the 1860 federal census in the household of his parents in Bastrop County, listed as Thomas W. Brooks, aged 4.[4]
b. Itasca Ann Brooks was born 17 October 1857 at Elgin, Bastrop County, Texas, and died there on 21 March 1873. These dates of birth and death are on her tombstone in the Mary Christian Burleson cemetery.[5] The biography of John Lee Brooks states that his mother named Itasca after the Father of Waters as a patriotic gesture, and that his sister died at the age of fifteen after having suffered exposure in a storm.[6] As noted previously, Itasca appears in her parents’ household in Bastrop County on the 1860 and 1870 federal censuses.[7]
c. Texana Crosby Brooks was born 15 October 1859 at Elgin, Bastrop County, Texas, and died 22 November 1937 at Fullerton in Orange County, California. Her tombstone in Melrose Abbey Memorial Park at Anaheim, Orange County, California, has these dates of birth and death, and the California Death Index states that Texana C. Jones died 22 November 1937, aged 78.[8] The biography of her brother John Lee Brooks gives her name as Texas Cassandra (“Texie”) Brooks, but the birth certificates of her son Charles Clifford Jones in Williamson County, Texas, states that his mother’s name was Texana Crosby Brooks.[9] As we’ve seen, she’s listed in her parents’ household in Bastrop County, Texas, in 1860 as Texanna (1860) or Texana (1870), and in 1880 appears in their household in Williamson County as T.C. Brooks.[10]
On 1 September 1884 at Georgetown, Williamson County, Texas, Miss Texie Brooks married John E. Jones, son of George R. Jones and Elizabeth Gray.[11] The minister who presided at the wedding of Texana and John was Hillen Armour Bourland, a Methodist minister in Georgetown, Texas, who was instrumental in the founding of Southwestern University there. John Edmund Jones was born 5 October 1853 in Hopkins County, Kentucky, and died 6 November 1945 in Orange County, California. He is buried with wife Texana in Melrose Abbey Memorial Park at Anaheim, California.
Following their marriage, Texana and John lived at Georgetown until 1895, when they moved to Cherokee County, Texas, and after that they resided in Jonesboro, Craighead County, Arkansas, from 1898 to 1914, when they relocated to Orange County, California, where John spent the final decades of his life as a rancher and fruit farmer at Fullerton near Anaheim. John Lee Brooks’s biography also states that Col. John E. Jones was a banker at Fullerton, but his listings in the Anaheim city directory and on the federal census in 1920 and 1930 tell me he was a rancher and fruit farmer.[12] As has been noted previously, the biography states that in 1916 John and Texana’s mother Elizabeth Burleson Brooks was living with her daughter Mrs. “Texie” Jones at Fullerton.[13] Previously, John’s biography had described his sister Texana as a “fine business woman, mother of a large interesting family.”[14]
Texana Brooks and John E. Jones were parents of the following children (all surname Jones); John Edward; Glenn; Charles Clifford; Grace E. (married Walter Smith Hill); George Raymond; and David Morton.
d. Nannie Roline Brooks was born 16 January 1862 at Elgin, Bastrop County, Texas, and died 14 July 1884 at Georgetown, Williamson County, Texas, where she’s buried with her parents in the Odd Fellows cemetery. These dates of birth and death are inscribed on her tombstone.[15] The biography of her brother John Lee Brooks describes her as a talented musician who might have had a brilliant operatic career, but she died at age 23 after a tragic accident that injured her spine.[16] As noted previously, she appears in her parents’ household on the 1870 and 1880 federal censuses, the former giving her name as Nancy and the latter as Nannie R. and listing her as a student.[17]
e. Richard Edward Brooks was born 2 August 1864 at Elgin, Bastrop County, Texas, and died 28 December 1929 in Houston, Harris County, Texas. His dates and places of birth and death are recorded on his death certificate, for which his son Richard supplied the information.[18] The death certificate states that Richard was born in Elgin (Bastrop County), Texas. His tombstone in Glenwood cemetery in Houston also apparently states his dates of birth and death.[19] Richard’s biography in A History of Texas and Texans, which was cited with a digital image in a previous posting, also provides Richard’s date of birth, noting that he was born in Bastrop County.[20] Finally, Richard’s obituaries in various Texas newspapers also all state that he died in Houston on 28 December 1929.[21]
On 28 November 1889 at Georgetown, Williamson County, Texas, Richard married Frances L. Booty, daughter of James Hamilton Booty and Mary H. Jordan.[22] Frances was born 22 February 1865 at Georgetown, and died 5 May 1957 at Houston. She’s buried at Glenwood cemetery with Richard.
As Richard’s biography states, he graduated from Southwestern University in Georgetown and then studied law under Judge John Charles Townes, for whose father Eggleston Dick Townes Richard’s father Charles W. Brooks had initially worked when he arrived in Texas in 1854.[23] In 1885, Richard opened a law practice at Georgetown and in 1895, Governor Charles A. Culberson appointed him judge of the Twenty-Sixth judicial district. Richard was then elected twice to the position, resigning in 1901 to move to Houston where he was connected to the Hogg-Swayne Syndicate.
In Houston, Richard helped organize the Texas Company, of which he was treasurer until 1 January 1913, after which he became president of Producers Oil Company of Texas. He had previously been president of the Southern Trust Company at Houston, and remained on its board after resigning that position in January 1913. At the time his biography was compiled, he was a director of Houston’s Bankers Trust Company, of the Union National Bank of Houston, and of Houston Land Corporation, as well as president of Roywood Canal & Milling Company and vice-president of the Texas Wagon Company and J.W. Carter Music Company.[24]
Richard Edward Brooks and Frances L. Booty were parents of the following children (all with surname Brooks): Richard Emory; Clarence Booty; and Frances Edwina (married Alexander Grieg).
f. James Robert Brooks was born 2 August 1867 at Elgin, Bastrop County, Texas, and died 23 September 1930 at Mertzon in Irion County, Texas. These dates are stated on his death certificate, for which his son-in-law Hugh Lee Gober provided information.[25] James’s tombstone in Fairmount cemetery in Irion County, Texas, has his years of birth and death engraved on it.[26] Death notices for James in a number of Texas newspapers also state that he died on 23 September 1930 at Mertzon, noting that he was found hanging in a rental house behind his family’s house.[27] His death certificate gives his cause of death as strangulation.
On 14 May 1886 in Williamson County, Texas, James married Anna Stribling Ward, daughter of James G. Ward and Catherine Amanda Cleveland.[28] Anna was born 13 September 1865 and died 9 September 1938 at San Angelo, Tom Green County, Texas. Anna is buried with husband James in the Fairmount cemetery in Irion County, Texas.
The biography of his brother John Lee Brooks states that James was “a ranchman and planter of Mertzon, Irion County, a leading Mason and Methodist.”[29] As we’ve seen, the obituary of his mother Elizabeth Burleson Brooks states that Elizabeth died at the home of her son James at Mertzon on 24 January 1920, but Elizabeth’s death certificate indicates that she died at San Angelo, Tom Green County, Texas, probably in the hospital there while she was living with James’s family.[30]
On 24 January 1918, the Daily Bulletin of Brownwood, Texas, reports that J.R. Brooks, one of the prominent ranchmen of west Texas living at Mertzon, was “hoodooed” and had met with one misfortune after another.[31] He had first driven a pitchfork through his foot as he was routing his livestock, causing fears of blood poisoning. Then, while strolling on his ranch in the Live Oak community, he had been gored by a fierce boar and had to seek treatment at the hospital in Barnhart. The article ends by saying that Brooks was in the market for a rabbit’s foot.
James Robert Brooks and Anna Stribling Ward were the parents of the following children (all surname Brooks): James Ward; Ellis Marion; Aldine Brooks (married Richard Baker); Mary Colberta (married 1] Hugh Lee Gober, 2] A.H. Broad); and Nannie B. (married Joseph Pink Thorp).
g. John Lee Brooks was born 2 July 1870 at Elgin, Bastrop County, Texas, and died 11 March 1920 at Dallas, Dallas County, Texas. His dates and places of birth and death are recorded on his death certificate, for which his sister Texana was informant, as well as on his tombstone.[32] As has been noted previously (and here), a lengthy biography of John appears in Frank W. Johnson’s A History of Texas and Texans, and it, too, states his date and place of birth, noting that his parents named him John Leander Brooks, but he altered the middle name in honor of Robert E. Lee.[33]
On 3 November 1896 at Georgetown, Williamson County, Texas, John married Eunice, daughter of Dr. John Howell McLean and Olivia R. McDugald. John H. McLean was a Methodist minister who served as president of Southwestern University at Georgetown.[34] Eunice was born 2 November 1869 at Paris in Lamar County, Texas, and died 27 May 1942 at Fort Worth, Tarrant County, Texas. She is buried with husband John in the Odd Fellows cemetery at Georgetown, Texas, in which his parents are buried.
As John’s biography notes, he graduated from Southwestern University at Georgetown in 1893, and entered Vanderbilt University on a scholarship in the fall of the same year. His health then became compromised after a year of study and he returned to Texas to work on his father’s ranch in Lampasas County, then served as postmaster at Georgetown following his father’s death.
In the fall of 1899, having married Eunice McLean three years earlier, he entered Drew Theological Seminary in New Jersey, graduating in 1901 after having enrolled in 1900 at Columbia University in New York, where he obtained a Ph.D. in 1904 and taught classical languages and history, also representing the Texas oil syndicate Hogg-Swayne in New York while studying there. He then entered probation for ordination as a Methodist minister, but realizing that his theological views were not in harmony with the church’s outlook, he resigned prior to ordination and in 1905, entered Columbia University law school, obtaining a law degree in 1907.
John’s wife Eunice became seriously ill at this point and the couple returned to Texas where he worked for two years on his brother’s ranch of 3,000 acres at Wills Point, the Broadmoor ranch. He then opened a hay and grain business at Dallas and Muskogee, Oklahoma, until 1911, after which he opened a real estate business in Dallas, operating it until 1914 and then becoming a member of the Texas bar in 1915. From that point forward to the end of his life, John practiced law in Dallas.[35] Obituaries of John were published in the Courier-Gazette of McKinney, Texas, and the Arlington (Texas) Journal, both stating that he died at home and was a prominent lawyer of Dallas.[36]
A comment of my own about this biographical narrative: I think it must have been very difficult for John’s wife Eunice to make numerous moves with him and their young children early in their marriage, as he sought his footing in first this and then that path of life. While the family was in New York, far from the roots of both John and Eunice, their older daughter Mary Olivia died on 6 March 1902 — and I suspect the serious illness from which Eunice suffered in New York as John pursued studies there may have had more than a little to do with all the stresses she endured from early in their marriage.
John Lee Brooks and Eunice McLean were the parents of the following children (all surname Brooks): John Lee; Mary Olivia; John Howell McLean; and Eunice Elizabeth (married Simon Wilke Freese).
h. Mary Cassandra Brooks was born 2 August 1873 at Elgin, Bastrop County, Texas, and died 22 March 1951 at Fullerton, Orange County, California. These dates of birth and death appear in her California death record.[37] The biography of her brother John Lee Brooks describes Mary as “an accomplished vocalist, wife of J.E. Jordan, planter, of Mertzon, Texas.”[38]
Mary Cassandra Brooks married John Elvers Jordan at Georgetown, Williamson County, Texas, on 27 August 1896.[39] The marriage record gives her name as Mamie. John Elvers Jordan was the son of Benjamin Franklin Jordan and Eliza Ann Sophia Booty. He was born 10 December 1868 at Beckville, Panola County, Texas, and died 16 November 1959 at Fullerton, Orange County, California.
Following their marriage, Mary and husband John joined her sister Texana and husband John Edmund Jones in Jonesboro, Craighead County, Arkansas. By 1908, the Jordans had returned to Texas and then spent a number of years at Wills Point and then at Mertzon, where John E. Jordan ranched with Mary’s brother James. Between 1920 and 1930, the family moved to Fullerton, California, to rejoin Texana and John E. Jones, and lived there to the end of their lives, with John owning a grocery business there. I have not found a burial place for Mary and husband John E. Jordan.
Mary Cassandra Brooks and John Elvers Jordan were parents of the following children (all with surname Jordan): Andrew Augustus; Blanche Booty (married Siegbert Stern); John Elvers; Charles Wesley; Robert Lee; and Emery Few.
i. Charles Wesley Brooks was born 22 December 1875 or 1877 at Elgin, Bastrop County, Texas, and died 22 June 1923 at Colorado Springs, El Paso County, Colorado. Charles’s tombstone at Greenwood Memorial Park, Fort Worth, Tarrant County, Texas, gives his years of birth and death as 1875 and 1923.[40] As we’ve seen, the 1880 federal census, showing him in the household of his parents in Williamson County, Texas, lists him aged 5, also yielding a birth year of 1875.[41] However, on his World War I draft registration card, which he filed while working for Humble Oil Company at Mineral Wells in Palo Pinto County, Texas, Charles gives his birthdate as 22 December 1877.[42] And a death notice for Charles in the Fort Worth Telegram on 23 June 1923 gives Charles’s age at death as 46.[43]
On 15 July 1903 in Jefferson County, Texas, Charles married Norelle von Waltersdorf, daughter of Albert von Waltersdorf and Alphonsine Maillot, with the Austin American-Statesman reporting on 12 July that the couple would marry next week and then leave for New York (evidently for a honeymoon).[44] Norelle, who was a music teacher, was born 8 December 1880 at San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas, and died 8 November 1969 at Dallas, Dallas County, Texas. She is buried with Charles at Greenwood Memorial Park in Fort Worth. The couple had one child, a son Edward Burleson Brooks.
An article in the Orange Leader of Orange, Texas, reports on 23 October 1903 that Charles had been stabbed at a barber shop in Beaumont on 20 October.[45] He had gone to the barber shop to get a shave, could not be immediately accommodated, and when he started to leave, he and Charles Black, evidently the barber, exchanged words and then blows, and Black stabbed him with scissors in the right temple — an injury the report describes as serious but not fatal. Black was arrested. The article notes that Charles was “particularly endeared to a great many of our people by reason of his recent marriage to one of our former school teachers and society favorites, Miss Norelle Waltersdorf.”
The biography of his brother John Lee Brooks describes Charles as “an oil man and ranch man” of Mertzon, Texas.[46] Charles’s obituary in Dallas Morning News states that he was an oil operator of Breckenridge, Texas.[47]
[1] Eunice Brooks Freese and Katherine B. Elliott, William Rose of Surry County, Virginia: Some of His Descendants and Related Families (priv. publ., 1976), p. 205. Eunice Brooks Freese was a daughter of John Lee Brooks and Eunice McLean. She was a noted genealogical researcher in Texas whose papers are now held in the collection “Eunice Brooks and Simon W. Freese Papers” at University of Texas at Arlington.
[2] Frank W. Johnson, A History of Texas and Texans, vol. 3 (Chicago and New York: American Historical Society, 1916), pp. 1468.
[3] See Find a Grave memorial page of Thomas Walter Brooks, Mary Christian-Burleson cemetery, Bastrop County, Texas, created by Tammy New, with a tombstone photo by Diana Newton-Grayson.
[4] 1860 federal census, Bastrop County, Texas, precinct 6, p. 265 (dwelling 443/family 406; 7 August).
[5] See Find a Grave memorial page of Itasca Ann Brooks, Mary Christian-Burleson cemetery, Bastrop County, Texas, created by Tammy New. There is no tombstone photo on this page. Tammy Owens transcribes the tombstone, showing the same dates, at the page for this cemetery on the Cemeteries of Texas website.
[6] Johnson, A History of Texas and Texans, vol. 3, p. 1468.
[7] See supra, n. 4; and 1870 federal census, Bastrop County, Texas, Bastrop post office, p. 462A (28 June).
[8] See Find a Grave memorial page of Texana Crosby “Texie” Brooks Jones, Melrose Abbey Memorial Park, Anaheim, Orange County, California, created by macso; and California Department of Public Health Bureau of Vital Statistics, California Death Indexes, 1905-1988, 1940-1994: Deaths, Deaths, Heslop, Nellie-Rzechtalski, Leon, 1930-1939, #72764, available digitally at Family Search.
[9] See FamilySearch database, Texas Births and Christenings, 1840-1981, citing Williamson County, Texas, Delayed Birth Record files, available digitally at FamilySearch.
[10] See supra, n. 4 and 7; and 1880 federal census, Williamson County, Texas, Georgetown, p. 435B (ED 156; family 223; 13 June).
[11] Williamson County, Texas, Marriage Bk. 5, p. 486.
[12] Johnson, A History of Texas and Texans, vol. 3, p. 1468.
[13] Ibid., p. 1473.
[14] Ibid., p. 1468.
[15] See Find a Grave memorial page of Nannie R. Brooks, Odd Fellows cemetery, Georgetown, Williamson County, Texas, created by John Christeson with a tombstone photo by John Christeson.
[16] Johnson, A History of Texas and Texans, vol. 3, p. 1468.
[17] See supra, n. 7 and 10.
[18] See Texas Health Department, Death Certificates, Harris County, 1929, October-December, #59284; available digitally at Ancestry.
[19] See Find a Grave memorial page for Richard Edward Brooks, Glenwood cemetery, Houston, Harris County, Texas, created by Roadrunner, with a photo by Marcia Patrick (which shows only the back of the stone with the surname).
[20] Frank W. Johnson, A History of Texas and Texans, vol. 4 (Chicago and New York: American Historical Society, 1914), p. 1641.
[21] See “Capitalist Dies in Houston Home,” Austin American-Statesman (28 December 1929), p. 1, col. 6; “Judge R.E. Brooks Dies at Houston,” Abilene Daily Reporter (29 December 1929), p. 9, col. 8; and obituary notices in Brownsville Herald (28 December 1929), p. 1, col. 2; Wichita Daily-Times (Wichita Falls, Texas) (29 December 1929), p. 2, col. 4; and Victoria Daily Advocate (31 December 1929), p. 2, col. 4.
[22] Williamson County, Texas, Marriage Bk. 7, p. 131; see also Johnson, A History of Texas and Texans, vol. 4, p. 1641.
[23] Johnson, A History of Texas and Texans, vol. 4, p. 1641.
[24] Ibid.
[25] See Texas Health Department, Death Certificates, Irion County, 1930, July-September, #44812; available digitally at Ancestry.
[26] See Find a Grave memorial page of James Robert Brooks, Fairmount cemetery, Irion County, Texas, created by Roadrunner, with a photo by Steve Voss.
[27] “Mertzon Stockman Is Found Hanging,” Denton Record-Chronicle (23 September 1930), p. 3, col. 2; “Stockman Found Hanging in Rent House on Ranch,” Corsicana Daily Sun (23 September 1930), p. 5, col. 2; “Texan Found Hanged,” The Austin American (24 September 1930), p. 1, col. 7 (the latter has the erroneous date of 3 September for the day of James’s death).
[28] Williamson County, Texas, Marriage Bk. 6, p. 134.
[29] Johnson, A History of Texas and Texans, vol. 3, p. 1468.
[30] “Mrs. C.W. Brooks,” Houston Post (27 February 1920), p. 8, col. 3; and Texas Department of Health, Death Certificates, 1920, Tom Green County, #8301, available digitally at Ancestry.
[31] “Ranchman Is Hoodooed — J. R. Brooks Meets with One Misfortune After Another,” Brownwood Daily Bulletin (24 January 1918), p. 5, col. 3.
[32] See Texas Health Department, Death Certificates, Dallas County, 1920, January-March, #9637; and Find a Grave memorial page of John Lee Brooks, Odd Fellows cemetery, Georgetown, Williamson County, Texas, created by John Christeson with a tombstone photo by John Christeson.
[33] Frank W. Johnson, A History of Texas and Texans, vol. 3 (Chicago and New York: American Historical Society, 1916), pp. 1466-1484.
[34] See Jon D. Swartz, “McLean, John Howell (1838-1925),” Handbook of Texas, at the website of Texas State Historical Society.
[35] See Johnson, A History of Texas and Texans, vol. 3, pp. 1466-1484.
[36] “John Lee Brooks Dies at Dallas,” Arlington Journal (12 March 1920), p. 1, col. 5; “John Lee Brooks, Lawyer, Dies at Home in Dallas,” Courier-Gazette (McKinney, Texas) (12 March 1920), p. 1, col. 6.
[37] See California Department of Public Health, California Death Index, 1940-1997, digitized by FamilySearch under that collection title; and FamilySearch’s California, County Birth and Death Records, 1800-1994 database, citing Fullerton death records 1951, Bk. 19, p. 5, and Bk. 23, p. 155, digitized at FamilySearch.
[38] See Johnson, A History of Texas and Texans, vol. 3, p. 1468.
[39] Williamson County, Texas, Marriage Bk. 8, p. 183.
[40] See Find a Grave memorial page of Charles W. Brooks, Greenwood Memorial Park, Tarrant County, Texas, created by JCF, with a tombstone photo by Wanda Kerr Ellerbee.
[41] See supra, n. 10.
[42] See Family Search database, United States World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918, available digitally at Family Search.
[43] “Former Promoter Dies in Colorado,” Fort Worth Telegram (23 June 1923), p. 5, col. 4.
[44] See Family Search database, Texas, County Marriage Index, 1837-1977, available digitally at Family Search; and Austin American-Statesman (12 July 1903), p. 10. col. 2.
[45] “C.W. Brooks Stabbed: Well Known Young Beaumont Capitalist Seriously Injjured [sic],” Orange Leader (Orange, Texas) (23 October 1903), p. 5, col. 2-3.
[46] See Johnson, A History of Texas and Texans, vol. 3, p. 1468.
[47] The obituary, from Dallas Morning News (24 June 1923), p. 9, is transcribed at Charles’s Find a Grave memorial page: see supra, n. 40.
BEGATS AND BEQUEATHALS 