Children of Thomas Brooks (1775 – 1838) and Wife Sarah Whitlock: Charles Brooks (1800/1 – 1861), Itawamba County, Mississippi, Years

Photo of Deniah Cornelius Brooks uploaded by JudyKay1234 to her “Hendrick, Lindsey, Sullivan, Brooks” family tree at Ancestry

Or, Subtitled: Migration of Families from Lawrence-Morgan Counties, Alabama, to Itawamba County, Mississippi, Following Depression of 1837

This posting is a continuation of a previous posting discussing the life of Charles Brooks (1800/1-1861), son of Thomas Brooks (1775-1838) and wife Sarah Whitlock. The previous posting tracks Charles in Lawrence County, Alabama, where he married Deniah Cornelius, daughter of Rowland Cornelius and Eleanor Watkins, on 27 January 1823, and where Charles and Deniah and their children lived until 1840, when the family moved to Itawamba County, Mississippi. As the posting I just linked also indicates, Charles appears in the estate records of his father Thomas Brooks, who died in Morgan County, Alabama, on 25 October 1838 with a will naming Charles, his oldest son, as his executor.

Children of Thomas Brooks (1775 – 1838) and Wife Sarah Whitlock: Jane (1797 – 1852) and Charles Brooks (1800/1 – 1861)

Bond of Charles Brooks and John Stewart, 24 January 1823, for Charles’s marriage to Deniah Cornelius, see Lawrence County, Alabama, Marriage Bonds and Licenses 1820, available digitally at FamilySearch

Or, Subtitled: Wherein I Confess That I’ve Made a Whopper of a Mistake, about Which I Need to Tell Readers of This Blog

I need to start this posting with a confession. I make mistakes. I know that will shock you profoundly[!]. In working on this posting, I discovered I have made a colossal one, one that reverberates through previous postings about my Brooks family. Finding that I have gone wrong about one key piece of information will now require me to backtrack through previous postings and correct multiple erroneous statements based on one big wrong turn.

Children of Thomas Brooks (abt. 1747 – 1805) and Wife Margaret: Margaret Brooks (1772 – 1857) and Husband Joseph Day

Kentucky State Historical Society and State Archives, Grayson County, Kentucky, Registry of Deaths 1857, in Kentucky Birth, Marriage, and Death Records, 1852-1910digitized at the Family Search site

Or, Subtitled: “Joseph Day Junr hath been Guilty of unneceſsary frequenting places of divertion & dancing”

In this posting, I’m returning to my ongoing project of tracking family lines stemming from Mary Brooks, who died in Frederick County, Virginia, in 1787. In previous postings, I’ve tracked the following children of Mary and their descendants: Mary (1745/1750 – abt. 1815), who married Jacob Hollingsworth; Elizabeth (1747/1750 – 1816), who married George Rice; Sarah (1750/1755 – 1810/1820), who married an Ashdale/Asdale/Asdell; and James, who did not marry. As I’ve also noted in this series of postings about the children of Mary Brooks, I know nothing about her daughter Susanna except that Mary’s will identifies Susanna as Susanna Haynes. 

Children of Dennis Lindsey (1794-1836) and Jane Brooks: Mark Jefferson Lindsey (1820-1878)

Pen-and-ink drawing of Mark Jefferson Lindsey from “an old family bible,” reproduced in Henry C. Lindsey, The Mark Lindsey Heritage (Brownwood, Texas, 1982), p. 3

Or, Subtitled: Migration of Alabama Families to Northwest Louisiana, Late 1840s and Early 1850s

Establishing Mark’s Birthdate

In the bible of his sister Frances Rebecca Kellogg, Mark Jefferson Lindsey recorded his birthdate, stating that he was born “in the year 1820 Oct the 9,” son of D. and Jane Lindsey. Above the diary entry, Mark has written the date on which he made this record: “December the 4 1853.” We’re able to know that Mark himself wrote this entry since his handwriting matches that of other documents he wrote. In the signatures of Mark below, note the stylized J, for instance, with the loop running back through the top of it, and the stylized capital M. The first is from a 15 September 1838 deed of trust between Jacob H. Huffaker and John M. Davis in Oakville, Lawrence County, Alabama, for a debt Huffaker owed Davis, with Mark signing as trustee.[1] The second is Mark’s signature as he gave bond on 19 October 1839 for his marriage to Mary Ann Harrison in Lawrence County.[2] The birth record for Mark in his sister Frances Rebecca’s bible is, it’s easy to ascertain, written in the same hand — by Mark himself.

Children of Dennis Lindsey (1794-1836) and Jane Brooks: John Wesley Lindsey (1814-1903) — Wayne County, Kentucky, and Lawrence County, Alabama, Years

Lindsey, John W., Signature to Original Will of Thomas Brooks
John Wesley Lindsey’s signature as witness to will of his grandfather Thomas M. Brooks, 2 October 1838, Morgan County, Alabama (from loose-papers estate file of Thomas Brooks, Morgan County)

Or, Subtitled: Weathervane Turns on Fortunes of North Alabama Merchant Planters in 1830s

John Wesley Lindsey’s Birth in Wayne County, Kentucky, April 1814

In line with their strong Methodist commitments, Dennis Lindsey (1794-1836) and Jane Brooks named their first child (and eldest son) John Wesley, after the founder of Methodism. As we’ve seen, Dennis had a brother who also bore the name Wesley — Fielding Wesley Lindsey. Another brother, William Burke Lindsey, was named for the first Methodist circuit rider in Wayne County, Kentucky, at the time the Lindsey family lived there. John B. McFerrin, another Methodist circuit rider whom James Edmond Saunders mentions in connection with Mark and Dennis Lindsey in his Early Settlers of Alabama, as we’ve noted, provides abundant information about William Burke in his History of Methodism in Tennessee.[1] Continue reading “Children of Dennis Lindsey (1794-1836) and Jane Brooks: John Wesley Lindsey (1814-1903) — Wayne County, Kentucky, and Lawrence County, Alabama, Years”

The Children of Mark Lindsey (1774-1848) and Mary Jane Dinsmore: Dennis Lindsey (1794 – 1836) (2)

Lindsey, Dennis, BLM Tract Books for AL, vol. 19, p. 95
Dennis Lindsey, 9 September 1818 land patent, Huntsville, Alabama, land office, Bureau of Land Management Tract Books for Alabama, vol. 19, p. 95

Or, Subtitled: Alabama Fever and Skyrocketing Cotton Prices as Alabama Opened to White Settlers 

By 9 September 1818, Dennis Lindsey had moved his family from Wayne County, Kentucky, to Lawrence County, Alabama, since he patented a piece of land on that date in township 7, range 6 west, section 8 at the Huntsville land office.[1] Alabama would become a state the following year, so this land was in Mississippi Territory when Dennis Lindsey patented it. As my previous posting showed, this land was adjacent (on the west) to what would become the town of Oakville in Lawrence County, a town that Dennis would play a role in founding. The fact that Dennis Lindsey disappears from Wayne County, Kentucky, tax returns after 1816 and then shows up acquiring land in Lawrence County, Alabama, in 1818 indicates, I think, that he moved his family to Alabama in 1817. The Huntsville Republican newspaper contains a notice on 14 October 1817 (p. 3, col. 4) that an unclaimed letter was waiting in the Huntsville post office for Dennis Lindsey, further evidence that he moved to Alabama in that year.

When James Edmond Saunders writes of Mark and Dennis Lindsey coming to Alabama in 1827,[2] it seems he had mistaken 1827 for 1817, though it was Dennis who came to Alabama in 1817. Mark and his wife Mary Jane actually moved to Alabama with Dennis’s younger siblings in 1819. Dennis’s move in 1817 would have been a step to prepare for the resettling of his parents and siblings two years later. Continue reading “The Children of Mark Lindsey (1774-1848) and Mary Jane Dinsmore: Dennis Lindsey (1794 – 1836) (2)”

The Children of Mark Lindsey (1774-1848) and Mary Jane Dinsmore: William Burke Lindsey (1812 – 1860/1870)

Agnew Diary 1
Burke Lindsey in diary of Rev. Samuel A. Agnew, 3-4 August 1854, original in the collection of University of North Carolina’s Wilson Library (Chapel Hill) (1)

Or, Subtitled: “Mark Was a Methodist, but Loved a Dram” — Saga Continued from Alabama to Mississippi and Texas

When I wrote about Mark Lindsey (1774-1848) in a previous series of postings, I posted a number of biographical accounts from people who knew Mark. One of these appears in James Edmond Saunders’s (1806-1896) book Early Settlers of Alabama.[1] I also offered you another eyewitness account written by Methodist minister A.G. (Anderson Guinn) Copeland (1826-1880) and published in an October 1889 article in the Alabama Enquirer newspaper of Hartselle, Alabama.[2] Continue reading “The Children of Mark Lindsey (1774-1848) and Mary Jane Dinsmore: William Burke Lindsey (1812 – 1860/1870)”

The Children of Dennis Lindsey (abt. 1755-1795): Mark Lindsey (1774-1848) (3)

Lindsey, Mark, Sons Fielding and David D. 1839
Signatures of Mark Lindsey and sons Dinsnore and Wesley, 13 September 1839 mortgage of Wesley (Fielding W.) Lindsey to Mark, Lawrence County, Alabama, Circuit Court #49, #50, #51, box 173; folder 41

Or, Subtitled: Yallow Mares, Mortgages, and Boom-Bust Fortunes of Alabama Planters in Depression of Late 1830s

Lawrence and Morgan County, Alabama, Records for Mark Lindsey, 1830 to Death in 1848

In this posting, I’ll continue listing records I’ve found for Mark Lindsey in Lawrence and Morgan Counties, Alabama, after he moved his family from Kentucky to Alabama in 1819. In my previous posting, I listed records from 1819 to 1830. This posting will focus on the period from 1830 up to Mark’s death in Morgan County on 10 April 1848. Continue reading “The Children of Dennis Lindsey (abt. 1755-1795): Mark Lindsey (1774-1848) (3)”

The Children of Dennis Lindsey (abt. 1755-1795): Mark Lindsey (1774-1848) (2)

Jeremiah Bell Jeter, The Recollections of a Long Life, Richmond, Religious Herald Company, 1891, p. 305
Jeremiah Bell Jeter, The Recollections of a Long Life (Richmond: Religious Herald Company, 1891), p. 305

Or, Subtitled: Round-Breasted Methodist Coats and Venerable Circuit Riders

Morgan and Lawrence County, Alabama, Records to 1830 for Mark Lindsey

And so another move for Mark and Mary Jane Dinsmore Lindsey and their family: in 1800, they left Spartanburg County, South Carolina, where both were born (in 1774 in Mark’s case, in 1779 for Mary Jane) and moved with her Dinsmore family to Wayne County, Kentucky. They remained in Wayne County to 1817 (if they moved with son Dennis, who went to Madison, later Lawrence County, Alabama, in that year) or until the fall of 1819, when they sold their homeplace in Wayne County and then begin to appear in Lawrence County records. Mary Jane’s brother John Dinsmore and wife Phebe (Woodruff?) then joined Mark and Mary Jane Lindsey in Lawrence County, selling their land in Wayne County, Kentucky, on 26 February 1821. Continue reading “The Children of Dennis Lindsey (abt. 1755-1795): Mark Lindsey (1774-1848) (2)”