Children of James Brooks (1772-1835) and Wife Nancy Isbell: Clarissa E. Brooks (1818-1895), Alpha Caroline Brooks (1821-1890), and Samuel F. Brooks (1821-1846)

S.W. Barbee, “Old Lawrence Reminscent,” Moulton Advertiser (13 October 1908), p. 1, col. 4-5.

Or, Subtitled: “He draws near the crater of a volcano who lays violent hands on the Golden Rule”

With this posting, I’m resuming my chronicle of the children of James Brooks (1772-1835) and Nancy Isbell of Wayne County, Kentucky, Warren County, Tennessee, and Lawrence County, Alabama. In previous postings, I’ve chronicled the lives of their first two children, Godfrey Isbell and Thomas R. Brooks, then of their children Hannah Isbell, Margaret C., and James Irwin Brooks, and most recently of their son Johnson H. Brooks (and here). This now brings us to James and Nancy’s seventh child, their daughter Clarissa E. Brooks.  

Children of James Brooks (1772 – 1835) and Wife Nancy Isbell: Hannah Isbell Brooks (1809-1828), Margaret C. Brooks (1811-1826), and James Irwin Brooks (1813-1878)

State of Alabama v. James I. Brooks and John B. Smith, Lawrence County, Alabama, loose-papers court files box 22, folder 54, circuit court case 49

Or, Subtitled: Yet More Affrays! Public Fighting “to the Terror of the People; and Against the Peace and Dignity of the State of Alabama” 

In the previous posting, I began providing information about the children of James Brooks (1772-1835) and Nancy Isbell. That posting discussed James and Nancy’s first two children, sons Godfrey Isbell Brooks and Thomas R. Brooks. As I noted in the linked posting, the family bible owned by James and Nancy’s son James Irwin Brooks gives the named and birthdates of all of James and Nancy’s children, and is my source for this information. After sons Godfrey and Thomas, James and Nancy had the following children: 

Thomas Brooks (1775-1838) and Wife Sarah Whitlock (1774-1837): Alabama Years, 1836-1838

Original will (holographic, page 1) of Thomas Brooks of Morgan County, Alabama,, 2 October 1838, in loose-papers estate file of Thomas Brooks held by Morgan County Archives

Or, Subtitled: The Mystery of an Estate Selling Land to Which the Decedent Does Not Have Title

With this posting, I’ll provide information about the final phase of the lives of Thomas Brooks and wife Sarah Whitlock, after they moved in November 1836 from Wayne County, Kentucky, to Morgan County, Alabama, to join their adult children who had settled in adjoining Lawrence County, where Thomas’s brother James had died in 1835and Wayne County neighbors including Rev. Elliott Jones.  As I state at the end of the previous posting, because both Thomas and Sarah died not very long after they made their final move to Alabama, and doctors’ receipts in Thomas’s estate file indicate that medications like laudanum and morphine were prescribed for what appear to have been painful illnesses, I suspect that both were already sick at the time of their move, perhaps both with a lingering, debilitating illness such as cancer.

Children of Dennis Lindsey (1794-1836) and Jane Brooks: Thomas Madison Lindsey (1821-1898) — Children of Thomas and Wives Margaret Jane Torrence and Alice

Sarah Margaret Lindsey Conger, daughter of Thomas Madison Lindsey and Margaret Jane Torrence, with her daughters about 1908, uploaded by Gayle Marin to Family Search tree for Sarah Margaret

Or, Subtitled: A Branch of the Lindsey Family of Lawrence County, Alabama, Transplanted to Texas

By his first wife Margaret Jane Torrence (abt. 1822 – abt. 1865), Thomas M. Lindsey had the following children:

Children of Dennis Lindsey (1794-1836) and Jane Brooks: Thomas Madison Lindsey (1821-1898)

Ancestry user Evelyn May has uploaded this photo to her tree Evelyn May/McCoy Family tree, with a caption stating that it is a photo of Thomas Madison Lindsey. Since photography came along after 1860 for the most part, this photo would have to date from the 1860s, I think, before he turned 50 years of age.

Or, Subtitled: “Jumping High into the Air and Touching His Toes with His Hands, He Gave a Loud Yell or Yodel”

In my account of the children of Dennis Lindsey (1794-1836) and Jane Brooks, I am going to skip from their second child, Sarah Brooks Lindsey Speake, to the couple’s fourth child, Thomas Madison Lindsey. I’m setting Dennis and Jane’s third child, Mark Jefferson Lindsey, aside for now. He’s my direct ancestor, my 2-great-grandfather, and because I have more information about him than about most of his siblings, I will save my account of his life until last, as I discuss the children of Dennis Lindsey and Jane Brooks.

Children of Dennis Lindsey (1794-1836) and Jane Brooks: Sarah Brooks Lindsey Speake (1818-1889) — Children of James and Sarah Lindsey Speake

Charles Washington Speake and Dixie West Speake and family, from Harold L. Speake and Maxine Gibson, “Speake Family,” in Heritage of Lawrence County, Alabama (Clanton, Alabama: Heritage Publ. Co., 1998), p. 242

Or, Subtitled: Bald Judicial Caputs and Spelling Eleemosynary

James B. Speake and Sarah Brooks Lindsey had eight children — Henry Clay, John Marshall, Dennis Basil, James Tucker, Charles Washington, Daniel Webster, Mary Frances, and a baby who died at birth. Mary Frances died at age four. The only information I have found about the last two children is in the 17 February 1924 letter of James and Sarah’s son Charles Washington Speake to A. Howard Speake of Brooklyn, New York, cited in a previous posting. My previous posting provides biographies of Henry Clay and Daniel Webster Speake from Dictionary of Alabama Biography,[1] as well as photographs of both of them previously owned by Harold Layman Speake, a descendant of their brother Charles Washington Speake.[2]

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: Fielding Wesley Lindsey (1813 – 1868)

Lindsey, Fielding W., Barbee, Old Lawrence Reminiscent,Moulton Advertiser (20 April 1909), p. 1, col. 2-4 (1)
S.W. Barbee, “Old Lawrence Reminiscent,” Moulton Advertiser (20 April 1909), p. 1, col. 2-4 (1)

Or, Subtitled: I “Am Indebted to Oakville Whiskey and ‘Wes’ Lindsey,” and Murder of a Brother-in-Law of a “Bullying Nature”

Now to move on to another of the children of Mark Lindsey and Mary Jane Dinsmore, their fourth child, Fielding Wesley Lindsey. His tombstone in the Lindsey cemetery near Speake in Lawrence County, Alabama, states that he was born 11 December 1813 and died 21 March 1868.[1] Speake, which is named after James Beckham Speake, who married Sarah Brooks Lindsey, daughter of Wesley Lindsey’s brother Dennis and wife Jane Brooks, is 2.7 miles south of Oakville, where Dennis lived and where Mark and Mary Jane Lindsey are buried in a family cemetery along with Dennis and Jane Lindsey. Continue reading “The Children of Mark Lindsey (1774-1848) and Mary Jane Dinsmore: Fielding Wesley Lindsey (1813 – 1868)”

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)”