Samuel K. Brooks and wife Mary J. Gilstrap, photo uploaded by phalefamilytree to the Ancestry tree, “Hale/McConnell/Craig Family Tree”
Or, Subtitled: A volume of Wesley’s notes, a lot of books, a looking glass, a lot of queensware, etc.
8. The eighth child of Thomas Brooks (1775-1838) and Sarah Whitlock (1774-1837), Samuel K. Brooks, was born 19 December 1815 in Wayne County, Kentucky. This date of birth is recorded in his parents’ bible. When the bible register was transcribed and published in 1988 in the journal Itawamba Settlers, Samuel’s name was transcribed as Sanford.[1] It’s clear that Sanford Brooks is Samuel K. Brooks, since the same date of birth is recorded on the tombstone of Samuel K. Brooks in Shiloh cemetery in Lee County, Mississippi.[2]
Samuel K. Brooks tombstone, Shiloh cemetery, Lee County, Mississippi, a close-up photo taken by William D. Lindsey
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.
The Female School at old Richmond was under the control of Miss Martha Lindsey when I went there to school to Martin. Miss Martha was a remarkable woman in many respects. She was firm and determined, yet gentle and loving to her pupils. Strong of purpose, strong in the hearts of her pupils and strong in her hold upon her patrons; apt to teach and loving her profession, it goes without the saying that she made a success of the school, and turned out many young ladies who have been ornaments to society and helpful to the world.
W.L. Clayton, “Pen Pictures of the Olden Times,” Tupelo Journal (14 July 1905), p. 3, col. 3-4
Or, Subtitled: “Apt to Teach and Loving Her Profession”
We’ve met Dennis Lindsey and Jane Brooks’s daughter Martha Ann Lindsey, who was born 11 August 1829 at Oakville in Lawrence County, Alabama, in a previous posting.[1] That posting notes that by 1850, she had gone from Lawrence County, Alabama, to Itawamba County, Mississippi, where her older brother John Wesley Lindsey had settled in late 1839. The estate records of her father Dennis in Lawrence County suggest to me that Martha was still living at home at Oakville in Lawrence County when a final settlement of the estate was made in March 1846, with her brother-in-law James B. Speake acting as guardian of the estate’s minor heirs, including Martha.
Samuel Asbury Lindsey, Mexican-American War discharge papers, photocopied in Henry C. Lindsey, The Mark Lindsey Heritage (Brownwood, Texas; 1982), p. 115
Or, Subtitled: “I Will Take Her in My Arms Back to Texas and Make a Fortune for Her”
Several sources provide information about Samuel’s date of birth. Those sources, unfortunately, conflict with each other. When he enrolled for service in the Mexican-American War on 6 March 1847 at Huntsville, Alabama, in Company H of the 13th Infantry, he gave his age as 23. This information is recorded in the U.S. Army Register of Enlistments, which also notes that he was a farmer born in Lawrence County, Alabama, was 6’1”, had light hair, gray eyes, and a fair complexion.[1]
Engraving of National Bridge, Veracruz, Mexico, by George C. Furber from The twelve months volunteer; or, Journal of a private, in the Tennessee regiment of cavalry, in the campaign, in Mexico, 1846-7 (Cincinnati: J.A. & U.P. James, 1848)., online at website of Center for Greater Southwestern Studies, University of Texas, Arlington
Or, Subtitled: “Men Don’t Take Any More Notice of One Dying Than if It Was a Dog or a Cow“
Charles Washington Lindsey, the fifth child of Dennis Lindsey and Jane Brooks, is named as a child of Dennis and Jane in his mother’s November 1836 petition for her dower share of the estate.[1] Jane’s petition states that William J. McCord had been named in November 1836 as guardian of the minor children of Dennis Lindsey. The list includes a son Charles W. He is listed between his brothers Thomas Madison Lindsey, who was born 9 October 1821, and Samuel Asbury Lindsey, who was born in 1825 or 1826. This places Charles’s birth between 1822-1825.
“In Memoriam [Sarah Lindsey Speake],” Moulton Advertiser, 24 January 1889, p. 2, col. 5.
Or, Subtitled: “Hers Was a Strong Character — One on Which One Could Rely”
Often, when it comes to female ancestors, we have limited evidence to document their lives, especially as we move back in time. In the Southern United States, it was not the norm for women, including those of higher social status, to read and write from the colonial period into the 18th century.[1] As a result, we have few documents from that time frame written by Southern women recording details of their daily lives, how they viewed what was happening around them, and so on. Continue reading “Children of Dennis Lindsey (1794-1836) and Jane Brooks: Sarah Brooks Lindsey Speake (1818-1889)”→
Detail from G. Woolworth Colton’s 1855 map of Mississippi showing Van Buren, Itawbamba County — from Colton’s Atlas of the World (New York : J.H. Colton, 1855-56), at the Library of Congress website
Or, Subtitled: Westward Ho As Businesses Falter and New Opportunities Beckon
In my first posting tracking the life of John Wesley Lindsey, son of Dennis Lindsey and Jane Brooks, in Wayne County, Kentucky, and Lawrence County, Alabama, up to 1840, I noted that John had long puzzled me: I could track his life up to the point that he disappears from records of Itawamba and Lee County, Mississippi, around 1870, but after that, I couldn’t follow him. I couldn’t follow him until I realized that he was the J.W. Lindsay who married M.A. Wester in Red River Parish, Louisiana, on 15 December 1878, and that he and Mary Ann Nobles Wester then settled at Marthaville in Natchitoches Parish, where John died in 1903. The families of John’s siblings Mark Jefferson Lindsey, Margaret Lindsey Hunter, and Rebecca Lindsey Kellogg had all settled in Red River Parish, and John had evidently gone out to Louisiana to join them by 1878. Continue reading “Children of Dennis Lindsey (1794-1836) and Jane Brooks: John Wesley Lindsey (1814-1903) — Mississippi Years”→
Account of care Jane Brooks Lindsey’s provided nursing and lodging her parents in the final months of their lives, 13 November 1839, from loose-papers estate file of Thomas Brooks, Morgan County, Alabama
Or, Subtitled: Losing a Husband and Both Parents within Two Years and Carrying On
21 October 1836 inventory of estate of Dennis Lindsey, from case file, Jane Lindsey v. John W. Lindsey and James B. Speake as administrators, Lawrence County, Alabama, loose court case files 247, box 171, folder 6 (1)
21 October 1836 inventory of estate of Dennis Lindsey, from case file, Jane Lindsey v. John W. Lindsey and James B. Speake as administrators, Lawrence County, Alabama, loose court case files 247, box 171, folder 6 (2)
Or, Subtitled: A North Alabama Example of Jarndyce v. Jarndyce
Dennis Lindsey’s Death
I have found no information about the cause of Dennis Lindsey’s death on 28 August 1836 at Oakville in Lawrence County, Alabama. Dennis was a young man not yet 42 years of age when he died. He left a young widow, Jane, who was 39, and eleven children, the first two of whom — John Wesley and Sarah Brooks Lindsey — were married. Several of Dennis and Jane’s children were very young when their father died: the last child, Dennis Edward, was not a year old, and the next four daughters — Margaret Tranquilla, Frances Rebecca, Martha Ann, and Mary Jane — were aged 2, 5, 7, and 10. As we’ll see from Dennis’s estate documents, though he had acquired a rather substantial estate, it was encumbered by debt, so in addition to having the responsibility to care for a large family of children when her husband died, Jane also had to face financial worries. Continue reading “The Children of Mark Lindsey (1774-1848) and Mary Jane Dinsmore: Dennis Lindsey (1794 – 1836) (4)”→
9 December 1833 act of Alabama legislature incorporating town of Oakville, Lawrence County, Alabama, and naming Dennis Lindsey (Lindsay) with William Hodges and Samuel White to hold election for town officers (Alabama Legislature Acts 1833, #8, p. 57)
Or, Subtitled: Legends of Witches, Native American Curses, and Drowned Towns
In this posting, I’ll discuss the records I’ve found tracking Dennis Lindsey from 1830 to his death in 1836. Almost all of these records are from Lawrence County, Alabama, where he had settled in 1817 when the area was still Madison County in Mississippi Territory. The following are records I’ve found for Dennis Lindsey from 1830 up to his death on 28 August 1836: Continue reading “The Children of Mark Lindsey (1774-1848) and Mary Jane Dinsmore: Dennis Lindsey (1794 – 1836) (3)”→
Begats and Bequeathals 