Tag: McLennan Co. Texas

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)

William D. Lindsey4 Comments

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: 

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Children of Dennis Lindsey (1794-1836) and Jane Brooks: Mark Jefferson Lindsey (1820-1878) and Mary Ann Harrison — Son Benjamin Dennis Lindsey (1856-1938)

William D. Lindsey5 Comments
A photo of Benjamin Dennis Lindsey at the time he was elected sheriff of Bexar County, Texas, in 1908; the original apparently hangs in the county courthouse, and is reproduced in Robert W. Stephens, Texas Ranger Sketches (Dallas, 1972), p. 84

Or, Subtitled: “Adventure Seeking Benjamin Dennis Lindsey,” “By Any Man’s Gauging a Gentleman’s Gentleman”

Benjamin Dennis Lindsey, the fourth son (and fifth child) of Mark Jefferson Lindsey and Mary Ann Harrison, was born 21 January 1856 in Union Parish, Louisiana. He died 2 May 1938 in San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas.[1] His biography by Clarence Wharton in Texas Under Many Flags states that his parents were Mark J. and Mary Ann Harrison Lindsey, the father a native of Lawrence County, Alabama, and the mother of Talladega, Alabama.[2] According to the biography, the Lindsey family came early to the South from England,[3] and Mark J. Lindsey was a planter in Alabama, who moved to Louisiana and assisted widows and orphans during the Civil War. Wharton states that Mark J. Lindsey died in Red River Parish in 1876 (1878 is correct) and Mary Ann Harrison Lindsey in 1875 (1877 is correct).  

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

William D. Lindsey5 Comments
Mark Jefferson Lindsey in 1870s; photo is reproduced in Henry C. Lindsey, The Mark Lindsey Heritage (Brownwood, Texas, 1982), p. 46; original in possession of John Ewan Kellogg, Coushatta, Louisiana, in 1980s

Or, Subtitled: The Lure of the New Cotton Frontier in Northwest Louisiana Prior to the War

In my last posting, I told you of a letter my uncle Henry C. Lindsey (Carlton to his family, but Henry professionally) sent me on 18 November 1980, in which he recounted what several elderly relatives he had just visited in Coushatta, Louisiana, told him about the move of Mark Jefferson Lindsey and wife Mary Ann Harrison to Louisiana in 1849 or 1850. These relatives told my uncle versions of stories I myself heard a number of times at the annual family reunion of descendants of Mark and Mary Ann in October each year in Red River Parish.

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Children of Dennis Lindsey (1794-1836) and Jane Brooks: Dennis Edward Lindsey (1836-1863) — Dennis Edward Lindsey Jr. (1862-1935)

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Dennis Edward Lindsey, photo in Robert W. Stephens, Texas Ranger Sketches (Dallas, 1972), p. 87

Or, Subtitled: “A Determined, Self-Composed, Fearless Man Unaffected by the Dangers and Challenges of Life on the Border”

As the 15 November 1907 remembrance of Dennis Edward Lindsey Sr. and his wife Sarah Jane Barnes by W.L. Clayton discussed in the previous posting states, Dennis and Jennie Barnes Lindsey had only one child, a son Dennis Edward, who appears to have been a junior.[1] Clayton notes that when his mother died in November 1907, her son Dennis was living “somewhere in the West.” He also states that Jennie had raised the two daughters of her second husband William B. Fulton, who was a widower when she married him in 1869. The 1870 federal census lists William and Jennie Fulton with her son Edward in their household, along with William Fulton’s daughters Margaret and Jimmie.[2] The two Fulton daughters are found in the household of William and Jennie again in 1880,[3] with Jennie’s son Dennis Edward Lindsey no longer enumerated there, since he had apparently left for Texas at this point, as his Texas Ranger Sketches biography discussed in the last posting indicates.[4]

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Children of Dennis Lindsey (1794-1836) and Jane Brooks: Mary Jane Lindsey (1826-1850) and Husband James Irwin Brooks

William D. Lindsey4 Comments
Marriage license and return from original records marriage file; recorded in Lawrence County, Alabama, Marriage Bk. B, p. 256

Or, Subtitled: A Wife Dying Too Soon, Leaving a Bereaved Husband and Two Little Boys

Mary Jane Lindsey was the seventh child (and second daughter) of Dennis Lindsey and Jane Brooks. Her older sister Sarah Brooks Lindsey had been named for Jane’s mother Sarah Whitlock Brooks. Mary Jane was named for her father’s mother Mary Jane Dinsmore Lindsey.

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Children of Dennis Lindsey (1794-1836) and Jane Brooks: Samuel Asbury Lindsey (1825/6 – 1865)

William D. Lindsey2 Comments
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]

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

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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:

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

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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.

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

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Lindsey, Sarah Brooks Speake Obit., Moulton Advertiser, 24 Jan. 1889, p. 2, col. 5
“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)” →

The Children of Mark Lindsey (1774-1848) and Mary Jane Dinsmore: Dennis Lindsey’s Wife Jane Brooks (1797-1852) and Their Children

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Lindsey, Jane, Account for Boarding Mother and Father
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

Notes About Jane Brooks, Wife of Dennis Lindsey

I have to admit that, in doing family history, I sometimes find myself being partial to one ancestor more than the rest. Jane is one of those ancestors to whom I’m partial. As I think about her life, what stands out is the amazing strength she displayed in trying times. I admire her. As I noted in a previous posting, when her husband Dennis Lindsey died at the age of 41, he left her a young widow of 39 with eleven children, four of them not over 10 years of age. One, the couple’s last son Dennis Edward, was a newborn, in fact. Continue reading “The Children of Mark Lindsey (1774-1848) and Mary Jane Dinsmore: Dennis Lindsey’s Wife Jane Brooks (1797-1852) and Their Children” →