Molly (Marry Elizabeth) Brooks Dennis, aka Mrs. J. F. Dennis, wrote this enjoyable autobiography much later in her life. But it does give a glimpse of what those people faced.
For time-line information, the Brooks parents, Mary Cobb Brooks and James B. Brooks had married in 1858 in Chatahoochee County GA. Their first son, William, was born in 1859 in Atlanta, Fulton County GA, and Molly (Mary Eizabeth) our author, was born a year later in 1862, in Brooklin, Covington County AL.
In 1863 the Brooks next son, James Nathaniel (Nat) Brooks, was born in OK, and the next child in 1864, Ela Ladusky Brooks, was born back in Covington County AL. As that was during the Civil War, it's possible that mother Mary Lou Cobb Brooks had gone to be with family members for the 1863 and 1864 births. But I honestly don't see her traveling all the way to OK with her children from southern AL. Maybe Nat was adopted...or someone has his birthplace changed.
Father James B. Brooks was in the Confederate army, the 2nd Battalion of the Alabama Light Artillery. Company C. He was a Corporal when he joined, and Sergeant when discharged. More about him is part of the story below.
The last son, Bert (Berton), wasn't born for another 11 years...in 1875 in Desdamona, Eastland, TX.
Here're photos of Molly Brooks Dennis and her family (more were displayed in yesterday's post.)
Not sure which one is Molly, and who the other woman might be...
Molly Brooks Dennis' death certificate when she was 80. I include it here because she died on Aug. 2, 1942, just 21 days before I was born.
James died in 1944.
Sharing this with Sepia Saturday. I'm pretty sure these two British boys didn't think once about the people in Texas, no more than these Texans would have thought of two Brit boys!
Hope you have a great weekend! Spring is just around the corner!
Spring is emerging in fits and starts here. Cold this weekend, warm come Monday.
ReplyDeleteYou're lucky to have all these photos of your ancestors.
Most of these recent ones weren't exactly my ancestors...great great uncle's wife's family. But I was so glad these photos were posted on their Ancestry sites, and made public!
DeleteThat's a lovely portrait of Jim and Molly and their children. As for the two gals baring their ankles and snazzy stockings - woo woo! :) But how lucky you are to have Molly's autobiography. Pictures are great, but don't give much of a clue as to what personalities were like which the written word can do so much better. I treasure my great grandfather's personal journal of his 1874 trip to Yosemite as well as including bits and pieces of other travels and jobs.
ReplyDeleteI bet that journal of your g-grandfather is really interesting! I ran into one other cousin several times removed, who wrote of her family's trip, which I think was from Alabama to Louisiana. Now I'm curious and will have to go find it!
DeleteIt was very interesting to read Molly's story. I wish more of my ancestors had left written remembrances of their lives. She had such fond memories of the long trip from Georgia to Texas. I would not have expected that.
ReplyDeleteI guess children would have enjoyed more than the adults did, and the boys were probably enlisted for chores that a daughter wouldn't need to do.
DeleteAbsolutely fascinating. One of my big regrets is that I was never able to persuade my mother to write down her memories. "My life was too boring." she would say. The snippets she did share weren't boring to me.
ReplyDeleteGood thing you at least asked for some stories from your mother. Now you can at least tell some of your own stories, for the next generations to come!
DeleteWhat an amazing 1st-hand account. I can't imagine making that trip in winter - walking!! I thought how they adjusted when their broom gave out was very interesting. Genius, actually.
ReplyDeleteOnly a child would have such interest in the brooms...who had to daily sweep floors! We never know what our children will remember into their adulthoods! I have asked my adult children and been very surprised!
DeleteA fascinating story! I liked the bit at the end where Molly proudly says none of her children ever paid a few of had a lawsuit. That's a virtue we could use more of today.
ReplyDeleteI have two very small notebooks that my great grandmother, (born 1880), used to write her life story in rural Missouri. They are both very short, maybe 3 pages and written 10 years apart in the 40s. She had only finished 6th grade, so she writes simply about the cold, the hardships on the farm, and how many different homes she lived in. What's special though is her handwriting in big block letters. She filled many more pages with names of classmates, neighbors, cousins, aunts and uncles. All memories 40-50 years later. For people in those early times, it was family and friends that they valued the most.
When my grandfather wrote a typed in 4 carbon-copied duplicates of his genealogy on his old typewriter, in the 50's, he also wrote that none of the ancestors had ever been in jail or arrested. Apparently that's important, though I'm not sure I would consider it so, when ancestors before the Civil War actually owned slaves. His genealogy came from a report that a cousin had had a professional search for. It may have had a few errors. I received a Xeroxed copy of my father's copy of that, and have just one other cousin who has been interested in our ancestors. She's a member of DAR and whatever the one for Confederacy might be. I hope she's written her own life story too! Do publish your great grandmother's history! Even the list of names of friends and family (if she says which is which) would be interesting for anyone who also had ancestors in that area at that time!
DeleteWhen Molly wrote her story, I'm sure she could never have imagined that it would end up in digital form on the Internet. Kudos to you for resurrecting and sharing her remarkable autobiography. So few women -- let alone a mother with 12 children -- had the time to write about their experiences, so this life history is unique - and all the more special because you have photos of her, too.
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