William Brooks Sen.

BROOKS, STITT

Posted By: Judy Driscoll (email)
Date: 11/4/2001 at 05:47:56

William Brooks was born in Pennsylvania in 1779 and lived to be eighty-seven years of age,while his wife Elizabeth Stitt was born in Kentucky in 1785. In early manhood William followed farming in Pennsylvania and afterward in Logan Co., Ohio. In 1838 he came to Iowa,settling on a farm in Van Buren County. He was one of its pioneer residents and assisted in the early material development and progress of this portion of the state. He belonged to the class of representative American men who, while advancing individual interests, also contributed to the public welfare. His attention was devoted to farming until about fifteen years prior to his death, when he retired and went to live with his son, A.T.[Allen Trimble] Brooks, upon his farm, there passing away in April, 1866. He had served as a soldier of the war of 1812, and his early political support was given to the democracy, but his six sons were all Whigs, and at the time of the organization of the new Republican party the father and sons all joined ranks. Mr. Brooks and his wife were members of the Methodist Episcopal church, taking an active and interested part in its work, and Mr. Brooks was an elder and preacher who traveled from place to place in the performance of his ministerial duties. His wife survived him for but a brief period, passing away in the fall of 1866, her great grief at the loss of her husband undoubtedly hastening her own death. Their remains were interred side by side in the cemetery in Van Buren Co. In their family were eight children. Three of the sons, James, John and Allen T. were soldiers of the Civil War, also two sons of James, two sons of John, two sons of Samuel and two sons of Benjamin, making three sons and eight grandsons who were in the great Civil conflict. John Brooks was a member of the Third Iowa Cavalry, while James served in the Eighth Iowa Infantry and Allen T. Brooks was a member of the Second Iowa Infantry, to which four of the grandsons belonged, while two of the grandsons were members of the Third Iowa Cavalry. James and John were Disabled in the War, and James died soon after his return home, but John lingered until a few years ago.

Henry Co. Iowa Biographical Review
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Logan County, Ohio Marriage Records:
Know all men by these presents that I, John Emmory one of the Bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States of America under the protection of Almighty God and with a Single Eye to his Glory by the imposition of my hand and Prayer had this day set apart William Brooks for the office of a Deacon in the said Methodist Episcopal Church a man who in the Judgment of the Ohio Annual Conference is well qualified for that work and he is hereby recommended to all to whom it may concern as a proper person to administer the ordinance of Baptism Marriage and the Burial of the dead in the absence of an Elder and to feed the flocks of Christ so long as his Spirit and practice are such as become the Gospel of Christ and continue to hold fast the fervor of sound words according to the Established doctrines of the Gospel. In testimony whereof I have here unto set my hand and Seal the 25th day of September in the year of Our Lord One Thousand Eight Hundred and Thirty Two. Done at Dayton Ohio J. Emmory