Seeking the lost

In Baptist circles, the term "seeking the lost" reflects evangelism pure and simple. In Baptist genealogy, that expression becomes a euphemism for the persnickety search of finding members and pastors of churches long since passed from the realm of the living.

We do a fair amount of that here in the archives that houses the Georgia Baptist History Depository. Last week, for example, I began a search for the life of Richard B. Brooks, a typical exploration that sent me rummaging through stored collections scrutinizing and inspecting records and pursuing any inkling that might lead to something more. A descendant living in another state initiated the investigation.

Our first line of offense in a biographical search takes us to finding aids which reveal where and when ministers pastored churches, names and dates for marriages and death notices in the Christian Index, card files from the 1970s that indicate places to find names of ministers in books and other references in our collection, and items pertaining to the university such as lists of pre-1950 students, alumni directories and magazines, trustees and faculty lists, catalogs, and yearbooks. In addition, we search online and we look into items which we personally think might hold something based on our own "well" of knowledge. We make pertinent photocopies and put those in a folder in the biographical file; the next time we have a request for that person the material is ready for copying to be mailed or to be viewed by an on-site visitor.

Following is a summary of the information found on this search to provide an idea of how it goes.

Richard B. Brooks was, it seems, born 1 January 1817 in South Carolina to Robert Brooks (1781-1848) and Catherine Beauchel Brooks (1786-1868). Did his “B” stand for Beauchel? We could not determine that. Maybe but maybe not. Richard had a brother named Nicholas Beauchel Brooks born 15 July 1821 and while it was not common it was certainly not rare for families to give two children the same familial name. Brother Nicholas bore his maternal grandfather’s complete name, and, it turns out, moved to Milledgeville in 1843, married Mary Ann Worsham on 13 July 1848, and became a master carpenter, a businessman, a judge of the Inferior Court, and a Justice of the Peace. He also ran for mayor in 1875 before dying three years later. He was the Brooks in Brooks & Ellison Grocery in Milledgeville.

Just after his 20th birthday, Richard Brooks married Neata/Niata Fowler (1820-1844) of Forsyth County as can be established by a license to marry signed by county clerk/ordinary D. McCoy on 4 January 1837 and solemnized on 8 January by Rev. Drury Hutchins. The couple seem to have had three daughters—Mary Catherine, born in 1839; Susan Ann in 1841; and Nancy C. in 1843. The U.S. Census shows the family in Forsyth County in 1840. Daughter Mary Catherine, who died in Barbour County, AL, married Cicero Gravitt (1832-1863) and bore at least three girls beginning in 1855. This Gravitt likely was related to her father’s brother-in-law, John S. Gravitt (1818-1900), husband to his sister Susan Brooks (1819-1902).

Neata/Niata died, and on 22 August 1844, the young Richard Brooks married Martha Hadder (1829-1865) of Forsyth County. She was the daughter of Nehemiah Nimrod Hadder (born about 1782 in Maryland) and his wife, nee Mary Palmer (born 1787 in North Carolina). Their wedding license was dated three days before the wedding by the same McCoy, and the ceremony was performed by Justice of the Peace Hammond. In quick succession, Martha Hadder Brooks gave Richard Brooks three sons—John H., born in 1846; Solomon (K or A) in 1847; and William H. in 1848.

From 1846 until 1857, Richard Brooks served churches in Hightower Baptist Association after his ordination in 1846. His mailing address during those years was at Cumming, Social Hill, Troy, and Hartford, GA; he served churches at Coal Mountain from 1846-1848; Bethlehem, 1848-1853; Salem in 1848; Providence and Shady Grove, 1850-1852; Mount Zion, 1852; Canton, 1853; Mount Vernon, 1854; and Bethel, 1855-1856. During those years, he baptized some 200 people into the churches he pastored. In 1846 though he served the congregation at Coal Mountain, when it came time for the association’s annual meeting on 14-17 August, Brooks (spelled Broox in the Minutes) was a delegate from Beaver Ruin Church. He was appointed to attend the association’s second district meeting at Concord Church in August 1847, the third district’s meeting at Sharp Mountain in May 1847, and to go with three other ministers—including Drury Hutchins—in October 1846 to Chattahoochee Association’s meeting in Gainesville. Similar activities continued in the ensuing years. Indication of his activity comes also by a notice in the 4 July 1850 Christian Index which published a small blurb by Brooks announcing a Camp Meeting at Bethlehem beginning the Thursday before the first Sabbath in August. He requested “ministering brethren” to attend.

The family in 1850 lived in Cherokee County, Ga. with a blended family of the six Brooks children and Israel S. Hadder, who is 15 and a “farmer” by occupation; Israel was probably Martha’s brother. Listed on the census as Rucker Brooks rather than Richard, this is nonetheless him as the head of the house is a Baptist minister born in Georgia and the wife and children’s names and ages match. Odd spellings is one of many questionable bits included in census records and pursuing lots of avenues is the name of this game.

Brooks became pastor at Bethel Baptist Church in 1852 and early that year a marriage announcement in the Christian Index shows he joined Dr. Newport H. Campbell of Shady Grove in Forsyth County to his bride Narcissa Melvina McGinnes, daughter of Stephen McGinnes, of Gwinnett County on 8 December 1851.

Soon enough Brooks was a widow wedding again. On 21 May 1856 Brooks married Martha Duke Burruss (1831-1904) as evidenced by the signing hand of Ordinary H. Barker and the admired Rev. F. M. Hawkins. This third wife was born in Louisa, VA, on 5 September 1831 as the middle of nine children of John Henry Burruss (1794-1864) and wife Lucinda Nuckolls Burruss (1798-1849). In 1857 Richard Brooks was an ordained minister in Lawrenceville Baptist Association with a post office address of Ashland.

In the 1860 Census the Brookses lived in Barbour County, AL, (Eufaula post office) with five Brooks children ranging in age from 12 to 19 and Martha Brooks’ brother, M.C. Burriss, age 18--another changed spelling. The first of the three daughters born to Richard Brooks with his second Martha, Louisiana (Anna), joined the family in 1861 followed by Emma on 8 March 1865 and Julia in 1868. Emma eventually married Stephen A. Newman and had six children whereas Julia in 1883 married Edward Amos and had a son, Paul Mason Amos, born in 1895; Julia died at age 28 on 28 September 1897.

On 20 October 1863 Brooks performed a wedding ceremony for J. Douglass Norton to Cornelia Francis Bradbury at the home of the bride’s mother in Barbour County, AL. Though no more nuptials were in line for Rev. Brooks himself, a lot of changes occurred in the Brooks household that decade as younger children married and moved into their own places of life.

In the 1870 federal census, Richard and Martha D. Brooks lived in Geneva, AL, with their three girls, aged 3 to 9. For reasons unknown to us, he is listed as a lawyer. Those were difficult times by any definition in the South. With nothing more to substantiate it, we can't tell if the census enumerator made a mistake or if Brooks really hung out a shingle in law. According to Baptist records, he was still preaching. He served churches in Middle Cherokee Baptist Association from 1875 to 1886, and from 1880 until his death he served churches in Oostanaula Association. The 1880 federal census shows the couple at Stamp Creek in Bartow County where Brooks was listed as a farmer rather than a minister, another mysterious entry. Their youngest girls lived at home—ages 12 and 15. Brooks was 63 and Martha was a young 42.

Because the 1890 Census was destroyed, no such “authority” exists on the family’s composition and whereabouts. However, we surmise from other sources that Brooks died at age 74 in Bartow County, GA. The 1892 Georgia Baptist Convention meeting in LaGrange 5-9 April noted the death of the “old and infirm” Brooks who had served under state and association mission boards. When Oostanaula Association met 31 August-2 September 1892, that body gave their esteemed friend attention in the Minutes, calling him one “we all loved so well.” Wrote M. A. Reece: “Brother Brooks was sound in the faith, and ever ready to preach the Gospel. He has been called from his labors here to his reward at God’s right hand. Our dear Brother has already heard that welcome applaud, come up higher, I will make the ruler over a few things. Brethren, our loss on Earth is Heaven’s great gain. Let us live every day like it was our last day here on earth.”

The cemetery marker for Rev. Brooks—giving his name to the ages as Richard D.—is in Oothcalooga church yard near Adairsville; it shows he died 30 November 1891. His daughter Julia is interred in the same cemetery. Proof of the consequences of Julia’s death popped up when the 1900 federal census taker came around. The widowed Martha Brooks, age 68, was caring for her pre-school aged grandson Paul. It must have seemed strange after decades with a home teeming with activity though likely the child was a strong comfort to Martha in the absence of her husband and daughter. Even that arrangement didn’t last long. Martha was interred near her husband after she died 19 July 1904; a tall stone marker designates the place.

And what happened to young Paul Amos? That is a question for a family researcher. We, due to necessity of time and space, limit our research to that of Baptist leaders and to people related to Mercerians. If we can assist you with a research question, let us know. Our guidelines and fees are listed on our web site at http://libraries.mercer.edu/tarver/archives.