Thomas Brookd/Mary McMurry
AMES W. BROOKS. As the village of Avoca moves on in the process of development there are inaugurated, one after another, the various interests which are calculated to insure its future. The subject of this sketch established himself as a grain dealer at this point in the fall of 1884, buying mostly for O. T. Hubbard, of Hiawatha, Kan., and handling usually on an average 150,000 bushels per annum. Mr. Brooks is a stirring business man, possessing the qualities required in the building up of a new farm.
Prior to settling in Avoca our subject had operated as a lumber dealer at Allerton and Clio, Iowa, two years. He became a resident of the Hawkeye state with his father, in 1844, the latter taking up a tract of new land in the wilderness of Mahaska County while Iowa was still a Territory. To this point they had migrated from Orleans County, N.Y., where James W. was born Feb. 5, 1838, and was consequently but a child of six years when his parents emigrated to Iowa Territory. Thomas Brooks, the father, was a native of Virginia, born of parents who were also natives of the Old Dominion, and had been familiar with farming from his youth up. Upon leaving Virginia he settled in Adams County, Ill., and was there married to Miss Mary McMurray, a native of Kentucky. Her parents had left the Blue Grass regions when she was quite young, locating in Adams County, Ill., where later Mr. and Mrs. Brooks began the journey of life together on a farm.
To the parents of our subject there were born five children, of whom he was the youngest. After the removal to Iowa they lived in Mahaska County until 1853, then changed their residence to Wayne County, where our subject attained his majority. The parents there spent the remainder of their days, both dying at the age of sixty-seven years. They were Methodists in religious belief, and most excellent and worthy people, respected by their neighbors, and conscientious in their lives. There were born to them in Illinois two children, while the other three were natives of the Hawkeye State.
James W. Brooks received a good practical education in the public schools of his native county, and upon the outbreak of the Rebellion, with his two brothers entered the ranks of the soldiery, himself and his brother John in the Union Army, and the other brother, Joseph, in the service of the lost cause. James W. was a member of Company M, 3d Iowa Cavalry, under Capt. Warner and Gen. Curtis, and fought with his comrades at the battle of Pea Ridge. At the expiration of his term of enlistment he was discharged, in November, 1862, from the cavalry, and at once re-enlisted in the 46th Iowa Infantry. After 100 days he received his second honorable discharge by special order, and returned home. Although experiencing many hairbreadth escapes, he was neither wounded nor captured. His brother John F. was a member of the 2d Illinois Cavalry, and in one engagement was wounded and suffered amputation of his leg twice thereafter, which proved such a shock to his system that be finally died from the effects of it in the hospital at Memphis, Tenn. He was brought home, and now fills a soldier's grave with many of his comrades in Corydon Cemetery, Wayne County, Iowa.
After leaving the army Mr. Brooks, returning to Wayne County, Iowa taught school during tbe winter season, and farmed in summer until 1880. He then embarked in the lumber trade, and has been associated with lumber and grain since that time. He was married in Wayne County to Miss Eleanor Weagley. Mrs. Brooks was born in 1842, in Pennsylvania, where she was nearly reared to womanhood, and then went with her parents to Iowa. The latter were of German ancestry, and the father a farmer by occupation. Upon their removal to the Hawkeye State they located upon a tract of land in Benton Township, Wayne County, where they spent the remainder of their lives. Mrs. Brooks was a lady of many estimable qualities, and had received careful home training. After being the devoted and faithful companion of her husband
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Re: Thomas Brookd/Mary McMurry
Joy Benemann 7/22/02