Cedar/Vernon County Genealogical Society meets

Joe Brooks of the northwest Vernon County area brought a very interesting program to the Cedar/Vernon County Genealogy Society meeting on Tuesday, May 15, at the Nevada Library Meeting Room.

Brooks traced his early relatives from the arrival in America of his great-great-grandfather Joseph Brooks as a child in 1808 through the westward movement of his ancestors until they settled in Vernon County following the Civil War.

Joseph Brooks married in Maryland in 1827. He was a gunsmith at the U.S. Arsenal across the Potomac River in Harper’s Ferry, Virginia. In 1844 the Brooks family moved west from Wheeling, WV, by stage coach to the Ohio River and on to the St. Louis area by flatboat where Brooks worked at the U.S. Arsenal at St. Louis. They had eight children, one being the great-grandfather, Daniel Austin “Henry” Brooks.

The immigrant patriarch Joseph Brooks passed away in 1865.

Following their father’s death, two of the Brooks sons brought their families further west. They purchased land in Vernon County’s Henry Township in 1869 from a land speculator who had bought up War of 1812 and Indian Wars Military Land Grants from soldiers who did not want to move to Missouri and claim the land.

Much of the land purchased in 1869 has remained in the Brooks family. Joe Brooks is proud of the heritage of his family and enjoys living on the land his forefathers farmed so many years ago. Brooks shared pictures of his ancestors and 1876 and 1886 area maps to illustrate how he traced his family through the years. Numerous family artifacts were also on display.

The Genealogy Society meets monthly on the third Tuesday, alternating between Nevada and El Dorado Springs. The next meeting will begin at 10 a.m. June 19 in the El Dorado Springs public library. Everyone interested in researching their family’s history is welcome. For additional information, call Valo at 667-2457.

GENEALOGY SPEAKER – Joe Brooks talks about his Brooks ancestors who immigrated to the United States in 1808 and moved westward, finally settling in northwest Vernon County following the Civil War.