Individual Details

Found in Wilkes Co GA records: John P. Johnson dec'd. Isaiah T. Irvin, administrator, 1828. Receipt from Iverson L. Brooks for the distributive share of his wife Prudence E. Brooks. Irvin appointed guardian of John P. Johnson, orphan, 20 Jan 1829.
Married (1) Lucinda Sarah Walker on 22 Aug 1822, dau of William Walker, b. abt 1804 Putnam Co GA and d. 1826. He Married (2) Prudence Echols Irvin on 15 Jan 1828 in Wilkes Co GA. He married (3) Sarah Julia Oliver in 1832. There were children by all three marriages.

Iverson is said to have been a lieutenant in the War of 1812. His first pastorate was at Georgetown, SC in 1818; by 1820 he was at Eatonton, GA. He was also pastor at Penfield, Antioch and Bairdstown, GA. Was the principal of the Female Institute in Penfield.

1850, Edgefireld Co SC: Iverson L. Brooks age 57, Baptist Preacher, b. NC. Value of Real Estate - $50,000. Sarah age 48 b. GA, Louisa 21 b. GA, Virginia 17 b. SC [as were the rest of the daughters], Cornelia 16, Josephine 14, Julia 12, and Ann 10.

1860, Edgefield Co, Hamburg P.O. I. L. Brooks age 66, Baptist Preacher. Value of real estate -$50,000, Personal property $104,850. b. NC. Sarah J. age 58, b. GA, Louisa 31, b. GA, Cornelia E. age 26, b. SC, Julia E. age 22, b. SC, Anna V. age 21, b. SC

There are family markers in the Augusta Cemetery, Augusta GA for Lucinda, Sarah, and Iverson Lewis Brookes. Lucinda's states her body rests elsewhere. Prudence is buried in Wilkes Co GA.

Sent by "Patrick M Stevens IV" Jan 2006
Notes for IVERSON LEWIS BROOKES:
Michael Sawyer of Aiken SC, preserved a wonderful two-page document in Iverson's hand, found in 1964 in the old plantation house where Iverson Lewis Brookes died. He sent me a copy in November, 2002. It is a sort of summary biography and might be only the beginning of a longer piece. There is no date but I would guess he wrote it in the late 1850s or 60s before his death in 1865. Iverson Lewis is his mother Ann's father. Lemuel Hargraves might be the Lemuel who was deeded land about 1805 in Bollinger Co., Missouri.
"Iverson Lewis, having attempted an expensive enterprise of the drainage of the Dragon Swamp, together with the expense of educating his son, William Bird Lewis in Europe, was thrown under pecuniary embarrassment at the time of my mother's marriage, so that she received only a small patrimony; and my grandfather Thomas Brookes having failed in the mercantile business gave my father but little assistance. The pecuniary condition of my parents being moderate, they were under necessity to have their children, 5 brothers, do manual labor in the occupation of farming.
"My mother taught me the English alphabet and rudiments of spelling at an early age. But there being few children in the neighborhood, no school was convenient, and my father considered it more profitable to put his children to work than to board them out at school while young. And no school being established in proper distance for us to attend till I was about 14 years old, I began to be deeply mortified especially on visiting my relatives or others of my age who had made some attainments in education. In 1807 (Decr) Lemuel Hargraves made up an English school within 2-1/2 or 3 miles of my father's to which myself and several brothers were sent in January 1808. I was prepared to estimate aright my opportunity for mental improvement and my chagrin at finding so many a head of me prompted me to make the best use of my time. I studied day and night and soon began to overtake and pass a head of many in the school. It was the custom to form the school into one class to spell by heart in evenings and every Friday evening to spell and define from the dictionary; it was not many months before I felt the satisfaction of standing at the head in spelling. Through the affliction of the teacher's family the school was discontinued at the expiration of eight months at which time I could spell and read, fluently write a fair hand and had advanced through the principle rules of Arithmetic."

Iveson Lewis Brookes (1793-1865) of Caswell County, NC, was one of five sons born to Jonathan Brookes and Annie Lewis. Entering the University in 1816, he became a member of the Dialectic Society. Brookes preached in local Baptist churches while he was a student, graduating in 1819. He married Lucine Walker, with whom he had a son, and later married Sarah Myers, a widow, who bore him at least four daughters. Each marriage increased his holdings of lands in Georgia and South Carolina. A plantation owner and defender of slavery, Brookes spent most of his life teaching. Shortly after graduating from the University, he taught at Greensboro Academy (NC). In the 1820s he served as rector of Eatonton Academy (GA), and in the 1840s he was principal of Penfield Female Academy (GA).
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Source: From DICTIONARY OF NORTH CAROLINA BIOGRAPHY edited by William S. Powell. Copyright
(c) 1979-1996 by the University of North Carolina Press.


Brookes is buried in the Augusta Cemetery, Augusta GA.
Inscriptions on the family tombs:

LUCINDA SARAH WALKER
DAUGHTER OF WILLIAM WALKER
PUTNAM COUNTY GA
WIFE OF
IVERSON LEWIS BROOKES
BORN 1804
DIED 1826
HER EARTHLY BODY
RESTS ELSEWHERE

HERE RESTS
SARAH JULIA
OLIVER
WIFE OF
IVERSON LEWIS
BROOKES
BORN 1800
DIED 1889
BLESSED ARE THE DEAD
WHO DIE IN THE LORD

IN HALLOWED MEMORY OF
IVERSON LEWIS
BROOKES
SON OF
JONATHAN & ANNIE LEWIS
BROOKES
SPOTSYLVANIA, VA.
BORN NOV 2 1793
ROCKINGHAM Co. N.C.
DIED MARCH 14, 1865
AIKEN Co. S.C.
PATRIOT TEACHER WRITER MINISTER
A LIFE DEVOTED TO THE SERVICE OF GOD

His wife Prudence Irvin is buried in Wilkes County under a stone reading:
IN MEMORY OF
OUR MOTHER
PRUDENCE E BROOKS

In the Milledgeville Paper of July 17, 1830 is the following article:
"On the 13th inst. of bilious fever, MRS. P. E. BROOKES, consort of Elder I. L. BROOKES of Jasper County
and dau. of MAJ. I. T. IRWIN of Wilkes, Ga. in her 21st year. Had been twice married. Leaves three children--a son not yet four years old, by the first marriage, and two daus, by her surviving husband, the elder two years old and the younger about 3 months old. Was member of the Baptist Church prior to her last marriage."

Birth	2 Nov 1793	Rockingham County, North Carolina
Death	14 Mar 1865	Woodville, Aiken County, South Carolina

Father	Jonathan Brookes (1762 - 1834)
Mother	Ann Lewis (1763 - 1833)
Sibling	George Brookes (1790 - )
Sibling	Thomas Brookes (1796 - 1824)
Sibling	William L. Brookes ( - )
Sibling	John Lewis Brookes (1803 - 1870)