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KANAWHA COUNTY WEST VIRGINIA - BIOS: BROOKS, Walter B.
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Submitted to the West Virginia Biographies Project by:
Sandy Spradling
SSpradling@AOL.com
September 25, 1999
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History of Charleston and Kanawha County, West Virginia and Representative
Citizens
W.S. Laidley
Richmond Arnold Publishing Co., Chicago, ILL.
1911
p. 400-404
WALTER B. BROOKS, a well known business man and citizen of Charleston, W.
Va., was born in Kanawba county, May 1, 1846, a son of William Chauncey
Brooks. He is a descendant in the fifth generation of John Brooks, a native
of Connecticut, who spent his life in that state engaged in agriculture.
This John was a son of the immigrant ancestor of the family, who came from
England about the year 1700. John Brooks married a Connecticut girl who
lived to the great age of ninety-six years, and who, it is said, on one
occasion was honored by dancing with General Washington, at an entertainment
in Boston, shortly before the Father of his Country was elected to the
Pres-idency. She was then a young woman. John Brooks and wife were the
parents of four sons, Charles, Chauncey, Frederick and John Jr., the last
mentioned of whom, after marrying, remained with his widowed mother on the
home farm.
Chauncey Brooks, who is the next in direct line to the subject of this
sketch, left his native state and settled in Baltimore, where he became a
very wealthy man, leaving at his death over six millions of dollars. He was
the first president of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad and the head of four
large wholesale houses in Balt-imore, in which city he was a noted character.
He was twice married and had a large family, seven children being born of the
first marriage. Two of his sons served in the Confederate army. Charles, one
of the three who emigrated settled in New York city, married and had a family.
Frederick, son of Chauncey and grandfather of our subject, when a young man
set out for Tennessee, intending to go into business there, but at Manasses
Junction, Va., meeting a young lady named Frances Oden, he fell in love with
and married her, remaining in that place for a time, where he conducted a
store. In 1816 he came to the Kanawha Valley, bought salt property and in
1818 settled at the Salt Licks four miles east of Elk, on the north side of
the Kanawha river. Here he engaged in the salt manufacturing business, but
after residing a few years. in this locality he came to the site of the
present city of Charleston and bought a block log house on the spot 'that now
marks the cross-ing of Brooks and Kanawha streets. Some years later and
previous to the war, he purchased a large plantation in Kentucky, on which he
lived throughout that protracted struggle. Though like other members of the
Brooks fam-ly, he was the owner of slaves, his sympathies were with the Union
cause, and when victory finally declared for the North, he felt it no
hardship to surrender the right to his human chattels, or, if it proved a
hardship, he at least made the sacrifice willingly. Some of the other
members of the Brooks family were supporters of the Confederacy and slave
holders on principle. Frederick Brooks died on his plantation in Kentucky,
in 1869, aged seventy-seven years. He was an active man of affairs, and was
an elder in the Presbyterian church, to which belonged most of the Brookses.
In politics be was Whig. His wife died in Kanawba county, some years later at
the venerable age of ninety-four. She was a daughter of James and Frances
(Skinner) Oden, her mother being a daughter of Gen. Skinner, prominent as a
soldier in the Revolutionary army. She lived to the age of ninety-six years.
Her youngest son, Maj. James Oden, was born when she was fifty-eight years
old, and was noted for his daring courage as displayed in the Revolutionary
war.
Frederick Brooks and wife had seven sons and one daughter, all of whom grew
to maturity. Five married and four of them had large families. All seven
are now deceased, together with their wives. The subject of this sketch is
the only one of their descendants now residing in Charleston.
William Chauncey Brooks, the second son and child of Frederick and Frances
Brooks, was born in Loudon county, Va., in October, 1820. He was educated for
the law at Princeton college, but later became a salt maker, in which
occupation he continued for many years. He became the owner of two boats,
the "Blue Wing" and "Blue Ridge," that carried salt to Louisville, Ky., where
he did a large business as a commissidn merchant and spent an active life,
until his death in Kanawha county, near Charleston, September 30, 1881. He
was a Whig in his political principles, but never cared to be called either a
Republican or a Democrat. He was an elder in the Presbyterian church and
often spoke in meeting.
William Chauncey Brooks was married in Charleston to Lavinia Virginia Patrick
Brig-ham, who came of a family resident in Virginia for many years but which
came originally from Boston, Mass. Her father, William Brigham, settling in
Kanawha county, became interested here in salt making, at which he made a
fortune. William Chauncey Brooks gave employment to a large number of people
and at his death 2,000 salt makers and employes followed him to the grave in
funeral procession-a notable concourse for those days in this locality; and
show-ing the great respect in which he was held.
William Brigham's daughter, Lavinia, who became Mrs. William C. Brooks, was
born in Kanawha county, W. Va., in 1825, and died in Denver, Cob., in
October, 1894. She and her husband were the parents of thirteen children,
seven of whom died in infancy. The others were as follows: (i). Walter B.,
whose name appears at the head of this article and who will be further
referred to herein. (2). Aletha B., now deceased, who was the wife of Charles
Small, of Denver. She left two children, Lavinia and Charles. (3). Fannie,
who became the wife of B. J. James, of Denver, Col. She and her husband have
an adopted child, Phebe Janis. (4). William is a mine owner residing in
Mexico and has been very successful there. He is unmarried. (5). Nona is
unmarried and resides in Denver. (6). Henry F. is also a resident of Denver,
Col.,
where he is connected with a large manufacturing company. He married Lulu
McNamara, belonging to a prominent family of that city. They have no
children.
Walter B. Brooks, whose nativity has been already given, was educated in a
college at Louisville, Ky., in which place he afterwards engaged in the
tobacco business, remaining thus occupied for five years. He was then for
ten years connected with the salt manufacturing industry in Kanawha. At the
end of that time the business had become unprofitable and he reengaged in the
tobacco business at Danville, and also at Greenborough, N. C. After
seventeen years more spent in this manner, he came to Charleston, of which
city he has since been a resident. He is executor of the Dr. Hale estate,
and secretary, treasurer and general manager of the Rosin Coal Land Company,
owning 1800 acres of land adjacent to this city. He has been a magistrate of
Charleston but is independent in politics. Both in Danville and Charleston
he has served as an elder in the Presbyterian church. He was married at
Mays-ville, Ky., to Mary E. Blatterman, a cultured and well educated young
lady, who was born in that city, a daughter of George W. Blatterman and his
wife Elinor, the latter in maidenhood Elinor P. Collins, daughter of Judge
Lewis Collins. Her father, George W. Blatterman, was born in London, Eng.,
ninety-one years ago, and is still living, now residing with his daughter,
Mrs. Brooks. For one of his years he is remarkably well preserved and is
still mentally active. His wife, Mrs. Brooks's mother, died eight years ago
at the age of seventy-six years. She came from an old Kentucky family.
Mr. and Mrs. Brooks are the parents of six children, as follows: (i). George
B., born June 17, 1877, is an accountant residing in Charleston; married Mary
Hasell McCoy of Wilmington, N. C.; no issue. (2). Edward S., born August 25,
1878, died in infancy. (3). Elinor Collins, born November 21, 1880, is
unmarried. (4). William Chauncey, born February 9, 1883, died in infancy.
(5). Walter Booth, born March 26, 1884, is now with Cabin Creek Consolidated
Coal Co. (6). Goldsborough R., born November22, 1887, died in infancy. Mrs.
Brooks and her surviving children are affiliated religiously with the
Presbyterian church. Mr. Brooks is a Free Mason, belonging to the Commandery.
Sandy Spradling
SSpradling@AOL.com
State Contact for WV GenExchange
http://www.genexchange.com/wv/index.cfm
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