Memoirs of Susannah Brooks Johnson Provide Priceless Snapshots of late-18th Century Brooks Family

For descendants of Matthew and Elizabeth Warren Brooks of 18th-century Virginia, few resources can match the immediacy and relevance of Susannah Brooks Johnson's book Recollections of the Rev. John Johnson and his Home: An Autobiography.

Dictated to son Adam Clarke Johnson in 1869, 75-year-old Susannah's memoir paints a vivid picture of her childhood in the idyllic hamlet of Abbeville, South Carolina. She names parents (Thomas and Susannah Teague Brooks) and grandparents as well as aunts and uncles (and their spouses), describes where each lived (or moved), and relates engaging anecdotes and character sketches about many.

Her description of the incidents surrounding the Revolution (her maternal grandfather was captured and hanged by a local Tory contingent), strips the shiny patriotic gloss of the war away to reveal the hardship and terror of day-to-day life during a brutal and divisive conflict.

Hardship was to become the theme of Susannah's life, though she never descends into self pity in her narrative. Raised Quaker, Susannah fell under the spell of Methodist circuit preacher John Johnson, whom she soon married (over the objections of her parents, who correctly predicted a life of struggle and generously forbore the "I told you so's" when she occasionally had to turn to them for help). Left alone for weeks or months at a time on the frontier, Susannah faced a number of challenges resulting from isolation, illness, and loss as she attempted to cope with single-handedly tending a fledgling homestead and raising the couple's children.

Although only the first two chapters of the book deal with Susannah's ancestry and family history, her own story is captivating and the book is a must-read for anyone with ties to this Brooks family line. This would include the Quaker Brookses of NC, the Brookses of northwest SC and also those of Cocke County TN. To learn more about this Brooks family line, visit the Brooks section of my website. Susannah's book is available on Archive.org in numerous electronic formats, and hard copies can be ordered from Amazon.com.