Daddy was born in 1887, 22 years after the War Of Northern Aggression
ended. During the 10 years immediately following the war, the Freedmen's
Bureau controlled the south backed by the Yankee Army's bayonets. Daddy's
father, Tom Brooks, grew into manhood and married during this period.
In the late 1880s, Tom acquired a farm in Clay County in the vicinity of
where Enterprise Church is now located and built a log cabin.. Tom's father,
John Brooks, and several of Tom's siblings had moved into this area also.
Those were hard times for Southern farmers and recovery was difficult. For
the most part, Southern farmers in those days had to be pretty much self
sufficient. Work on this small one-horse farm was labor intensive, with the
only implements being plows, a mule and wagon. Once they were old enough,
every one in the family worked on the farm.
From a picture when Daddy was about 9 or 10 years old, it is obvious that
from the clothes they wore and the house, etc. in the background that the
family was not in the best of circumstances. Although Tom and Eunice worked
hard on the farm and did the best they could for their family, they could
not afford all that we would now consider essentials.
Daddy (Jim) was born and grew up on this small Clay County farm in what
would now be considered almost poverty. He attended a small one room school
house as often as work allowed until the sixth grade, after which he quite
and worked on their farm full time.
In February 1909, Daddy's brother, Floyd, died of a stomach problem. To
satisfy doctor bills and other expenses Daddy's father sold his farm and
moved. Although Tom Brooks farmed for many more years, he never again owned
a farm.
About 1910, Tom had moved his family into the Holloway/Lewis area of Calhoun
County.
It was about this time, 1911, Jim and Lonie Holloway met, were married
and moved
into a small farm house abut 1/4 mile from his in-laws. Jim began
farming with his Father-In-Law, Marion Holloway. They lived in the neighborhood and farmed for several years, as their first four children, Albert Lee,
Sarah Alice (deceased at 8 months), Lonie Eugenia, and James Robert (J. R.)
Jr., were born.
Jim had been troubled with back problems for some
time and farming was becoming more difficult. In the early 1920s. Jim's
brother-in-law, Barto Holloway, told Jim that there was a job opening in St.
Augustine, Fla for a carpenter. Jim, Lonie, and family moved to Florida and
stayed about three years.
In 1925, they moved back to Calhoun County and
moved in with Lonie's Uncle Sam Massey. (Sam Massey married Lonie's Aunt
Roxie Holloway. She had passed away a year earlier.) After a couple of years
they moved to the J. J. Strickland farm and continued farming. It was here
in 1928 that their fifth child, Frank Gordon, was born.
Farming was still difficult for Jim and not very profitable, so in 1931
they moved into town, Edison, and Jim got a carpentering job with Barto
Holloway who was by then a building contractor.
(To be continued, check back later)
Last updated:
May 17, 2008
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