The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 9, July 1905 - April, 1906 Page: 157

Capt. John Sowers Brooks.

157

CAPT. JOHN SOWERS BROOKS.
GEN. JOHN E. ROLLER.
This distinguished but ill-fated young soldier was born in the
town of Staunton, in the State of Virginia, on the 31st of January,
1814. He came of that old Scotch-Irish Covenanter stock which has
furnished so many heroes for American history in the various
struggles for liberty that have taken place upon the soil of this
continent, from the wars of colonial times to the present day.
His mother, who gave to him his gentle yet chivalric spirit, was
a woman much loved and admired in her day for her strength of
character, associated-as it was--with a charming person and en-
gaging manners. She was married in the first place to John Henry,
a member of a family ever held in high repute in the Old Dominion,
by whom she had two children. One, Dr. Richard Hendricks
Henry, of Waynesboro, Va., died on the 13th of December, 1846,
leaving a memory behind him as fragrant as that of the "Doc-
tor of the Old School" of Ian MacLaren. John Henry died on
the 9th of August, 1800, and some ten years later his widow
was sought in marriage by Absalom H. Brooks. From their
marriage in 1810, five children were born, towit: Norborne C.
Brooks, who for many years was post master of the city of Staun-
ton, and died beloved and lamented; Mary A. Brooks, who was
married to Charles Wortham Reins, of Richmond, Va., in 1834,
and whose son, John Malcolm Reins, now of Winnepeg, Canada,
was one of "the bravest of the brave," a gallant member of the
5th Virginia Regiment of the famous Stonewall Brigade. An-
other daughter died unmarried, while a fourth, Miss Henrietta
Brooks still survives aged nearly eighty. Her adopted daughter,
Josepha Brooks Richardson, a niece of Gen. John E. Roller, of
Virginia (a Confederate Veteran), of Col. 0. B. Roller (of the 2d
Virginia Regular United States Volunteers in the war with Spain),
and of the Rev. R. D. Roller, D. D. (rector of the Episcopal church,
at Charleston, Kanawha, West Virginia), is the wife of Channing B.
Cornell, the nephew of Gov. Alonzo B. Cornell, of New York, and