Our next stop lay just a little southwest from Woolsey in Brooks, Ga., an equally small town. I knew nothing about White Water Baptist Church Cemetery (WBCC), but I wanted to walk around.

Before the area around Brooks began to be inhabited by white settlers in the early 1800s, the Creek Indians lived there. Around 1850, a planter named Hillery Brooks sold the lot upon which the new train depot was to be built. He asked that it be called Brooks Station. It was shortened to Brooks in 1905.

Until 1921, cotton was king in Brooks until the boll weevil destroyed many of the crops, placing the town in an economic depression. Brooks lost its charter but began to emerge out of the depression in 1939 after electricity was installed in the town. Brooks received its town charter again.

These days, Brooks has a population of around 600 people. That may not seem like a lot but that’s double the number since 2013.

Whitewater Baptist Church

I could not find much information about Whitewater Baptist Church. It was constituted in 1823. Currently, it’s part of a small network of churches that operate under the umbrella of Crossroads Church.

According to Find a Grave, there are about 500 memorials listed. The earliest graves appear to be for Civil War soldiers who died around 1865.

The Dunn Family

There are 48 Dunns buried at WBCC. Several of them served in the Civil War in the Confederate Army. Some came home alive, others did not. Within the Dunns, they must have been big fans of Kentucky-born politician Henry Clay because several of them have names that contain “Henry Clay” within them.

Born in Fairfield Co, S.C. to Stephen Smith Dunn and Drucilla Ross Dunn in 1822, Alexander “Alex” Hamiter Dunn married Jenny Louisa Westbrook around 1840 in Henry County, Ga. William was born in 1841 and Henry Clay “Bub” Dunn was born in 1842. Jenny died in 1852. Alex remarried the following year to Mary Ann Elizabeth Akins.

Both William and Bub served as privates in the 30th Georgia Infantry, Co. B. Bub died at age 24 in 1867. I don’t have an exact death date for him, unfortunately. He must have returned home after the war. Details are unknown.

Then there’s a marker for a Henry Clay Dunn. According to the dates, he was born in 1844 and died in 1865. He, too, served in Co. B of the 30th Georgia Infantry.

I found documentation of the names of those who served in Company B of the 30th Infantry. A Corporal H.C. Dunn is listed as dying in 1896. A Private Clay Dunn, wounded in battle, died in 1894. Private Alex Dunn is listed as having died in 1888. W.S. Dunn is listed as having died in 1864.

Of this information, I can only confirm that Alex Dun did indeed die in 1888 in Brooks.

William Samuel Dunn’s marker states he died in 1906.

Then we have William Henry Clay Dunn, son of Joel Dunn and Sarah Smith Dunn. Born in 1808, he also served in the 30th Georgia Infantry and died in 1869.

In 2009, John Rigdon wrote “Historical Sketch & Roster of the 30th Georgia Infantry” and provided more information. Oddly, I did not find Alex listed anywhere in his publication.

Dunn, Henry C., Jr. 2d Corporal Sept. 25,1861. Discharged May 14, 1862. Reenlisted as a private May 14, 1862. Sick in camp at Savannah, Ga. Dec. 31, 1862. Died in 1865.

Dunn, William H. C. private September 25, 1861. Wounded in forehead. resulting in loss of sight of right eye, at Chickamauga, Ga. September 19, 1863. Captured at Marietta, Ga. June 19, 1864 . Paroled at Camp Morton, Inf. and forwarded via Baltimore, Md. to Point Lookout, Md. for exchange, Feb. 19, 1865.

Dunn, William S. private Sept, 25, 1861. Appointed Corporal. Captured at Nashville, Tenn. Dec. 16, 1864. Released at Camp Chase, Ohio on June 12,1865.

I’m sure someone with a subscription to Fold3.com and more experience with military records can somehow sort out how these Dunns are related. But I didn’t have time or the patience. There are several other Confederate veterans buried at WBCC, but they don’t appear to have served in the 30th Georgia Infantry as the Dunns did.

Death of a Railway Man

Unfortunately, when I see that a young man died in his 20s during the later 1800s, I wonder if it was the result of some kind of railroad accident. I am proven right more often than not, sadly.

Born in February 1875 to Jackson Harwell and Rebecca McLean Harwell, Charles “Charlie” Harwell grew up in Brooks. Rebecca died when he was five years old. He married Sallie Rogers the day after Christmas in 1897 and they had at least three children together. Their last child, Reba, died on June 13, 1902 at the age of seven months. She is buried in WBCC.

At the time of Reba’s death, Charlie was working the Central Railroad of Georgia. On March 6, 1903, he died in a terrible accident near Chattanooga, Tenn.

Charlie was buried next to Reba at WBCC.

That wasn’t the end of the tragedy for the Harwell. Charlie and Sallie’s son, Robert, died at age 30 on Oct. 13, 1930 in a car accident in Statesville, N.C. I don’t know where he is buried. Sallie may have remarried or died, I could not trace her after Charlie’s death.

A Mother and Son

Nearby is the grave of Charlie’s older sister, Mary Harwell Jones. Born in 1860, she married James H. Jones in October 1880 at age 20. She gave birth to a son, James, on Nov. 1, 1881.

For reasons unknown, Mary died on Feb. 21, 1882. Her grave marker is inscribed with this unusual epitaph:

She died in triumph of the glory world and requested her companions and friends meet her there.

Little James died the next day, he was only three months old. Perhaps there was an illness that swept through the Jones home.

Mary’s husband James H. Jones married Elizabeth Lee Posey on Christmas Day 1883. She passed away in 1912 and is buried in Brooks’ County Line Cemetery. He married a third time to Minnie Lee Thomas. He died at age 83, having been involved in a car accident in late December then succumbed to a heart attack on Jan. 15, 1940. He is buried with his second wife, Elizabeth, at County Line Cemetery.

The Padgett Sisters

There are 35 Padgetts buried at WBCC. When I photographed these two graves of the Padgett sisters, I wasn’t paying attention to the dates. But this week when I went back to check them, an interesting situation began to unfold.

Civil War veteran John W. Padgett married Martha Cornelia Dunn in 1870 when Martha was only 17. They proceeded to have at least a dozen children. It doesn’t appear that any of them were twins, either.

Martha E. Padgett, their third child, was born on Feb. 25, 1876. For reasons unknown, Martha died on Nov. 6, 1893 at age 17.

Vada C. “Vadie” Padgett, their last child, was born on Dec. 10, 1896. That’s three years after Martha E. died, so the two never knew each other. Vadie died at the Padgett home from a fever on Sept. 9, 1915 at age 18.

As I looked at the Padgett family tree, I realized another sister was buried nearby. Eighth Padgett child Cora “Ottie” Padgett, born on May 13, 1889, married Nathan Hatton on Dec. 4, 1910. She gave birth to a daughter, Florene, in 1913 and a son, John, arrived in 1914.

Ottie died of typhoid fever on July 9, 1915 at age 26. That was less than two months before her sister Vadie died.

Nathan remarried to Mattie Sue Ivy Horton and they had two daughters. He died in 1960 at age 72. He is buried with Mattie at WBCC.

There were more stories waiting to be told at WBCC but it was time to head to another cemetery. Our next stop was Brooks City Cemetery.