Brooks, Martha, wife

Today is International Women's Day, and March is Women's History month in the US (in Canada October is Women's History Month). 

In genealogy it can be extremely difficult to research women. They just don't show up in the general records. Once married they would generally take their husband's name and retreat into the home, never to be seen in the public record until perhaps when her husband died and she was named in his will. It can be hard to get a real picture of their lives. They're almost forgotten.

Case in point is my great-grandmother Martha Ellen Walker Brooks. Martha was born in Scarborough on 29 September 1873 to Thomas Walker and Hannah Topper. Thomas was born in Scarborough on 3 January 1830 and was a descendant of the founding family of Scarborough, the Thomsons. Hannah was born in Lincolnshire on 12 Jul 1841. She emigrated to Canada sometime between 1851 and 1862 with her siblings Sarah, George and Martha. Frank, William and Christopher joined their siblings at a later date (there were 13 children in total in the family). I don't have a picture of Thomas but here is a picture of Hannah, my great-great grandmother.

Hannah Topper Walker

I don't have the exact date of their marriage but they appear to have married some time in 1862. Their first child Sarah Ann was born in 1863 followed by Mary Jane in 1864. The next two children David (born in 1866) and Thomas (born in 1867) both died in infancy, George David was born in 1870, William Henry in 1871 and then Martha. Tragedy struck in 1876. The Walker's last child Thomas was born on 18 March 1876. He died on 23 May 1876 as a result of congestion of the lungs. 

His mother followed him to the grave on 21 April 1876 as a result of pyaemia from puerperal inflammation, duration of about 5 weeks dating back to the birth of her last child. Pyaemia was a type of septicaemia (blood poisoning)caused by the spread in the bloodstream of pus-forming bacteria released from an abscess. Without antibiotics the disease is almost always fatal.


Maternal mortality had improved by the end of the 19th century but many women still succumbed to complications from giving birth. The informant of the death was Thomas' older brother Andrew. Thomas must have been devastated. In fact he never remarried which was unusual in the 19th century, especially with a man running a farm with 5 young children.

It must have been difficult for Martha growing up without a mother. No doubt her older sisters helped her father parent their younger sister but by 1881 Mary Jane had moved out. She married in 1883 and Sarah Ann in 1891. By 1891 Thomas was living alone, which again was unusual. It was the custom for widowed parents to move in with one of their married children. I was unable to locate either Martha nor her two brothers in 1891 census so I don't know where they were living. They didn't appear listed with their married sisters, nor were they living with any of their Topper or Walker aunts, uncles or cousins. I like to think that Martha may have had an opportunity to have any interesting job but we'll never know for sure.

She finally surfaces on 13 December 1893 when she marries my great-grandfather John Andrew Brooks in Agincourt. She was 20 years old. Her brother William Henry was a witness as was her cousin Alice Hastings. Alice was also born in 1873 and also grew up without a mother. Elizabeth Ann Wallker died in 1875 of consumption, The new husband is listed as a farmer. In 1893 the employment of the bride was not listed. All we know is that she was single.

Now Martha is a married woman and that status will define her place in the world for the rest of her life. In each census she is listed as Brooks, Martha, wife. No employment is ever listed though she has her hands full working as a farm wife and raising her three sons. The 1901, 1911 and 1921 censuses all read the same.

1911 Canadian census

I've located the family on voter lists. On the 1935, she is listed as Brooks, Mrs. John Sr, housewife. As was the custom, her first name was not used. On the 1940 and 1945 list she is Brooks, Mrs. J, In 1949 her first name is used: Brooks, Martha hw. 

1935 Voter list

It was unlikely that Martha voted in the 1949 election. She had already developed dementia and a nurse was hired to help look after her. Nurse Edna attended my parents' wedding as well.

John Brooks Sr, Nurse Edna, Martha Walker Brooks, Anne Brooks, John Brooks Jr.

These are the only other pictures I have of Martha, taken with her son my grandfather William Thomas Brooks and my father Gordon Russell Brooks. 

 

I'm not sure when these pictures were exactly taken. I love her sweet smile. She died on June 24th 1952 at the age of 78 and was buried two days later in the Melville Presbyterian Church Cemetery in West Hill.

And that's what I know of her life. I wish I knew her hopes, her dreams and her disappointments. There was more to her life that I will never be able to learn about. But she was important in her own right. So for International Women's Day I leave you with the story of my great-grandmother, descendent of Scarborough pioneers, hardworking farm wife and beloved mother and grandmother. She is not forgotten to me.