1850-1933
Adoniram Judson Brooks
Baptist Pastor Alabama AL/AL
Adoniram Judson Brooks was one of eleven children born to Rev. Middleton Brooks, the first missionary appointed by the Judson Missionary Baptist Association (see entry 1850-Present) of southeastern Alabama. Of those eleven children, 4 were boys and all 4 became Baptist pastors. Adoniram was born August 28, 1850, in Elba in Coffee County, AL, and died July 28, 1933, in Black, Geneva County, AL. He was married to Emma A. Flemming (1850-1924) in 1871 and together they had five children. The 1880 census lists him as a minister and the first pastor of the Adoniram Baptist Church in Black, AL. He probably was the founder and namesake of that congregation which disbanded in 2015.
Adoniram Judson Brooks served in the confederate army during the Civil War as did his 3 brothers and all four of these circuit-riding Baptist pastors survived the carnage.
The four sons began coming home. One was missing a little toe, shot off at Shiloh. The family would hear a yell (rebel yell) and they’d know another son was home, safe and sound, half starved and louse ridden. The poor soldier would wait in the barn and someone would take hot water and homemade lye soap and some kind of clothes to cover his nakedness, then his old clothes would be burned. Only then would the soldier go into the house for his joyful and prayerful welcome home.[1]
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[1] https://usgenwebsites.org/flgenweb/FLHolmes/families/dscbrooksjonathan1-3.html, p. 3.