The Brooks Family of Weedsport, NY

"The cabin was dozy with the smell of past cargoes;
of sweet apples, the choking smell of grain, solemn smell of potatoes."
Walter D. Edmonds-1929

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Roswell R. Brooks

Photo taken in Auburn,NY ~1866

Born: 1814 in Ira, Vermont
Died: 1893 in Weedsport, NY

Cabinet Maker
Soldier
Artificer
Millwright
Wheelwright
Iventor
View Roswell's Patent: #41567

Rare Photographs

       The Roswell R. Brooks Family; circa 1870 Weedsport, NY. Pictured with Roswell and is his wife Fanny (Abbott), are daughters Libbie, Amelia, and Mary Jennie, (unknown which one is which) and son Charles F..

The Six Families on James St. (1880)

-Kenyon Family
-Casbier Family
-Travers Family
-Smith Family
-Brooks Family
-Radford Family

These quaint little homes were demolished to make room for parking at the Union Grammar School around 1910.

Also on a sad note, the last packet boat passed through Weedsport on the Erie Canal on November 22, 1918.

Bruce F. Brooks

Bruce was one of Roswell's great-grandsons. This web page exists due to Bruce's faithfull devotion to his ancestors and by gladly sharing this information with his family members before his death in 1991. He always loved fishing and hunting.

Weedsport, NY

1856- About this year, the Brooks Family moves from Fulton to Weedsport, NY and lives in a house next to the residence of C.D. Jacobs, a boot & shoe manufacturer, on Jackson Street. Roswell starts a woodturning shop at the intersection of West Brutus Street and the Erie Canal, right on the original “towpath”, at the northeast corner of the W. Brutus St. Bridge. The wooden structure was at one time the property of M. Holland.

1864-Roswell Brooks, and a Mr. Horton, are assigned Patent #41567 for some improvement or use of the waterwheel. The family moves into a new home on James St, near Science Hill.

1872-About this period is when Charles F. Brooks, and fellow firefighter, Charles W. Hudson, have a lucrative “Blacksmithing and Horseshoeing” business together in Roswell’s old woodturning shop on the towpath. There may have been some confusion as to who should respond when someone would yell; “Hey Charlie, there’s a packet a-comin’ !” Later, Charles Hudson would have his own “Bicycle Repair Shop” located at 8950 N. Seneca St. there in Weedsport. This red building, near Federal St. & the Post Office, still stands. It is owned by Mrs. St. Johns.

In The Weedsport House

seated l-r: George R., baby Robert, Fanny (Abbott) Brooks. standing: Charles F. Brooks