Revolutionary War vet Brooks being honored after ceremony postponed

Weather delayed the first attempt to honor a man who called Polk County home after he served in the Revolutionary War. So long as the forecast continues to cooperate, a service meant for February is now coming up in March.

Mark the calendar now for March 14 at 2 p.m. at the Hubbard-Brooks cemetery to come out and honor Micajah Brooks with the help of the Scout Troup 17 of Aragon, the Rockmart American Legion, the Polk County Cemetery Preservation Committee, the Polk County Historical Society and several Brooks descendants.

Driving directions can be found at www.polkcemetery.com.

A recent donation to the Polk County Historical Society’s Genealogical Research Library from the Pickett estate has proven to be of immense value to our family records archive. It’s also prompted a ceremony to honor one man’s service to the nation this weekend.

The Polk County Historical Society counts among the treasured documents in their possession those from the Brooks, Norman, Phillips, and Pickett families. Those include an original marriage certificate dated 1852, copies of wills dating back to the 1700’s, letters between family members detailing family history, and handwritten ancestry information from the seventeenth century forward.

Of special interest is the life of Micajah Brooks, a renown Polk County resident who lived more than 100 years and was a Revolutionary War soldier between the years of 1775 to 1782.

Born on Christmas Day in 1761, Micajah McGreggor Brooks lived his early life in Chatham County, North Carolina.

According to oral history passed down, then 14-yearold Micajah was sent to the local gristmill with the family’s horse, but never made it back home. He had met up with recruiting officers, joined the Continental Army, and was not heard from again for seven years—during which time they had assumed he had died.

Brooks, however, returned to marry before once again signing up for military duty. He was wounded at the Battle of Cowpens in 1781.

His path to Polk County, Georgia included several sojourns between North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia.

Notably, his military service consisted of an expedition to the Cherokee Nation, and he was present at the Siege of Augusta. Records differ, but sometime before 1786 he moved to Georgia.

He was Captain of the 150 Georgia Militia District and served as Justice of the Peace in Warren County from 1813 to 1817. In 1827, he was granted land in Henry County for his military service.

By 1832, he settled in Paulding County (an area which became Polk County in 1851) in a homestead later known as the Everette plantation, and in 1839 moved near Fish Creek “on a hill above a large spring.” He married twice and had twelve children, several of whom fought in the Civil War.

There’s an extensive genealogy of Brooks’ family online and in the family files at the Genealogical Research Library, located at 205 S. College Street, Cedartown.

Other Polk County Revolutionary War soldiers include Asa Crabb, Henry Peek, Hugh Brewster, Jesse Rowell, and John Hilburn.

Micajah McGreggor Brooks was laid to rest on June 15, 1863 at the Hubbard-Brooks family cemetery on Morgan Valley Road in Rockmart.

The land for this cemetery was given by Micajah’s son-in-law, Woodson Hubbard, in 1850.