Brooks Family Papers
Scope and Contents
The Brooks Family Papers contain extensive correspondence, diaries, and other papers from multiple generations of the Buck, Butler, and Brooks families of New England and the Mid-West and the Kerner family of Delaware. Prominently represented are Morgan Brooks (1861-1947), a professor of engineering, and his wife, Frona Marie (Brooks) Brooks (1861-1947). One of their children, Charles Franklin Brooks (1891-1958) became a member of the Society of Friends shortly after marrying Eleanor M. Stabler (1892-1986) in 1914. Their daughter, Barbara Brooks (1922-2007), married Edward H. Kerner, and she was active in Quaker concerns, particularly peace. Also included in this collection are business, legal, genealogical, and professional papers of family members.
Dates
- Creation: 1790-1992 (bulk 1832-1960)
Creator
- Brooks, Eleanor S. (Eleanor Stabler), 1892-1986 (Contributor, Person)
- Brooks, Charles Franklin, 1891-1958 (Contributor, Person)
- Brooks, Morgan, 1861-1947 (Contributor, Person)
- Brooks, Frona Marie, 1861-1947 (Contributor, Person)
- Brooks, Esther, 1859-1942 (Contributor, Person)
- Brooks, Francis Augustus, 1824-1902 (Contributor, Person)
- Brooks, Franklin Herrick, 1866-1922 (Contributor, Person)
- Buck, Charles W., 1833-1933 (Contributor, Person)
- Brooks, Benjamin Franklin, 1816-1887 (Contributor, Person)
- Kerner, Barbara Brooks, 1922-2007 (Compiler, Person)
Conditions Governing Access
Collection is open for research.
Conditions Governing Use
Some of the items in this collection may be protected by copyright. The user is solely responsible for making a final determination of copyright status. If copyright protection applies, permission must be obtained from the copyright holder or their heirs/assigns to reuse, publish, or reproduce relevant items beyond the bounds of Fair Use or other exemptions to the law. See http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/UND/1.0/.
Biographical / Historical
Morgan Brooks (1861-1947) and Frona Marie (Brooks) Brooks (1861-1947) are central figures in the Brooks Family collection. They descended from the Brooks, Butler, and Buck families of New England.
Frona's grandfather, Charles Buck (1798-1863), married Sophronia Herrick (1803-1841) in 1825. The couple had three children, Charles W. Buck (1833-1933), a Unitarian minister; Robert Herrick Buck (birth name Jedidiah), who invested in Colorado gold mines; and Charlotte Frances Buck, (1828-1907). In 1852 Charlotte married Boston attorney Benjamin Franklin Brooks, and the couple had four children: Frona Marie Brooks, the only child to marry, Arthur, Esther Clara Herrick Brooks, M.D., and Franklin Herrick Brooks. Morgan's grandfather, Caleb Butler, married Clarissa Varnum, and they had a daughter, Frances Butler in 1822. Frances married Francis Augustus Brooks, a Boston, Mass., corporate attorney and railroad president, in 1847. This couple had three children: Charles B., Frederick, and Morgan Brooks. The collection includes correspondence among these family members and a great deal of professional correspondence and documents, mainly from Charles W. Buck, Benjamin Franklin Brooks, Franklin Herrick Brooks, and Francis Augustus Brooks.
Morgan Brooks and Frona Marie Brooks were married in 1888. They moved to Urbana, Illinois, shortly after their wedding where Morgan became a nationally known professor of engineering. Morgan and Frona had eight children, all of whom survived into adulthood: Henry Morgan (1889-1948), married Ruth Hayford in 1911; Charles Franklin Brooks (1891-1958), married Eleanor M. Stabler, and they had seven children; Frances Brooks (b. 1893) married Lincoln Colcord in 1929; Frederick Augustus Brooks (1895-1967), married Harriet Kinley in 1921 (divorced) and, secondly, Margaret H. Ward in 1929; Roger Brooks (1896-1957) married Anne Goebel in 1921 (divorced) and, secondly, Janet in 1928; Edith Brooks (1889-1952); Frona Marguerite Brooks ("Margie") (1901-1985), married George Hughes in 1924. The couple had two daughters, Ann and Octavia ("Taffy") before they divorced in 1927; she then married Richard Rice; Dorothy Prescott (b. 1905), married Joe Thomas in 1931.
Barbara Brooks Kerner(1922-2007), the Brooks descendant who consolidated the Brooks family papers in her home in Newark, Delaware, was the middle child of Eleanor Stabler Brooks and Charles F. Brooks. She graduated from Radcliffe College in 1944 and earned an M.A. at Cornell University; during the summer of 1945 she worked at C.P.S. Camp #46, Big Flats, N.Y., for two months. In 1948 she married Edward Kerner under the care of Brooklyn Preparative Meeting. Edward H. Kerner (1924-2002) was a physicist who worked on the Manhattan Project in Dayton, Ohio, and a long-time physics professor at the University of Delaware.
Barbara Kerner was active in peace activities, including draft counseling during the Vietnam War and its aftermath. A lifelong Quaker, she was a member of Newark Monthly Meeting at the time of her death on October 28, 2007.
Extent
35 linear ft. (67 boxes plus photograph collection)
Language of Materials
English
Abstract
The Brooks Family Papers contain extensive correspondence, diaries, and other papers from multiple generations of the Buck, Butler, and Brooks families of New England and the Mid-West and the Kerner family of Delaware. Prominently represented are Morgan Brooks (1861-1947), a professor of engineering, and his wife, Frona Marie (Brooks) Brooks (1861-1947). One of their children, Charles Franklin Brooks (1891-1958), became a member of the Society of Friends shortly after marrying Eleanor M. Stabler (1892-1986) in 1914. Their daughter, Barbara Brooks (1922-2007), married Edward H. Kerner, and she was active in Quaker concerns, particularly peace. Also included in this collection are business, legal, genealogical, and professional papers of family members.
Physical Location
For current information on the location of materials, please consult the Library's online catalog.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Barbara Kerner and other members of the Brooks family, 2003 (Accession number: 2003-015); Winifred and Benjamin Kerner, 2007, 2008 (Accession number: 2007-021, 023, 2008-010); Winifred Kerner, Acc. 2018.044
Separated Materials
Photographs stored in PA 129: Organized in groups of loose photographs and albums. Arranged in series by family groups, residences, and albums.
Kerner-Brooks oversized marriage certificate stored in Marriages flat file: +K
- Small album (~4 x 6), leather cover, cardboard gilt-edged. Inscribed "From Harry To Charlie." Pictures of Brooks children (series 1) and their grandparents, aunts, and uncles (series 2). Location: Box 4
- Large album (~9 x 12), leather cover, cardboard gilt-edged pages. Mostly pictures of grandparents, aunts, and uncles (Series 2), with some of the Brooks children with their parents (Series 1), and some of more distant relatives (cousins, great-uncles, etc.) Location: Box 5
- Medium-sized album (~7 x 11), black cover, black paper pages, bound with string. Inscribed "Some Photographic Reminiscences For Mother From Charlie." Pictures from C.F.B's childhood and young-to-middle adulthood, of his siblings, his parents, himself, his wife, and his children. Location: Box 4
- Large album (~9 x 12), black cover, black paper pages, bound with string. Pictures of Brooks children (Series 1) on trips abroad and at lake in Minnesota, as well as some early pictures of their spouses and children (Series 2). Location: Box 4
- . Medium-sized album (~7 x 11), purple cover, black paper pages, bound with string. Pictures from Brooks children's (series 1) summers at lake in Minnesota, of the Brooks children as young adults, and of Charles's family (Series 2) when his oldest children were little. Location: Box 6
- Small album (~6 x 7), leather cover, cardboard gilt-edged pages. Pictures of Frona Marie Brooks as a young girl, her siblings, her friends from high school, and a number of other unidentified women. Location: Box 6
- Large album (~9 x 12), black cover, black paper pages, bound with string. Pictures from Brooks family's (Series 1) trip by steamer to India and China. Location: Box 7
- Medium-sized album (~7 x 11), black cover, black paper pages, bound with string. Pictures from Brooks children's (Series 1) childhood, adulthood, and families. Many pictures are duplicated in loose photo collection. Pictures of Frederick and his daughters, who do not appear elsewhere. Also includes height and weight chart of Brooks family (Series 1). Most photos unglued from pages, and many pages loose. Handle with extreme care. Location: Box 8
- Medium-sized album (~7 x 11), black cover, black paper pages. Cover says "Frona M. Brooks." Assorted pictures from Brooks family's (series 1) trips abroad and to the lake in Minnesota, with a few of Ann Hughes and of Dorothy's children. Location: Box 7
- Large album (~9 x 12), black cover, black paper pages, bound with string. Pictures from Brooks family's (Series 1) trip by steamer to Egypt and around Europe. Location: Box 9
- Large album (~11 x 14), black cover, black paper pages. Pictures from Brooks family's (series 1) trips to Europe, Asia, and the Minnesota lake. Album coming apart and many pages disintegrating; handle with care. Location: Box 10
- Small album (~4 x 6), black paper pages with plastic covers, red spiral binding. Pictures of mountains, animals, and an unidentified little boy. Location: Box 6
- Small album (~4 x 6), black paper pages with plastic covers, red spiral binding. Pictures of mountains, a cathedral, and a stagecoach. Location: Box 6
- Small album (~4 x 6), black paper pages, black cover. Snapshots of Brooks children (Series 1) having fun in Urbana, at picnics, on rooftops, with friends, etc. Also includes a few of Henry's daughter Elizabeth as a baby. Location: Box 6
- Large album (~10 x 13), black paper pages, black cover. Pictures (mostly postcards) from trip to Europe. Many pages disintegrating; album unbound. Handle with extreme care. Location: Box 10
- Medium-sized album (~7 x 11) black cover, black paper pages, bound with string. Pictures of Brooks family's (Series 1) residences. Location: Box 9
Processing Information
The bulk of the papers were received in 35 cartons and boxes in 2003. They were sorted into family groups, and the pictures were removed to PA 129. Series 1 contains the papers of Charles and Eleanor Stabler Brooks, the parents of Barbara Brooks Kerner, the donor, and they are directly linked to the Stabler Family Papers, a collection given to Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College in 2002-2003. Series 6: Franklin Herrick Brooks and Benjamin Franklin Brooks Business and Legal Papers (2 boxes) is partially processed and stored in archival cartons. A folder of material concerning the pacifist activities of E. Russell Stabler was transferred to the Stabler Family Papers, RG 5/234.
In December 2007 and March 2008, papers from the estate of Barbara Kerner were given to the Library by her children. The Delaware Draft Counseling Service records were transferred to the Swarthmore College Peace Collection. The Barbara Brooks Kerner Family Papers, Ser. 7 (6.5 linear feet) were processed in 2010. One carton of letters received by Barbara Brooks Kerner was separated from the 2008 donation in the transfer from the Kerner home to Friends Historical Library. These were purchased on ebay by a nephew and reunited with the rest of the collection in 2018. Much of this accession, 2018.044, was scanned by a niece of Barbara Brooks Kerner, Valerie Samson, before she forwarded it to Winifred Kerner. Divided into seventeen plastic bags with a rough inventory prepared by Valerie Samson, the correspondence was transferred to archival folders as received and added to the finding aid in 2021 with Valerie Samson's description of contents.
Subject
- Brooks family (Family)
- Buck family (Family)
- Butler family (Family)
Source
- Kerner, Barbara Brooks, 1922-2007 (Donor, Person)
- Kerner, Winifred (Donor, Person)
- Kerner, Benjamin (Donor, Person)
- Title
- Finding aid for Brooks Family Papers, 1790-1992
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- FHL staff
- Date
- 2010
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Language of description note
- English
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