Manuscripts Collection
Markell Conley Brooks (1899-1971) was a daughter of John Thomas Conley and Grace Hawkins Flower. She married Minnesota lumberman Edward Brooks (1888-1954) on April 5, 1920. Brooks was for many years the president of Brooks-Scanlon, Inc., Minneapolis. He was the son of Dwight Frederick Brooks and a grandson of Sheldon Brooks, of Winona County, Minnesota. Markell and Edward had four children: Conley Brooks, Edward Brooks, Jr., Anna Markell Brooks, and Dwight Frederick Brooks II. Edward Brooks Jr. was born November 8, 1922. He married Virginia Dahleen on March 23, 1957, and was a professor of classics at Macalester College, St. Paul.
Lamrock Flower emigrated from England in 1685 and settled in Hartford, Connecticut. Lamrock's son Joseph Flower moved to Feeding Hills, Massachusetts in 1752. Hananiah Brooks was born in Killingly, Connecticut, in 1758. Whipple Hawkins (b. 1787) was raised in New York State.
As Western lands were opened to settlers, the progenitor families moved to areas in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. Sometime after 1794 Hananiah Brooks moved to Ohio. The Flowers moved to Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and eventually to Minnesota. William H. Hawkins was one of the founders of Aurora, Illinois. Hananiah Brooks was among the first settlers of Conneaut, Ohio.
The Gutherz family, who had been exiled from Spain, left their more recent home in Switzerland and settled in Ohio and Tennessee. The Conley family probably left Ireland as a result of the potato famine, arriving in Wisconsin in the 1850s.
The material in the collection includes family documents and
photographs, and more recent genealogical research materials and
correspondence. It apparently was compiled primarily by Virginia Dahleen Brooks
as she researched her book,
There is correspondence of children's author Helena "Quail" Hawkins and her uncle Forrest Hawkins and her aunt Adah Hawkins Orton, and material relating to stage star Henrietta Hawkins Morris and her son Chester "Boston Blackie" Morris. There are photographs and some ink-on-linen elevations and floor plans for a house in St. Paul designed for M. D. Flower by architect LeRoy S. Buffington.
The papers are organized into generational groups identified by the donor as Generations I, II, III, and IV. These groups apparently do not necessarily correspond with Generations I-X identified in Virginia Brooks' book.
These documents are organized into the following sections:
The Sheldon Brooks and family papers are in the Minnesota Historical Society manuscript collections.
Accession number: 15,595; 15,754
Processing and cataloging of this collection was supported with a Basic Project
grant awarded by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission
Catalog ID number: 001737005
Includes the Loescher family and related families.
A family history written by Virginia Dahleen Brooks. Traces ten generations of the family's history.
This is an index to
"Gottfried, Will, Anna (see Hawkins), Lena (see Flower), Carl, and Lenala." Includes a photocopy of a wedding certificate (in German) for Heinrich Gutherz and Henrietta Loescher (1842).
"Eine Basler Familie im 19. Jahrhundert aus Tagebuechern und Briefen der His-Bruckhardt-Bruederlin. Basel, Weihnachten 1965, Bearbeitet von Edvard Gruner."
This is a 5-1/2 x 7-1/2 framed oval certificate featuring handwritten text in old German script and small, delicately-cut paper flowers. Apparently made by Henrietta Loescher, later Mrs. Henry Gutherz.
Markus and Cybele were the parents of General Mark Delos Flower.
Lena was the wife of Mark D. Flower.
Photos are unidentified but appear to include photos of Mark D. and Lena Flower and other relatives; the Flowers' home at 428 Ashland Avenue, St. Paul; family picnics at Indian Mounds Park, St. Paul; the Mormon Temple, Salt Lake City, Utah; San Gabriel Mission, California.; and what appears to be San Francisco in the aftermath of the earthquake of 1906. Some of the photos may be from Switzerland.
Includes letters, telegrams, and newspaper clippings; a diploma awarded to Marcus D. Flower by the Aurora Institute and Clark Seminary (Aurora, Illinois) (1861); photos of Mark D. Flower, his wife, and their home at 428 Ashland Ave., St. Paul; photos of various family members and friends; and Lena Gutherz' baptismal certificate (1847). There is information about the St. Paul Union Stockyards Company (of which Mark Flower was president), Chicago Great Western Railway president A. B. Stickney, Flower's appointment as postmaster of St. Paul, a trip to Europe, and the death of M. D. Flower (1907). Some of the material is in German.
Includes information about G.A.R. encampments of 1886, 1895, 1896, and 1900, as well as a description of the Battle of Corinth (Sept. 19, 1862) by Mark D. Flower, a participant.
Includes letters and genealogical charts.
Includes a Flower family crest (1906). There is also a typed transcription of an undated diary written by an unidentified Flower relative perhaps as early as 1817. The diary includes references to Pennsylvania and to places in the state of New York, and to the birth of Ann Flower (1817).
Includes a photograph of Flower's home at 428 Ashland Avenue, St. Paul (1891).
One roll of 7 architectural drawings by L. S. Buffington for Flower's house at 428 Ashland Avenue. Includes front, side, and rear elevations, and basement, main floor, and second floor plans.
Includes Anna's birth certificate (in German).
Includes information about Florence, Jack Hawkins, and Russell
Godfrey. There is also a copy of
"Delos Hawkins" was the husband of Anna Gutherz Hawkins, and the father of Etta, Adah, Grace, Harry, and Mark Hawkins. File includes a photograph of "the Hawkins House" at Aurora, Illinois. There is also a letter to "Dear Ones in Memphis" from "DeLoss" (1869).
Primarily family photographs taken at Spokane (1909-1910) and Yakima (1926-1936), Washington.
Helen was married to Heinrich Gutherz Hawkins ("Harry").
Mark Delos Hawkins was the youngest son of Anna and Willis Hawkins.
Henrietta Luna Hawkins ("Aunt Etta") was the daughter of Anna G. Hawkins. She married William Henry Morris on October 1, 1891.
These clippings concern theatrical productions in which Henrietta apparently appeared.
Home of George Washington. Etta evidently appears in the picture.
Include photos of Henrietta's husband and children.
Includes scripts for "In Honor Bound," "The Arabian Nights," "Ours," "My Turn Next," "Young Mrs. Winthrop," and "The Brownies in Fairyland," and a fiftieth performance souvenir book of publicity photographs from "Men and Women!"
William Henry Morris married Henrietta Hawkins. Their children included Lloyd, Gordon, Chester, and Wilhelmina.
Includes material relating to sons Chester and Lloyd.
Programs from and information about various plays and operettas in which Adah appeared, including "Young Mrs. Winthrop," "The Taming of the Shrew," "The Arabian Nights," "Red Riding Hood," and "Five O'Clock Tea." There are scripts for "Sweethearts" and "The Hunchback."
Forrest Hoy Orton married Adah Hawkins on June 14, 1897.
Edward Brooks married Markell Conley in 1920.
This resolution expresses sorrow upon the death of Edward Brooks, who was a director of the company.
Eastcliff is the Saint Paul mansion that was the Edward Brooks family home until 1958, when the family gave it to the University of Minnesota to serve as the president's residence. The home is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the "Brooks, Edward, Sr. and Markell, House."
Includes correspondence, poetry, a certified copy (1940) of Markell Conley's birth record (1899), and an invitation to her wedding to Edward Brooks (1920).
Quail Hawkins was an author of children's books.
Audio recordings of Quail relating family history to Marney and Ginny, April 1972.
"Marjorie Jean Hawkins Witt Cram."
Joanne Gutherz Orton was the daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Forrest Hoy Orton. She married James Edward Towle on October 10, 1919.
Formal portrait of Orton in a business suit.
Includes a photograph of Orton's granddaughter (1957). Orton himself died in 1937.
"Master Copy" of this book written by Virginia Dahleen Brooks.