Susan Jane Megeath Brooks, was born on a farm in the Wabash Valley near York, in Clark County, Illinois, December 29, 1818. Her parents, James and Mary Megeath, having emigrated from Louden County, Virginia, to this place in 1816. Her child and girlhood days were passed amid the scenes of a new civilization in a wild country, then on the border line of the Indians. On the 11th day of August 1835, at the age of seventeen she was married to James Clayton Mount, a young Virginian, who had come to this country some years before. To this union were born Henry Harrison Mount, who died in infancy, and Martha Frances Mount, who died in the town of Cumberland in1866. James Clayton Mount passed away October 30, 1840, and his remains now rest in this cemetery which bears his name.
On January 12, 1847, Mrs. Mount was united in marriage to James Brooks, who passed from this life July 25, 1873, and whose remains also repose in this cemetery.
Mrs. Jane Brooks passed from this life at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Jane Burk of Johnson Township, on Thursday, July 19th, 1908, aged eighty-seven years, six months and twenty days. Her surviving children are John and James Brooks, Mrs. Mary Slusser and Mrs. Jane Burk; grandchildren, Richard Williams Brooks, James Megeath Brooks and Mrs. Jessie Hendrickson, children of John Brooks; John Harrison Brooks, Richard Brooks, Bonnie Brooks and Bessie Brooks children of James Brooks; Mrs. Bertha Freeland, Harlan Slusser, Lelia Slusser, Edna Slusser and Coral Slusser, children of Mary Slusser; Mrs. Ella Cornwell of Springfield, Ill., James R. Burk and John R. Burk, children of Mrs. Jane Burk, also numerous great-grandchildren.
Mrs. Brooks was one of the earliest pioneers of the country and with her early neighbors, all of whom have proceeded her to the better land, she endured the hardships, toils and privations incident to the settlement of a country with a faith that never waivered and a courage that never faltered, and now her hands, crooked, worn, withered, and tired from the labors of a long life are peacefully folded, lovingly clasping the flowers of the wilderness which she helped to make blossom as the rose. Her remains were laid to rest beside her loved ones in the cemetery which she gives the last earthly resting place of her neighbors and friends.
