Ben Brooks
Ben Brooks Family History
Benjamin Riley Brooks (1887-1978) was the son of J. J. and Rebecca Parker Brooks. He married Willie Logan in 1913 and built his home on the corner of Willow and Highway 287 where the Grapeland Co-op is now located. Willie died in 1925. In 1929, Ben married Leona Dominy. They had two children Ben Edward and Dorothy Sue Brooks. Ben Edward Brooks married Ferta Jean Smith and had three children, Frances Lynn, Glenn Riley, and Martha Jean. Dorothy Sue Brooks married George R. Steele and had two children, Rebecca Susan and George Rowland Jr. In 1940 Ben Brooks moved his home to face College Street to make way for a Gulf Service Station and a Ford Sales and Service Company. In 1974 the building was sold to Nolan Huff who later sold it to the Grapeland Peanut Growers Co-op. Ben Brooks was school and city tax collector and city water and sewage superintendent for thirty years (1932-1962). He was the first fire chief of the Grapeland Fire Department.