Brooks, Cora O.

Cora O. Brooks (1872-1951)

Keene, NH

In 1910, thirty-two year old Cora O. Brooks resided in the household of retired doctor Edward A. Renouff at 65 Roxbury Street in Keene. Brooks, a woman of color, had grown up in Petersville, Maryland but was working as a domestic servant in southwest New Hampshire by the 1910s.

Cora O. Brooks was born to William and Virginia Brooks in Petersville, MD, in about 1872. The 1880 US Federal Census lists the family as mulatto. Her father was an engineer at a local distillery at the time. Cora, in school, was an elder sister to siblings Edward (b.1874), John W. (b.1876), and Helen A. Brooks (b.1879).

By the time Cora Brooks was in her 20s, she was working as a domestic servant in Baltimore, MD. In the year 1900, she was working within the household of a physician from Maine, Edward Mellins. At some point in that decade, she moved to New England herself to work as a domestic servant to Dr. Renouff. The 1910 census reveals that Cora was working wage per hour along with a 28-year old Jamaican cook Emmanuel Lopez and a 56-year old Irish secretary Mary Kepple.

Brooks’ time as a domestic servant in Keene may have been short-lived. In both 1911 and 1913, she can be found in the city directories working as a waitress, yet residing at the Renouff home at 65 Roxbury Street. By 1914, Cora Brooks had moved back to Maryland. A newspaper article in The News, dated Oct. 17, 1914, indicates that she had received a license to marry John. H. Warfield, a 39-year old former resident of Detroit, MI. Cora was 37 years old at the time of the marriage. Both bride and groom were listed as colored.

Information regarding Cora Brooks’ married life remains unknown to date. There are no known children and she continued to use her maiden name in later years. She died in Petersville, MD, on November 12, 1951 at the age of 79 years. She was remembered as a trustee of the Bethel Methodist Episcopal Zion Church and as an active member of the community.

GENEALOGY

CORA A. BROOKS was born in Petersville, MD, in 1872 to WILLIAM BROOKS and VIRGINIA __. She married JOHN H. WARFIELD (b.1875, Detroit, MI) in October 1914. Cora Brooks died November 12, 1951 in Petersville, MD.