After writing the profile about John Brewster and Rebecca Farr, I sent a copy to my second cousin, Wilma Gibson, who has done an enormous amount of research over the years on our shared Brewster and Cochran ancestors. Here are things that she passed on to me to help give more context and family history to the story:
- The modern-day Brewstertown church was built in the late 1940s, long after “Preacher John” Brewster had passed on.
- There used to be an old church across the road from where her great-uncle Jesse Brewster lived (one of the sons of James Thomas Brewster, John & Rebecca’s oldest surviving son). The building was used as a combination school, church, and voting place. Wilma remembers this church from her childhood. Her mom, Lola Brewster Crabtree, went to school there. One day, Lola’s twin sister Nola was corrected for something and both of the twins went running home (they were 6 years old at the time, so this was about 1922).
- James Thomas Brewster, Wilma’s great-grandfather, was married to Mary Chriswell after his first wife died. According to Wilma’s mom, Lola, Mary made Thomas live on one side of the house and wouldn’t cook for him. Thomas took a load of straw to a woman he liked in nearby Rugby, but Mary found out and burned the straw and the wagon. On the other hand, however, Mary had a nice horse and buggy and would take Lola and Nola over to visit her nephew in Rugby. Lola loved her dearly, Wilma wrote, calling her “the only grandma I ever had.” Mary Chriswell Brewster’s grave is in Allardt at the Fellowship Church.
- John Brewster’s brother Jesse (b. 1822 – d. 1856) married Celia Massengale and adopted her son, John Massengale. (Celia’s first husband had died about 1849.) All Jesse’s other children were girls, except for one son, William, who was killed with his father during a lightning storm in 1856. John became known as “Missouri John Massengale” and moved to Missouri in the 1860s, where he became a cattle rancher. (I looked him up in newspapers.com — he was a fascinating guy!)
- John and Rebecca were married in Clinton County, Kentucky, at a small town called Seminary, according to Wilma’s great-uncle, Andy Marion Brewster.
- Several members of the family were missed in the 1850 census, possibly because Scott County had recently been created from (in part) Morgan County. This may have caused a mix-up in the instructions for census enumerators.
- According to family information, John Brewster’s second wife was Elizabeth Trail, the widow of Thomas Crabtree. They were likely married in Fentress County; she is buried at Old Barger Baptist Church in Jamestown, TN.
(Source: Wilma Crabtree Gibson, personal email to Donna Rowland Gough, 13 Oct 2022.)