JOHN BROOKS – ROBBINSVILLE’S “VILLAGE BLACKSMITH”

By Marshall McClung
Graham Star Correspondent

Many schoolchildren of earlier years were no doubt familiar with the poem written in 1842 by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “The Village Blacksmith”.  Wadsworth describes the blacksmith in his famous poem as being a strong, honest, hard working man who loved his children and visits his mother’s grave and weeps.

There is little doubt that the blacksmith was a noble and much needed profession in earlier times.  They were the “mechanics” of their day.

Robbinsville was not without its own village blacksmith.  John Brooks operated a blacksmith shop at the present day corner of Circle Street and Junaluska Drive, ironically across the road from a mechanic’s shop, Mitch Ford’s Autologic.  Robbinsville was incorporated as a town in 1893.  James Gordon Brooks and his wife Mary Ann Johnson settled in the Yellow Creek area around 1845.  James worked on the construction of the first road to the Tennessee state line.  The Brooks Gap located near Santeetlah dam is said to be named after him.

John Bunyan Brooks, one of the sons of this couple born in 1867, moved to Robbinsville and sent up a blacksmith shop.  He was to be the “village blacksmith” for the next forty years.  John made most of the tools he worked with as well as a lot of tools the farmers used.  He could build a wagon from the ground up.  There were no funeral homes in those days, so John made coffins too.  John had an instrument he used when shoeing horses or mules that caught the animal’s leg just above the hoof and held it fast. A crank was then turned to raise the animal’s leg to the desired height and hold it in place.  In addition to his blacksmith duties, John also administered Robbinsville’s water system.

John Brooks was married to Frankie Hyde, daughter of John Aaron and Louisa Hyde, early settlers in the Cheoah Valley.  Early records indicate they may have been the first white people to live there.  John and Frankie Brooks had six children, Lavada, Icie, Amanda, Ada, Minnie, and Daisy.  John and Frankie are buried in the Old Mother Cemetery.  John died in 1940, and Frankie in 1944.  Nearby are three infant sons, apparently stillborn, with the dates of 1887, 1897, and 1904.  A daughter, Lavada L, who was around ten years old when she died in 1899 is also buried nearby.  There is an Edwards brooks who only lived ten days in 1906 buried close by, but there is no indication if he was their son or not.

There is an amusing story involving “Kate” the mule shown in the photograph accompanying this story told by Gordon Ammons.  Gordon and the mule have something in common.  They were both born in 1906.  Gordon tells that the Reverend George Slaughter asked Kate’s owner John Ammons about borrowing her to ride to church because she was so gentle.  John instructed his son Will Ammons to saddle Kate for the preacher.  Will had made plans to ride Kate to go visit his girlfriend, but saddled the mule as instructed.  But when the preacher got on Kate, Will stuck a cob under her tail and she bucked the preacher off.  At this point, the preacher decided he would seek other transportation and Will got to use Kate to go see his girlfriend as planned.

J.D. Brooks and “Lendy” Ammons contributed information for this story.