In a field at East Woolwich, Maine, so neglected that it scarcely is noticeable, is a little private burial ground which was once enclosed by a neat stone wall. The rocks are still there, but the wall has long since lost its shape. Here a few slate stones trying to stay erect still tell the world their meager story.
Thw name carved on these stones is "Brookings" - the name of one of the first families to make a home on that section after the Indian wars.
Henry Brookings had a good reason for wishing to locate in the Plantaton of Nequasset. Two generations before, his grandfather Wadley (Wadleigh) had taken up land for some years, had made his home on the shore of Wadley (Brookings) Bay not far from the James Phips farm.
Indian uprisings occurred and the lives and homes were no longer safe. Tradition is that the Wadley home was burned. What became of the father and mother is not known, but little Sarah was found wandering about the fields, and carried to relatives who lived further west.
When she was a young woman she married Henry Brookings of Isle of Shoals. Their son Henry, born in 1689, married Sarah Young, daughter of Deacon Rowland Young and his wife Susanne (Matthews) and for some time lived in York, where five children were born. But Henry, influenced by his mother's stories of her childhood home, determined, as soon as the Indians were no longer on the warpath, to seek possession of his grandfather Wadley's property which had remained desolate for sixty years.
So in the year 1738 Henry Brookings with his family landed in Wadley's Cove. Tradition is that his mother came with them and piloted the boat. A humble home was built, the land once more cleared, and the Brookings family took root. Cattle and other farm animals were acquired and apparently the family was content for they moved no more. Henry and his family lived on his farm by Brookings Bay for ten years, but marauding Indian bands were still to be reckoned with. One June morning in the year 1748 Henry Brookings took his family to the Greenleaf garrison house, and with two companions, went out looking for stray cows. A small party of Indians attacked and killed the three men. This was a tragedy for the family, but pioneer women were courageous and Sarah Brookings bravely carried on, outliving Henry by twenty years. Sons Ebenezar, nearly a man grown, and Josiah age nine at the time of their father's death, passed their lives in Woolwich, and familes bearing the name of Brookings traced their ancestry to them. Records are silent as to the fate of Samuel and his sister Sarah . The other son, Daniel, lived in a hut by the shore. Grandmother Sarah, lived to be 102 years of age.
History of Woolwich, Maine pg 21-22
quoted from A Pioneer Family of Maine, anon, Woolwich Times.
