He showed me the original log joists in his house. It was originally a log cabin and they left the floor joists when they built a large house around it. He taught me the history of my family through his stories. In many ways he was my grandfather, since my real grandfather had been silenced by a stroke. I have a copy of the History of the Rea Family that he wrote in longhand. The amazing thing was that he wrote in exactly the same style that he spoke. The written stories matched exactly the stories that I heard over and over again.

There were wolves in Madison County when my ancestors settled here. Uncle Brooks said you could hear them howling on Deer Creek from his house, which is about a third of a mile away. But they were all killed or driven west. The major activity here was growing livestock and there was no thought of coexistence. In fact all wild animals larger then a rabbit were eliminated from the ecosystem here. Deer loved the mosses that grew in Deer Creek... hence its name. There were wolves, black bear, wild turkeys, and rattlesnakes. The last known rattlesnake in Oak Run Township was killed on our farm near Mart's old place. There were no deer when I was growing up on the farm. There was one person who saw a buck in 1960 at the gravel pit on Oak Run. Now we are overrun with deer, but there are no effective predators. There are coyotes now, but they are too small to effectively kill deer. The hunting season takes a few, but the large human population requires the use of abort range weapons, which are not effective. Ohio's corn fed bucks are some of the largest in the country, but the hunting rules mean that very few are killed by hunters. Cars are the most effective killer. But the 300 pound bucks make a real mess of the car. Another failure of humans to effectively regulate an ecosystem.

Brooks was a premature baby weighing only 3 pounds at birth in 1890. He was so tiny that they first kept him in a shoebox. But he grew to be quite large, over 6 feet tall. He was the captain of the undefeated 1908 London High School football team and he even played some freshman football at Ohio State University. When I knew him he had stopped working on the farm, but kept his old eating habits with predictable results. My cousin's wife is a nurse and she attended Brooks during his final hospital stay. He reminded her as a beached whale, he was that heavy.

He was a larger than life character. My father told me that if you offered him a beer when he stopped in for a visit, he would not accept unless you had at least a six-pack. It was not worth starting if there was less then that! His most outlandish action came after an afternoon and evening of drinking in town with a dentist friend of his. Somewhere during that session, Brooks decided that it would be a great idea to have all his teeth pulled. That way he would not have to worry about a toothache ever again. It also seemed like a good idea to the dentist because that is exactly what they did! Sometime around midnight Brooks arrived home, feeling no pain, blood from head to toe and not a tooth left in his head! While it is true that he never had another toothache, he had to wear false teeth the rest of his life.

The greatest adventure of his life was the two year trip west with my grandfather and great uncle. They were gone for two years as they roamed the still wild west. However when he came home, he stayed home for the rest of his life. By the time I knew him, his traveling days were over. His wife won a trip for two to New York City from a radio station. She had to take a friend, as Uncle Brooks would not go. My cousin Nancy Slagle was married in Delaware, Ohio in 1962 and invited Uncle Brooks to the wedding. Delaware is perhaps 45 miles from the Beery farm. He sent a very nice note wishing my cousin well with her marriage and explaining that he could not attend because Delaware was 'too far from home'.