Mary Pauline Brooks

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Miss Mary Pauline Brooks (1869-1975)

Known as "Aunt Pauline", "Miss Pauline" and "Mrs. Brooks", Mary Pauline Brooks lived to be 106 years old, the eldest citizen in Frederick County at the time of her death. Until nearly the very last months of her life her memory was excellent and attended church regularly. She kept house for herself and her son, scrubbing floors and laundering clothes on a washboard.

Born in 1869 at Jefferson on what is now the Charles Smith Farm, then owned by Col. Thomas Johnson, she was the daughter of a former slave. She was named twice: Mary by her mother and Pauline by the Johnson family. When Mary was 10 years old her mother left the farm and and left her care with the Johnson family. She never saw her mother again. Married two times, Mary sewed by hand all the clothing for her family of 12 children. Mary left the farm at age 16 and performed domestic household work for families in New Market, Frederick and Berlin (later Brunswick). Many of today's older citizens remember "Miss Mary" working for the Horine family at the Horine Building in downtown Brunswick.

In 1967, Mrs. Brooks joined the new Brunswick Senior Citizen's club. She was 98 at the time. Her 102nd birthday was a major celebration, returning to the farmhouse in Jefferson with many, many, well wishers including U.S. Senator Mathias and a signed greeting from the President of the United States. Mary Pauline Brooks died on Sunday, April 6,1975 as named a distinguished citizen of the Town of Brunswick in 1984.