Local figure
Joe Bethel Brooks
Joe Bethel Brooks, an African American farmer whose family lived in the Cedar Grove area, organized Jones Grove Missionary Baptist Church with John William Jones on March 11, 1926. A trustee when the church received its lot in 1927, he presided at the dedication of its first sanctuary in 1928 and was its pastor until his death on January 6, 1954.
Orange County Indexed has not yet linked an indexed work directly to Joe Bethel Brooks. The biography and the dated events on this page provide sources about Joe Bethel Brooks’ life and work. If you know a useful source, tell us.
Life and Orange County connections
Dated events connected with this person, earliest first. See these 6 dated events in the chronology →
- Black farmers Joe B. Brooks and John W. Jones organize Jones Grove Missionary Baptist Church African American farmers Joe Bethel Brooks and John William Jones founded the Jones Grove congregation north of Hillsboro. Its members were close to Lea's (now Lee's) Chapel Baptist Church at Cedar Grove, where the Brooks family lived. People: Joe Bethel BrooksSearch the index · NC State Historic Preservation Office: Ridge Road School, National Register nomination (OR1104), p. 22
- Joseph H. Jones deeds a quarter acre of his farm to the Jones Grove church trustees John Jones's father, Joseph H. Jones, gave a quarter-acre of his farm to the trustees of the new Jones Grove congregation: his son John, Joe Brooks and Joe's brother William Brooks. The deed also marks the line of the Ridge Road School lot to the south. People: Joe Bethel BrooksSearch the index · NC State Historic Preservation Office: Ridge Road School, National Register nomination (OR1104), p. 22
- Jones Grove Missionary Baptist Church dedicates its first sanctuary Members and neighbors built a front-gable weatherboarded church, finished early in 1928, with Buck Jacobs giving a large cash gift, William Brooks the sand and Aldolphus Hester the logs; John Jones hauled lumber in a white neighbor's truck. Rev. Joe B. Brooks led the dedication. People: Joe Bethel BrooksSearch the index · NC State Historic Preservation Office: Ridge Road School, National Register nomination (OR1104), p. 22
- Rev. Joe Brooks is a Ridge Road leader in the Black farm families' wartime food drive Black neighborhood, 4-H and home demonstration club leaders across Orange County pooled efforts to produce and conserve more food for their families and the war effort in 1944. Rev. Joe Brooks was one of the leaders named for the Ridge Road neighborhood.Search the index · DigitalNC: The News of Orange County, March 23, 1944, p. 4
- Black rural school districts more than double their Red Cross gifts A Red Cross drive among the county's rural Black residents, run through the rural schools by A. L. Stanback and county agent M. C. Burt, closed with $472.55 from 428 people, against $224 the year before. Ridge Road district, with Mrs. A. A. Burt as principal, gave $36.32. People: A. L. Stanback, Joe Bethel BrooksSearch the index · DigitalNC: The News of Orange County, March 29, 1945, p. 6
- Rev. Joe B. Brooks, founding pastor of Jones Grove, dies Joe Bethel Brooks, a farmer who helped found Jones Grove Missionary Baptist Church in 1926, led it as pastor until his death. People: Joe Bethel BrooksSearch the index · NC State Historic Preservation Office: Ridge Road School, National Register nomination (OR1104), p. 22
Places in this person’s story
Buildings, schools, churches and other sites named in the dated events on this page, the most often named first. The map shows the 1 with a known location.
Map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors. Site locations from the N.C. State Historic Preservation Office survey, Open Orange and OpenStreetMap; town and community pins mark the middle of their mapped buildings.
- Jones Grove Missionary Baptist Church Churches and lodges · Hillsborough · 4 events here
- Home demonstration clubs Community centers and organizations · Hillsborough · 1 event here
Named with them in the chronology
People named in the same dated entries as Joe Bethel Brooks, those sharing the most entries first. Each line links one of the shared entries in the chronology, where its source is cited. A shared entry shows these people in the same event, not how well they knew each other.
- A. L. Stanback 1 entry: Black rural school districts more than double their Red Cross gifts (March 1945)
- Alethea Anne Arrington Burt 1 entry: Black rural school districts more than double their Red Cross gifts (March 1945)
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Books about Joe Bethel Brooks
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- Chapel Hill Public Library (opens in a new tab) Public library in Chapel Hill
- Durham County Library (opens in a new tab) Public library next door in Durham
- UNC Libraries (opens in a new tab) University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- Duke Libraries (opens in a new tab) Duke University, Durham
- NC Cardinal (opens in a new tab) The State Library of North Carolina and public libraries across the state
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- Search beyond the index: NC LIVE: prepared search for Joe Bethel Brooks NC LIVE An advanced search of the state’s shared databases already scoped to Orange County’s places and this subject; edit it freely, and sign in through your North Carolina library to read
- Ask locally: Rebecca B. Wall Local History Collection, Orange County Public Library Rebecca B. Wall Local History Collection (OCPL) The county library’s local-history room at the Main Library in Hillsborough: books, journals, maps, and microfilm of county records from 1752
- Ask locally: Local History Help Hours and request form OCPL Local History Liaison The library’s Local History Liaison helps in person most Mondays, 12 to 3, at the Main Library, or by the online request form
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