Brooke Smith

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Brooke Smith of Brownwood, Texas. Now, every good story has a beginning, and this one starts with a big family. Brooke Smith was born in 1853, one of ten children, to Paulina Thilman Doswell and John Snelson Smith, Jr., over in Hanover County, Virginia.

Ten children. That right there tells you something about the kind of world he came from, a world where you either learned to hustle or got left behind at the supper table. The family moved to Indiana in 1860, and then, ten years later, they pulled up stakes again and headed to Waco, Texas.

Young Brooke found his footing there as a clerk at Lyons, Cohn and Company. He was learnin' the trade, watching how business moved, and somewhere in the middle of all that, he made a decision. He was going to head west and open something of his own.

In 1876, he partnered with Sol Lyons and Otto Steffens and opened a general store right there in Brownwood. And understand what Brownwood was at that moment: a frontier town. No polish, no guarantees, no banks.

That last part mattered more than most people would reckon. Because when there are no banks, somebody still has to hold the money. Smith and Steffens did something practical and quietly bold.

They placed a large safe in their store. Their own funds went in, yes, but so did the financial deposits entrusted to them by the area's ranchers and farmers. Think about what that means.

People were handing over their savings, the money that kept their land and their lives together, to two men and a safe in a general store. That is trust earned, not assumed. That operation eventually became known as Pecan Valley Bank.

But Brooke Smith was not a man who stopped at one thing. He continued in the banking business, and he turned his attention to the town itself. He served as a school trustee.

In 1886, he was elected Mayor of Brownwood. During his time as mayor, the city built its first water system. And then in 1894, Smith solicited a survey for a dam at the very site where Lake Brownwood would eventually be built.

He was seein' something that wasn't there yet, and he was pushin' toward it anyway. He contributed to both Howard Payne and Daniel Baker colleges, and he served as Secretary-Treasurer of Daniel Baker for many years. He helped secure several rail lines into Brownwood, which went a long way toward insuring the town's future growth.

And he served as a director of the Fort Worth and Rio Grande Railroad for forty years. Forty years. That is not a man dipping a toe in.

That is a man committed. In 1880, Brooke wed Juliet Logan Sparks. Together they were charter members at St.

John's Episcopal Church, part of something being built from the ground up, just like everything else they touched. Four children were born to them. Juliet passed in 1938.

Both she and Brooke are buried in Greenleaf Cemetery. And Brownwood remembers. Carnegie Avenue, a major downtown thoroughfare, was designated the Brooke Smith Memorial Boulevard in his honor.

A boy born one of ten in Hanover County, Virginia, who followed his family west and then kept on going, all the way to a frontier town with no banks and nothing but possibility. He didn't just settle in Brownwood. He helped build it.

What the marker says

One of ten children, Brooke Smith was born in 1853 to Paulina Thilman (Doswell) and John Snelson Smith, Jr. In Hanover County, Virginia. The family moved to Indiana in 1860 and then to Waco, Texas ten years later. There, Brooke became a clerk at Lyons, Cohn & Co. And decided to move west and open his own store in 1876. Partnering with Sol Lyons and Otto Steffens, he opened a general store in Brownwood, then a frontier town. With no banks in the town, Smith and Steffens placed a large safe in their store where they kept their own funds, as well as financial deposits entrusted to them by area ranchers and farmers. The operation eventually became known as Pecan Valley Bank. Brooke Smith continued in the banking business, served as a school trustee and was elected Brownwood Mayor in 1886. During his tenure, the city built its first water system and, in 1894, Smith solicited a survey for a dam at the site where Lake Brownwood would eventually be built. He contributed to both Howard Payne and Daniel Baker colleges, serving as Secretary-Treasurer of the latter for many years. He also helped secure several rail lines into the town, thus insuring Brownwood's future growth, and was director of the Fort Worth & Rio Grande Railroad for 40 years. Smith and his wife, Juliet Logan (Sparks) (d. 1938), whom he wed in 1880, were charter members at St. John's Episcopal Church. The two, to whom four children were born, are buried in Greenleaf Cemetery and are remembered for their significant contributions in the development of Brownwood. In his honor, the city designated Carnegie Avenue, a major downtown thoroughfare, as the Brooke Smith Memorial Boulevard. (2004)