By
Farris Wade Womack
June 2001

Alabama Born

Alabama Bred

            Mary Darcus (Dorcus) Womack, the sixth child of Joel W. and Sarah Womack, was born September 4, 1846 near New Site in Tallapoosa County, Alabama.  Joel and his family had been living in Alabama four or five  years when Darcus was born and she was likely the third child to be born in Alabama.  Her father and mother were about 36 and 26 years of age, respectively, and the oldest child, Martha, was only seven.   Accordingly, the family she joined was a relatively young one and none of her siblings would have been of an age to have been much help on a farm.

            Darcus grew up in an area only recently opened to settlement.  Most of the families had come to that part of Alabama from Georgia and a few from Tennessee and North Carolina.  They were frontiersmen  and rugged individualists in the strictest sense of that term.  Most came for the opportunity to acquire land of their own, many were first time land owners,  a few came to improve on the fertility of the land they had owned elsewhere.  A few came to prospect for the limited amount of gold that was available although, at one time, there were several gold mining operations in the area.  When she was born, the few gold mines around New Site and Goldville were fading fast and by the time she was three, the real prospectors had departed for the promise of better prospecting in California.

            Like her brothers and sisters, she would have attended what little schooling there might have been available and when she was old enough she would have worked on the farm.  But her adolescence was not typical for it came during the time that tensions between the South and the North were becoming more sharply drawn.  Although most of the small time dirt farmers had no slaves, passions and emotions ran high along the Alabama frontier.  But those were the concerns of adults and more than likely she was little interested in the concerns that seized the adults.  Nevertheless, she must have listened to the strident conversations and wondered what life would be like in a war zone.  Children are often the first to sense the terror that war brings and they are seem to know that such conflicts never result in better conditions.

            When the conflict actually began, Tallapoosa County raised more than 2800 recruits and Darcus had at least one brother to go and perhaps a second one as well.  Her oldest brother, William Harrison Womack, joined the 3rd Georgia Cavalry and fought with that unit throughout the War.  Her brother, John, probably served as well and, indeed, may have lost his life in the struggle because, at this date, no record of him has been found after the conclusion of hostilities in 1865.  Speculations about living conditions for the women and children of the South appear on other pages in this series but it is safe to assume that Darcus spent her later teenage years in ways that no subsequent generation has.  

            But the ordeal finally came to a close and the warriors came home albeit there were many fewer than the number who had gone.  More than 25 percent of the men and boys from Tallapoosa County lost their lives.  And there were many young widows as a result.  Although the competition to find a husband was probably fierce, for Mary Darcus Womack, it was not in vain.

            On March 3, 1868, Mary Darcus Womack married Dewry Morgan Eathan Brewer, son of Drewry and Ann R. Bellah Vincent Brewer.  The Brewers had come to Tallapoosa County from Georgia, perhaps Morgan County.  The interested reader may find more about the Brewer family at www.familysearch.com, a website developed by the LDS Church.

            Although a careful search has failed to find Darcus and Drewry on the 1870 Census, it seems likely that they began their life together in Tallapoosa probably not far from the place where she had been born and reared.  They were listed on the 1880 Census for Tallapoosa County in the Camp Hill area.  Camp Hill lies a few miles south and east of New Site.

• The Census enumerators were often careless and this one was no exception.  Did Darcus not know that her parents had been born in Georgia or did the enumerator merely fail to enter that?  What caused this enumerator to list only an initial rather than the full given name?  He wrote "keeping" for her occupation but obviously meant "Keeping house".

            Darcus and Drewry Brewer reared a family of nine children and many of them became lifelong residents of Tallapoosa County.  Darcus died at the age of 67 and Drewry died seven years later at the age of 74. 

1 Mary Darcus(Dorcus) Womack b: September 4, 1846 in Tallapoosa Co.,AL-Dadeville d: June 26, 1913 in Tallapoosa Co.,AL Burial: Old Concord Cem.
.. +Drewry Morgan Eathan Brewer b: December 3, 1846 in Tallapoosa Co.,AL-Dadeville m: March 3, 1868 in Tallapoosa Co.,AL-one record shows 2-26-1868 d: October 10, 1920 in Tallapoosa Co.,AL Burial: Old Concord, Cem.
. 2 Susan Elizabeth Brewer b: June 16, 1870 in Tallapoosa Co.,AL d: September 23, 1937 in Tallapoosa Co.,AL Burial: Gardner Cemetery
..... +William Lumpkin Gardner b: November 22, 1867 in Dadeville, Alabama m: July 18, 1891 in Dadeville, Alabama d: January 12, 1955 in Dadeville, Alabama
. 2 [1] John Morgan Brewer b: March 30, 1872 in Tallapoosa Co.,AL d: November 12, 1934 in Tallapoosa Co.,AL Burial: Old Concord Cem.
..... +Susie Bryant b: October 19, 1869 in Dadeville, Alabama m: December 6, 1894 d: November 14, 1906 in Dadeville, Alabama Burial: Old Concord Cemetery
. *2nd Wife of [1] John Morgan Brewer:
..... +Mary Melcisa McGUIRE b: April 27, 1879 in Dadeville, Alabama m: October 2, 1907 in Dadeville, Alabama d: February 22, 1974 in Dadeville, Alabama Burial: Old Concord Cem.
. 2 Sarah Emma Brewer b: September 11, 1873 in Tallapoosa Co.,AL d: October 7, 1941 in Tallassee, AL Burial: Good Hope Cemetery
..... +William Joel Murphy b: April 29, 1872 in Dadeville, Alabama m: October 12, 1895 d: May 17, 1945 in Tallassee, Alabama, Buried Good Hope Cem.
. 2 Alice Lavada Brewer b: September 13, 1877 in Tallapoosa Co.,AL d: October 6, 1950 in Lee Co., Alabama, Buried Watoola Cem., Marvyn, Ala. Burial: Watoola Cemetery, Marvyn, Alabama
..... +John Allen Lockett b: October 17, 1868 in Dadeville, Alabama m: December 24, 1898 d: August 11, 1941 in Lee County, Alabama Burial: Watoola Cemetery, Marvyn, Alabama
. 2 Willis Albert Brewer b: February 19, 1879 in Tallapoosa Co.,AL d: May 12, 1939 in Tallapoosa, Al- Buried Old Concord Cem. Burial: Old Concord Cemetery
. 2 Jesse Norman Brewer b: May 20, 1881 in Tallapoosa Co.,AL d: January 29, 1956 in Alexander City, Alabama, Buried Hillview Cem. Burial: Hillview Cemetery
..... +Mary Emma Scroggins b: August 21, 1882 in Dadeville, Alabama m: December 29, 1903 d: March 8, 1964 in Alexander City, Alabama Burial: Hillview Cemetery
. 2 [2] George Eathen Brewer b: November 28, 1883 in Tallapoosa Co.,AL d: August 14, 1950 in Tallapoosa Co.,AL Burial: Old Concord Cemetery..... +Alma Duck m: January 14, 1906 in Dadeville, Alabama
. *2nd Wife of [2] George Eathen Brewer:
..... +Jimmie Prather b: December 15, 1892 in Dadeville, Alabama m: August 24, 1911 in Dadeville, Alabama d: January 14, 1983 in Dadeville, Alabama Burial: Old Concord Cemetery
. 2 J. Dee Brewer b: August 30, 1886 in Tallapoosa Co.,AL d: November 2, 1936 in Tallapoosa Co.,AL Burial: Old Concord Cemetery
..... +Vivian Railey b: August 11, 1892 in Dadeville, Alabama m: December 25, 1913 in Dadeville, Alabama d: February 5, 1973 in Dadeville, Alabama Burial: Old Concord Cemetery
. 2 Allen Leman Brewer b: March 1, 1889 in Tallapoosa Co.,AL d: November 2, 1949 in Tallapoosa Co.,AL Burial: City Cemetery
..... +Agatha Irene Willis b: December 26, 1890 in Dadeville, Alabama m: December 25, 1911 in Dadeville, Alabama d: February 24, 1974 in Dadeville, Alabama Burial: City Cemetery

(Data obtained from the LDS Church and from Carl Brewer, a descendant who graciously provided much of the information about this family.)

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            Mary Darcus Womack Brewer was buried in the Old Concord Cemetery located in Township 22N, Range 23E, Section 16, NW Quarter.  Her given name in the Cemetery records was spelled "Darkus", the more likely correct spelling was Darcus.  Drewry Morgan Eathen Brewer was buried beside her and the service grave marker reads: Drew M. E. Brewer Co. A. 63rd Ala. Inf. CSA  The Cemetery in which Mary Darcus Womack was laid to rest is located no more than 10 miles from her birth place and within a short distance of the places where she lived her entire life. 

            Mary Darcus Womack, like so many other Southern women, did not allow the hardships of her life to thwart her in the pursuit of her goals.  She did the best she could with what she had.  Like her sister, Amanda Evaline, she chose to remain in Alabama while her sisters, Georgeanna and Susan,  left the County for better opportunities in Arkansas.  We can only guess at the day to day life she lived.  It would have been a very real joy to have a thoughtful  biography with many contemporaneous notes but that is not available.  And so we are left to imagine the joys and disappointments that this lady faced.  Surely there were more of the former!