Brooks County Wills, Annual Returns, Bills of Sale, Confederate Pensions

Brooks County was created in December of 1858 from Lowndes and Thomas Counties. The first court session was held in the home of Thomas Folsom in Quitman. Later in 1859, work began on a courthouse; however, was not finished until 1864. One of the earliest settlers was John Groover, a descendant of Peter Gruber, Salzburger to Georgia with Oglethorpe, who settled in Ebenezer, Georgia (Effingham County) and whose descendants went to Bulloch and Brooks Counties. Other early settlers were: Levin Arrington, Benjamin Bentley, William Colter, William Dinson, John Edmonson, William G. Hunter, Robert Peacock, Daniel McRae, and Leary Stanley.Fall and Winter Discover Old Graves and HomesitesWills and Estates available to Members of Georgia Pioneers
Images of Last Wills and Testaments 1860 to 1871

Indexes to Probate Records

Marriage Records

Military

Grooverville was settled by the descendants of Peter Gruber who came to Ebenezer, Georgia along with a group of Saltzburgers who were given two weeks to leave Austria by the Catholic archbishop. The name got anglicized to Groover as family members moved to Statesville.