James Oden Brooks was a saltmaker at Neches Saline, one of the Texas Salt Works. It later became known as Brooks Saline. See gilbert1972 and HOTX entry on Neches Saline for more details.

According to gilbert1972, Brooks eventually leased the saline to his son, William Bradford Brooks (W. B. Brooks). The Van Zandt County tax rolls for 1864 lists a W. W. Brooks with 60 slaves and no real estate, making me wonder if this was an error on the part of the assessor.

During the war, Brooks sold salt (as well as other goods like osnaburgs) to the Confederate military, selling 4,000 pounds to the army in August 1862, 13 sacks at $8 per in March 1862, and 400 pounds at 5 cents per pound in July 1862. In December 1864, he exchanged over $18,000 of “old issue” money at the Confederate Depository in Tyler in exchange for less valuable new issue currency, suggesting that his operations had become much more productive in 1863 and 1864.¹

Mentions

• He is identified in the Tyler Reporter as a saltmaker at Neeches Saline (Smith County) who was exempted from conscription.
• Neeches Saline is also mentioned in the Shreveport press for 1865, indicating Brooks may have been selling lime as far away as Louisiana.
• In an advertisement that appeared in the Marshall Texas Republican for December 2, 1864, Brooks solicited the hire of “100 Negroes” for the next year “or during the war.” As his references he cites Capt. J. Caldwell, Shreveport, LA.
• Another article in the Tyler Reporter reports a runaway slave owned by a Louisiana officer.

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