Here's another...Nathan Brooks was the son of Lieut. Zachariah Brooks & Susannah Watts. BOSTON DAILY GLOBE, Jan. 17, 1889, Pg 4 "HANNAH BINDING SHOES." One of Woburn's Old People is 93 Today - Mrs. Maria Brooks. Whose Life is a Record of Industry. WOBURN, Jan. 16. - Maria Smith Brooks will reach her ninety-third birthday tomorrow. She lives on Main street, opposite Union, and has for many years. Mrs. Brooks is a sister of the late and well-known "Si" Smith, who so many years played the ??e with old Dan Sampson?. In appearance Mrs. Brooks resembles her famous brother, of whom she speaks with affectionate remembrances. Save a trouble with her head Mrs. Brooks is a bright and her mind as clear as many much younger. She remembers vividly the scenes of her childhood days in Lexington, where she was born, and the men who survived the revolution, and recalls the companions of her father, and their talks of the memorable April day when the British marched to Lexington and Concord. Mrs. Brooks had one sister and three brothers, and "Si," if living, would be 99 years old. The family were all musicians, and the Smith homestead was a resort for people far and wide, who came to hear them or join in their vocal or instrumental music. At an early age Maria sang in the choir of the village Congregational Church, and so sweet was her voice that she was in demand for all occasions. She occasionally came to Woburn to sing, and it is said of her that she "made the church ring." Beside her musical attainments Maria was well up in affairs domestic, particularly those pertaining to the farm. She had to milk and cha?n drive the cows to pasture, rake behind the hay wagon, cook, and mend the farmer's clothes, all no doubt, considered drudgery by her, but all of which brought health, a ruddy, blooming complexion and strong arms. It was some time before she was 17 when she met her future husband, Nathan Brooks. He was a young man, and like most of the people hereabouts in those day, was a shoemaker. He was a Woburn boy, had seen Maria on her visits to Woburn and heard her sing, and they were soon engaged. Maria and Nathan were united in 1813, she was 17 and he slightly older. Mr Brooks settled down at his trade, and, like most of the shoemakers of his day, had a little shop near his home. After a few years of prosperity Mr. Brooks bought the estate on Montvale avenue, known now as the George Reed place, and later he purchased what is now the Eaton farm, at Central square. At each of these places there was considerable land which Mr. Brooks worked when his trade was dull. To assist, Mrs. Brooks bound shoes, an occupation she had learned at her Lexington home, and when her husband died, in 1840, being thrown upon her own resources, on account of the loss of property, was obliged to take up the work at binding shoes for a living. For 70 years, and until 1886, Mrs. Brooks performed her daily stint of work at shoes, and her toil became a second nature. She has worked for all the well-known shoe manufacturers here in her day, and has been an ideal "Hannah at the window binding shoes." Mrs. Brooks had one child, a daughter, who died many years ago, leaving a daughter, who became the grandmother's charge, and by whom she was reared and educated. And now, when past the allotted scriptural age, the grandmother is tenderly cared for by the one who owes her a debt of gratitude.