Forwarding this courtesy of Pam Venn: ============================================ Stuart Banyar Blakely, "A History of Otego." Originally printed in 1907, the book was reproduced during the bicentennial to benefit the Otego Harris Memorial library relocation. Mill Creek, p. 77: North of the old turnpike and a little east of Charles Bowen's once stood the peculiar house of Barney Brooks. It was about forty feet long and sixteen feet wide. On this farm about 1834 a man named Burroughs claimed to have found a silver mine, having melted up his wife's spoons to "salt it down." Several caught the fever, and the farm was bought at a fabulous price. A shop was erected, a forge built and drilling and blasting continued for a year or more. Burroughs did not succeed in keeping his secret, and the bubble burst. The great silver mine of Arabia was abandoned. A large pile of almost worthless ore, containing a very small amount of lead and antimony, was left a monument to the god of greed that can still be seen. The Otsdawa, p. 89: Jair Cook, born probably near Preston, Ct., came before 1800 to the place now owned and occupied by B.A. Cook, his grandson. It has been said that Jair Cook first bought two-thirds of an acre from Cornelius Brooks; if this be true, he lived first near Otsdawa. ============================================ These are brothers Barnabas (b. 1749) and Cornelius (b. 1747), sons of Capt. Benjamin/3 Brooks and Thankful Hickox. Both brothers were born at Farmington, CT, were at Claremont, NH with their father and brother Benjamin Jr. in 1776, and after 1790 removed to New York state. The family was Loyalist, as father and two of the three sons at Claremont all refused to sign New Hampshire's Association Test (a loyalty oath to the Revolutionary government) in May 1776. Cornelius "made no association." This is the Cheshire/Wallingford line of Connecticut. Chris