Children of Thomas William Brent & Merced Gonzalez
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Daniel Gonzalez Brent, 1842-1918, the oldest child, was born in Washington DC on 17 April 1842. Uncle Danny, as he was known to the family, was given his mother's maiden name, Gonzalez, and may have been named Daniel after an uncle who died a few years before he was born or after Daniel Carroll Brent, a U.S. Consul to Paris and the Chief Clerk in the Department of State. This Daniel, who died the year before Daniel Gonzalez Brent was born, was his grandfather's brother. The family soon moved to Florida where the rest of the children were born. During the Civil War, Daniel served first as a member of the Rifle Rangers under E.A. Perry, then Company K in the 1st Florida Regiment, and finally in the Marine Corps. After the War, he served on the editorial staff of the Mobile Register, Mobile, Alabama, later returning to Pensacola where he worked in the mercantile and lumber businesses. He never married. He died on 28 November 1918 at the family home on West Jackson Street and is buried in St. Michael's Cemetery in Pensacola in the Brent plot.
Gravestone of Daniel Gonzalez Brent Obituary of Daniel Gonzalez Brent |
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Anna Pauline Brent, 1844-1922, the oldest daughter of Capt. Thomas W. Brent and Mercedes Gonzalez, was born in Pensacola on 29 April 1844. Like most of her siblings, she never married. She lived with her mother and other brothers and sisters at the family home, first on East Romana Street, then on West Jackson Street. She died at the family home of her brother, F.C. Brent, on West LaRua Street and was buried in the Brent family plot in St. Michael's Cemetery.
Gravestone of Anna Pauline Brent Obituary of Anna Pauline Brent |
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William Thomas Brent, 1846-1899, the third child, was born 23 February in Pensacola, and named after his father and grandfather. In the 1870 census he was listed as a clerk in an insurance office. According to another source, he had experience as an accountant and in the wholesale grocery business. In 1883 he entered the Redemptorist order as a postulant in New Orleans. He chose to become a brother in the order and became Brother Robert in Detroit on 26 August 1889. He spent most of his time in Detroit and New Orleans, but the last 18 months of his life was spent in the Redemptorist Community in Kirkwood, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis. He suffered from heart disease in his last few years, dying on 15 October 1899 in Kirkwood, St. Louis County. He was 53 years old. He was buried at the Redemptorist Cemetery in Kirkwood, Missouri, and later reburied, along with others in the cemetery, in the Redemptorist Cemetery in Liguori, Jefferson County, Missouri, not far from Kirkwood.
Obituary of William Thomas Brent Prayer card of William Thomas Brent Gravestone of William Thomas Brent |
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Francis Celestino Brent, 1848-1914, was born in Pensacola on 12 May 1848. He was given the middle name of Celestino after his grandfather, Celestino Gonzalez. F.C. went into banking and the lumber business after serving in the Confederate Army. He married Mary Ella Shuttleworth and the couple had thirteen children. He died on 13 April 1914 in Pensacola and is buried next to his wife in St. Michael's Cemetery.
Photos and biographical sketch of Francis Celestino Brent |
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Catherine Irene Brent, 1850-1912, was born in Pensacola 27 March 1850. She was named after her grandmother, Catherine Walker Johnson, and her grandfather's sister, Irene Gonzalez Bonifay. She never married. She lived in the family homes on Romana Street and West Jackson Street until her death just before Christmas on 14 December 1912. She is buried in the Brent plot in St. Michael's Cemetery.
Gravestone of Catherine Irene Brent |
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Mary Ella Brent, 1852-1918, was born in Pensacola 14 March 1852. She never married. She lived with her mother and unmarried brothers and sisters in the family homes on Romana Street and then West Jackson Street. She died of bronco-pneumonia and heart problems on 3 November 1918, about three weeks before her older brother Danny Gonzalez Brent's death. She is buried in the Brent family plot in St. Michael's Cemetery.
Gravestone of Mary Ella Brent Obituary of Mary Ella Brent |
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George Douglas Brent, 1853-1853, was born on 14 June 1853 in Pensacola and died just four months later. There is no gravestone marker for him in the Brent family plot in St. Michael's Cemetery and it is not known where he was buried.
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Mary Bertha Brent, 1854-1903, was born 23 October 1854 in Pensacola, the eighth child in the family. Like her other unmarried siblings, she lived in the family home on Romana St. until her death on 16 April 1903. She is buried in the Brent family plot in St. Michael's Cemetery.
Gravestone of Mary Bertha Brent Obituary of Mary Bertha Brent Prayer card of Mary Bertha Brent |
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Robert Johnson Brent, 1856-1922, was born 22 July 1856 in Pensacola, the ninth child in the family. He was named for his great grandfather, Robert Brent, and his grandmother Catherine Walker Johnson. Robert Johnson, like his brothers, Danny G. Brent and F.C. Brent, was involved in the lumber business. In 1903 he was the Superintendant of the Brent Lumber Company. Robert lived at the family home with his mother and unmarried brothers and sisters. He died from heart disease 17 February 1922 and is buried in the Brent family plot in St. Michael's Cemetery. When he died in 1922, there were only two surviving members of his family: Anna Pauline Brent and Margaret Eveline Brent Saltmarsh. Anna Pauline died several months later but Margaret Eveline lived until 1950.
Gravestone of Robert Johnson Brent Obituary of Robert Johnson Brent |
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Margaret Eveline Brent, 1858-1950, was born 3 August 1858 in Pensacola. She may have been named after her Aunt Margaret Gonzalez or after her great grandmother Marguerite Jardelat. She was one of only two children in the family to marry. She married Ernest Olmstead Saltmarsh 4 July 1887 in Pensacola.
Ernest was an official in the railroad business. They had two children, both born in Pensacola. Margaret died in Washington DC on 23 November 1950, seventeen years after her husband. She was 92. Both are buried in St. Michael's Cemetery.
Gravestone of Margaret Eveline Brent Saltmarsh |
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Emily Brent, 1862-1867, was born 17 July 1862, the last child in the family. She was probably named for her father's sister, Emily Catherine Brent. She was only four and a half years old when she died on 3 January 1867. It is not known where she was buried.
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Photograph of Daniel Gonzalez Brent, cropped to just show his face), was provided by Mollie Thomas Brent, granddaughter of Francis Celestino Brent. Photograph of William Thomas Brent was provided by the Archives of the Redemptorist Congregation, Denver, Colorado, Province, via email. Photograph of Francis Celestino Brent is from the collection of Brent family photographs belonging to Jean Healy Fick, granddaughter of Francis Celestino. |
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