Georgia natives Henry L. and William Rubin Brook, brothers who married sisters Mary Jane and Caroline E. Henry, respectively, migrated from Alabama to Shelby County by 1850. Henry Brook settled 320 acres through an 1845 Republic of Texas Act granting land on unassigned public domain. He later defended his homestead and property boundaries in district court, in a case later affirmed by the Texas Supreme Court, resulting in an 1859 letter patent from Governor H. R. Runnels. A merchant and farmer, Henry Brook became part of the settlement around which the Brookland Community developed, centered on the homes of Brook and Henry family members who settled here. When Henry died in October 1871, his burial became the first recorded in Brookland Cemetery. After his death, Mary Jane continued to farm with the help of her sons, operated the Brookland-Logansport ferry, and donated land and lumber to build the Brookland Methodist Church, the forerunner of the First Methodist Church in Joaquin, located in the northeast corner of the cemetery. Beginning as a family graveyard, Brookland Cemetery grew into a community burial ground serving Shelby County and adjoining DeSoto Parish, Louisiana, with pioneer settlers, their descendants, and military veterans from conflicts dating to the Civil War buried here. Its notable features include concrete and brick curbing, fraternal tombstones including Woodmen of the World, Masons, and Order of the Eastern Star, and grave markers of granite, limestone, and marble. Organized in 1912, the Brookland Cemetery Association still maintains the cemetery and holds an annual work day in May, and the cemetery continues to serve the area as a chronicle of local history.