Sedgwick County KS Archives Biographies.....Brooks, Charles H. 1859 - 
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/ks/ksfiles.htm
************************************************

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com March 19, 2007, 11:42 am

Author: O. H. Bentley (1910)

   Charles H. Brooks, a member of the legal firm of Houston & Brooks, of
Wichita. The firm to which he belongs is one of the most talented and best known
law firms in Sedgwick county, which includes Wichita. Mr. Brooks is a native of
California, having been born at Auburn, in that state, in November, 1859. He
comes of sturdy New England stock and he can trace his ancestry back to the
Revolutionary War, in which a number of his forebears were participants. His
father was Julius P. Brooks, who was born in Windsor county, Vermont. After his
marriage Julius P. Brooks went to California, which was then in the height of
its gold excitement, and there the elder Brooks followed mining until his death
in 1861. He left a widow and two sons, and the widow immediately returned to her
home in Vermont. It was there that Charles H. Brooks was educated. He attended
Montpelier Seminary, and while yet a young man moved to Marion, Ia., where he
entered upon the study of law with J. C. Davis, and was admitted to the bar in
1883. He then began the practice of law with his preceptor and continued with
the latter until 1886, when he moved to Wichita, Kan., during its early boom
days. He at once formed a partnership with David Smythe, under the firm name of
Smythe & Brooks, which was afterward changed to Smythe, Brooks & Coffin. The
last named, C. P. Coffin, afterwards removed to Indianapolis. Later Mr. Brooks
and Judge T. B. Wall formed the firm of Wall & Brooks, and in 1898 the present
firm of Houston & Brooks was organized; Mr. Brooks' partner being Joseph D.
Houston, which firm still continues and enjoys a leading practice. Corporation
law is Mr. Brooks' specialty, and his firm is now a very important cog in that
vast legal machine, the counsel end of the Santa Fe Railroad. The firm is also
connected in both a business, commercial and legal relation with many other
powerful corporations whose influence ramifies throughout the nation. Mr.
Brooks' executive capacity is well displayed in his responsible position as
president of the Wichita Union Stock Yards Company, where his keen insight into
difficult problems of transportation, freight rates, etc., has been invaluable.
Mr. Brooks has been a director in the Kansas National Bank, is now president of
the newly organized Stock Yards National Bank, and is a director in several
local organizations. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity and a Knight
Templar. He is married, his wife having been Miss Jane Lillie, daughter of W. L.
Lillie, of Marion, Ia. From this union four children have been born: Willard L.,
Helen, Catharine and Josephine.

Additional Comments:
Extracted from 

History of Wichita and Sedgwick County: past and present, including an account
of the cities, towns and villages of the county

Editor in chief: O. H. Bentley
Chicago: C.F. Cooper & Co. (1910)


File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ks/sedgwick/bios/brooks235gbs.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/ksfiles/

File size: 3.4 Kb