The gentleman whose name heads this page was born in Bucks County, Penn., February 29, 1824, and is the son of William and Mary (Worthington) Brooks, both natives of Pennsylvania. The father was born October 3, 1793, and died June 9, 1880. The mother died August 8, 1850, at the age of fifty-two years. They were the parents of fifteen children, all of whom yet survive.
Our subject remained in his native county till 1850, when he removed to Belmont County, Ohio, and the following year to Bureau County, Ill., where he has since resided. His occupation in early life was that of a farmer, and he continued farming near Princeton for two years after coming to Bureau County, but when the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad was completed to Princeton he began dealing in grain. He continued in the grain business at Princeton till 1860, when he came to Wyanet, where for twenty years he continued in the same business; however, in 1880, he sold out and retired from active life.
Politically he is identified with the principles of the Republican party, but not an active politician. Of the Brooks family one other member now resides in Bureau County, Mrs. Susan (Brooks) Trego. In the spring of 1865 she removed to Mercer County, Ill., where her husband, Cyrus Trego, died in December, 1866, and in 1867 Mrs. Trego came to Wyanet, and has since resided in this county. She is the mother of two children, viz.: Edwin A., now of Cass County, Iowa and Ella, wife of William A. Weaver, of Wyanet. The Trego family is one of the oldest families in Pennsylvania, as their ancestor, Peter Trego, came to America with the Penn colony.
Source: History of Bureau County, Illinois, H. C. Bradsby, Editor. World Publishing Company Chicago 1885