California Biographies

Source: History of Fresno County, California, with biographical sketches of 
the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with 
its growth and development from the early days to the present (1919)

History By Paul E. Vandor 
Illustrated, Complete In Two Volumes 
Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, California, 1919
 
Notes: Missing+page1185-1186

Transcribed by Peggy Hooper

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives 
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm



F. C. BROOKS. � It is not often, perhaps, that one meets with a musician 
who is also a successful horticulturist, but this is true to a marked degree 
of F. C. Brooks, the well-known clarinet player, who has a finely-improved 
place which he is carefully managing. He was born in Manchester, N. H., on 
May 8, 1863, the son of George Washington Brooks, a native of Hancock, N. 
H., who was a manufacturer. He served as foreman of the Amoskeag Man- 
ufacturing Company for forty years, and died in his native state. He had 
married Moretta Cheney of Londonderry, N. H., and she also died in the 
Granite State. 

F. C. was the only child of this union, and was given every educational 
advantage that the public schools afforded. He early studied music and at- 
tended the New England Conservatory. He made a special study of the 
clarinet, and for awhile was the pupil of Prof. E. Strasser of the Boston Sym- 
phony Orchestra. He then went to Waltham, and while employed by "the 
Waltham Watch Company in their dial department, he played in various 
bands and orchestras. 

At Waltham, on Christmas Day, 1891, Mr. Brooks was married to Miss 
Sarah Adelaide Kirk, a native of Cherryfield, Maine, and the daughter of 
Henry and Adelia (Quigley) Kirk, also a Cherryfielder and a native of Bear 
River. N. S., respectively. Mr. Kirk, who was a farmer, died when his 
daughter, the younger of two children, was a babe; her mother, who is now 

Mrs. Alfred Sherman, resides at Boothbay, Maine. Mrs. Brooks was educated 
in that state and when twenty removed to Waltham, Mass. 

In 1910 Mr. and Mrs. Brooks came West with their family to Fresno and 
bought their present very desirable place of twenty acres on Chittenden Ave- 
nue. They built a residence and made many improvements. They also set 
out a fine orchard of peaches and apricots. Six children have been born to 
Mr. and Mrs. Brooks. Hazel Adelia and Florence Adelaide are graduates of 
Heald's Business College; and Thelma Blanche attends the Fresno High 
School. There are also Carl Frederick, Eleanor Dorothy and Vera Evangeline. 

In his spare hours Mr. Brooks still follows the attractions of music. He 
plays the clarinet in the Park Band and in the orchestra of the White Theater. 
He belongs to the Red Men, and is a Republican in national politics.