California Biographies 

Source:
History of Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Ventura Counties, California
by: C M Gidney - Santa Barbara. Benjamin Brooks - San Luis Obispo. 
Edwin M Sheridan - Ventura
Volumes II - Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago, ILL., 1917

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


BENJAMIN BROOKS, to whom were assigned the duties of historical editor for San Luis Obispo 
County in this publication, is an old-time Californian, and has had unusual opportunities for 
learning and esti- mating the life and history of San Luis Obispo County. For over thirty years he 
has been owner and editor of the Daily Tribune of San Luis Obispo, and for several years was 
president of the Chamber of Commerce of that city.
Mr. Brooks was born in New York City October 13, 1842. He is a lineal descendant of John 
Brooks, one of the founders of Stratford, Connecticut, in 1635. Through his mother Mr. Brooks 
is descended from Governor Jones and several other Colonial governors. His father, Benjamin S. 
Brooks, was born at Bridgeport, Connecticut. Mr. Brooks' mother was the daughter of an 
English sea captain.
The late Benjamin S. Brooks was a man of very superior attainments and for a number of years 
was regarded as one of the most skillful and learned members of the San Francisco bar. He was 
a graduate of Brown University, and practiced law in New York City for a number of years. In 
the spring of 1849 with a party of friends and relatives, he bought a bark, the Balance, and 
sailed around. Cape Horn to San Francisco. He there identified himself with the city not as a 
gold miner but as a lawyer, and practiced until his death in 1885.
Mr. Benjamin Brooks was seven years of age when his father came to California. He was 
educated in private academies at Fairfield, Connecticut, and at San Francisco, and also 
attended the public schools of the latter city. Studying law, he was admitted to practice and 
took up his father's profession, which he followed for a number of years. He also traveled in the 
eastern states, but in 1865 returned to San Francisco and was in the United States customs 
service until 1873. In that year Mr. Brooks went to New Haven, Connecticut, and was a 
manufacturer in that city for a couple of years. Returning to San Francisco in 1875 he entered 
the service of the Southern Pacific Railway Company.
Mr. Brooks bought the San Luis Obispo Tribune in 1886, and ever since has been its editor and 
proprietor. He has been content to do his duty as a newspaper man, and has been averse to any 
notoriety or public position. Politically he is a republican and progressive, and has at different 
times been a member of the state committee and the county central committee. He is past 
worshipful master of his Masonic lodge, past high priest and past eminent commander of the 
Royal Arch Chapter and Knights Templar Commandery, is past exalted ruler of the Elks and has 
membership in several other fraternities. Mr. Brooks is senior warden in the Episcopal Church.
He was married at San Francisco April 30, 1865, to Mary Ella Steele. Mrs. Brooks is descended 
from Governor Bradford of the Mayflower and is a member of the Colonial Dames and other 
patriotic organizations. Her father, Hon. John B. Steele, was a prominent lawyer of Kingston, 
New York. He represented his district in Congress from 186I to 1865.