GEORGE L. BROOKS.—During a number of years past George L.
Brooks has’ been identified with the business interests of Clay county.
He began learning horseshoeing and carriage making and repairing when
but a lad of fifteen years, immediately after leaving school, and worked in
Terre Haute until he had reached the age of twenty-four. Coming thence
to Clay county, Indiana, in 1900, he began horseshoeing, blacksmithing
and general wagon repairing in Center Point, and from January of 1903
until September of 1907 he was in business with a partner, but at the latter
date bought his partner’s interest, and is now the proprietor of the only
establishment of its kind in Center Point.
    Mr. Brooks is a descendant of the mother country of England, his
paternal great-grandparents having founded the family in the United
States and located in New York. His son, James Brooks, located in an
early day in Oakland, Coles county, Illinois, He was born in New York,
and was married in Fontanet, Indiana, and among their children was a
son George, who became the father of George L. George Brooks was
born in Ohio in 1828, and moving to Parke county, Indiana, was a mill-
wright there until his removal to Terre Haute. In 1868 he went from
there to lola, Allen county, Kansas, on account of ill health, and his death
occurred there on the 12th of June, 1869, his widow afterward returning
to Terre Haute. That city was her home until 1888, since which time she
has lived among her children. She bore the maiden, name of Mary Black
and was born in Delaware in 1826, a daughter of Samuel W. and Lydia
C. (Mann) Black, born in Delaware in 1804 and i8oo respectively.
    George L. Brooks, the second born of the four children of George
and Mary Brooks, two sons and two daughters, was born in Vigo county,
Indiana, April 17, 1863. On the 26th of September, 1885, he was married
to Laura Flockart, torn in Clay county, Indiana, and a daughter of
Thomas Flockart, originally from Scotland. On the 26th of February,
1895, Mr. Brooks wedded Minnie C. Englehart, the widow of Philip Neid-
linger, by whom she had seven children : Ernest and Jacob, who reside in
Parke county, Indiana; Henry and Theodore, of Brazil; Alonzo, of Center
Point; and Bertha and Minnie, of Terre Haute. Four children have been
born to Mr. Brooks by his second union: Earl B., born December 6, 1895;
George W., November 11, 1897; Ivan M., February 8, 1900; and Marie
M., September 13, 1903. Mr. Brooks is a Republican politically, and a
member of the Knights of Pythias and Odd Fellows fraternities in Center
Point, Indiana.