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BROOKS, FRANK H., son of Dr. Samuel T. and Lucy Clark (Mills) Brooks,
was born at St. Johnsbury, November 24, 1868. Doctor Brooks was a prominent
physician and highly esteemed citizen of St. Johnsbury, where he died in
1895, after a successful practice of forty years. Frank H. attended the
public schools, and in 1886 was employed in the dry goods department of
the old Fairbanks store. He started at the foot of the ladder, but his
promptness and efficiency soon won deserved promotion. In 1888 he entered
the office first as assistant bookkeeper, and later as bookkeeper at the
store. Meanwhile he pursued his studies at the St. Johnsbury academy, at
the same time attending to his duties in the Fairbanks office, and graduated
in the class of 1889. In 1890 he was transferred to the scale office, became
assistant paymaster, and a year later he was advanced to the position of
paymaster and general collector, and continued to fill, the duties of this
most exacting and responsible position until his marriage. He married,
January 29, 1896, Ellen H., daughter of Colonel Franklin Fairbanks, and
soon after with Mrs. Brooks made the tour of England and the continent,
visiting the great museums and centers of art and historic interest as
far as Naples, Italy. Again in 1901 Mr. and Mrs. Brooks took a foreign
trip, visiting Cairo, and going up the Nile to the second cataract and
Abou Simbel.
After Mr. Brooks' return to St. Johnsbury, in 1896, the Brooks-Tyler
Dry Goods Company was organized, with F. H. Brooks as president and treasurer,
W. C. Tyler, vice-president, and J. H. Brooks, clerk. This corporation
purchased the dry goods department of E. & T. Fairbanks & Co.,
established on Main street near the Athenaeum, the most extensive department
store in northeastern Vermont. This business was successfully conducted
until the stock was sold to the Berry-Ball Dry Goods Company, September
1, 1903.
In May, 1897, Mr. Brooks was elected a director in the Fairbanks
Scale company, a position made vacant by the lamented death of Colonel
Franklin Fairbanks. In January, 1903, he was elected a director of the
First National bank, succeeding the late General William W. Grout. Mr.
Brooks possesses a genial personality, excellent executive ability, genuine
sincerity, and moral worth.
He is a member of the North Congregational church. Possessing apt
musical tastes and a fine bass voice, Mr. Brooks is a member of that popular
combination, the Mahogany Quartette of St. Johnsbury. Mrs. Ellen (Fairbanks)
Brooks is deeply interested in that great work of public taste and utility,
the museum of Natural History, the gift of her distinguished father, Colonel
Franklin Fairbanks. Mrs. Brooks and her sister, Mrs. Joseph T. Herrick
of Springfield, Massachusetts, are serving as trustees of that institution.
Mr. and Mrs. F. H. Brooks have one daughter, Margaret Fairbanks Brooks.
Their beautiful home, “Underclyffe,” erected by Colonel Fairbanks in 1872,
is an ideal nook of nature, adorned by the treasures of floriculture, architecture,
and art.
Source:
Successful Vermonters, William H. Jeffrey, E. Burke, Vermont, The Historical
Publishing Company, 1904, page 94-96.
Prepared
by Tom Dunn May 2005.
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