Honorable John Brooks

biography

Brooks, John Honorable, deceased, who was one of the earliest settlers of Crawford County, and who occupied many prominent positions among her pioneers, was a son of William and Anna Brooks (whose maiden name was Snodgrass), and was born in the Parish of Rye, County Donegal, Ireland, May 12, 1765. During his boyhood he received a fair English education, and at the age of fourteen was apprenticed in the city of Belfast, Ireland, and learned the trade of wheelwright. Several years after the expiration of his apprenticeship, in 1786, and after the death of his father, he immigrated to the United States and landed at New York about 1792-93. He remained in New York or vicinity for a brief time, and in 1794 removed to the territory which was afterward organized as Crawford County, Penn, where he remained during the balance of his life. In 1798 his mother and two brothers, Quenton and William, immigrated to America, and settled in Crawford County, where they remained until their deaths. Mr. Brooks first settled on a farm in what is now Greenwood Township, adjoining the Mercer County line, about a mile from Sheakleyville, and remained there for a few years. He, however, soon removed to Meadville, and commenced business at his trade, which he followed for several years. He afterward entered into mercantile business, which he carried on until about 1828, when he retired to his farm on the Franklin Turnpike, about three miles southeast of Meadville, where he resided till the time of his death, which occurred June 3, 1831, in the sixty-seventh year of his age. He was the first Justice of the Peace in Crawford County after its organization; was one of the State Commissioners to lay out and construct the Susquehanna & Waterford Turnpike, and for two terms was County Treasurer. In 1813, during the war with Great Britain, he organized and commanded a company which went to Erie to resist the invasion of the soil of Pennsylvania, which was then thought imminent. After arriving in Erie he was appointed aid to Gen. Mead, Division Commander, with the rank of Major. The troops remained at Erie until after the defeat of the British fleet, off Put-in Bay, by Commodore Perry, when the troops were disbanded and returned to their homes. In 1817 he was appoint­ed by Gov. Simon Snyder an Associate Judge of Crawford County, which office he held fourteen years, or until his death. Judge Brooks was married twice, his first wife being Elizabeth Wright, to whom he was united July 24, 1800, and by whom he had three children—two daughters and one son, the only survivor being Mrs. Jane Bemus, of Meadville, now in her eighty-third year. His second wife was Susan Nichols, daughter of Thomas Nichols, of Jersey Shore, Lycoming Co., Penn., to whom he was married August 7, 1810, and by whom he had eight children—three sons and five daughters—all of whom are dead but Eliza, the wife of Col. David Compton, of Mead Township, Henry B. and Thomas N. Judge Brooks belonged to what is called the Seceders, a branch of the old Covenanters or Scotch Presbyterians. He was a man of more than ordinary ability, a good English scholar, and well read in the literature of his day. He was upright, honest, and reliable, and an honor to the community in which he lived and spent the greater part of his life.

History of Crawford County, Pennsylvania: containing a history of the county, its townships, towns, villages, schools, churches, industries, etc., portraits of early settlers and prominent men, biographies, history of Pennsylvania, statistical and miscellaneous matter, Chicago: Warner, Beers & Co., 1885, page 717-718.