OSCAR J. BROOKS, proprietor of one of the most complete fancy dry goods and millinery stores in Appleton, Outagamie County, comes of English ancestry, on his father's side, and of American on his mother's.

His grandfather, Thomas Brooks, who was a cabinetmaker by trade, came from England to America with his family about the year 1830, locating in Cham­plain, Clinton Co., N. Y., where he died in 1852. His son, Thomas W., father of our subject, was born in London, Eng­land December 7, 1823, and by trade became a brushmaker. He passed his younger manhood at Champlain, N. Y., removing to Troy in 1840, and in 1845 he married Ruth Ann Walker, who was born near that city. To this marriage were born ten children, six of whom are yet living.  The father died in 1890, at Lansingburg, N. Y.; the mother is yet living.

Oscar J. Brooks was born in the city of Troy, N. Y., December 4, 1855, and received his education at the district schools near that city until 1873, he be­ing at that time eighteen years of age. He then clerked in a dry-goods store in Troy until 1885, in which year he came west to Wisconsin, and in Appleton em­barked in his present business, in which he has met with well-merited success. In 1880 he was married to Miss Ida K. Stone, daughter of Jabez and Eleanor (Butler) Stone, people of English extrac­tion, the mother born in the State of New York.  Mr. and Mrs. Stone are liv­ing at Troy,  N. Y., where he is general manager of the Ludlow Valve Manufac­turing Co. Mrs. Brooks died in June, 1893, leaving a daughter named Grace Eleanor. Mr. Brooks is a member of the Presbyterian Church, and of the F. & A. M., Blue Lodge and Chapter; in politics he is a Republican. His popularity is un­bounded, and though yet a comparatively young man he has secured for himself a position in business and society that be­speaks for him a no less bright and pros­perous future.

 

Source:  Commemorative Biographical Record Of The Fox Valley, J. H. Beers, Chicago, 1895