[1] Brinton attended Morgan Park Academy, and then Sheffield Scientific School at Yale University, where he was a member of Book and Snake and was graduated with a Ph.B.
[2] Brinton joined his father in the farm implement business, becoming secretary and then vice president of the Grand Detour Plow Company.
[2] Brinton was commissioned a captain in the Quartermaster Corps of the U.S. Army in 1917, and was involved with government testing of motor vehicles.
He served overseas as liaison officer to the Motor Transport Corps in 1918 and took part in the Meuse-Argonne and Somme offensives.
Brinton died at the age of 56 of acute pancreatitis following surgery in Miami Beach, Florida and was buried in Dixon, Illinois.