At first the town was called "Haistentown", but after several other names, Brooks became the name of the town in 1905, after a local planter, Hillery Brooks, who contributed greatly to the construction of the railroad and a much needed depot.

During the Civil War, the town sent many young men to fight in the Confederate Army.

According to Daniel Langford Jr. several stores were built, including a bank, a drugstore, cotton gins, grist mills, and blacksmith shops.

Cotton was the number one crop for a long time until 1921 when the boll weevil appeared, quickly destroying crops, placing the town into an economic depression, and causing it to lose its charter.

By the time the Great Depression struck the country, Brooks had been suffering for eight years.

Airline employees from Atlanta began to buy large tracts of farmland.