Born in Newton, Illinois, Brooks attended the public schools, and was graduated from Valparaiso (Indiana) University in 1892.

Superintendent of schools at Newman 1894–1897, at Newton 1897–1903, at Greenville 1903–1905, and at Paris 1905–1912.

He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1922 to the Sixty-eighth Congress.

He died in Newton, Illinois, September 18, 1933.

This article incorporates public domain material from the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress